FAIRMONT - The rule on the Fowler farm is if a tractor comes into the yard, the kids run to a tree. The logic is that dad won't accidentally run over a tree.
As straightforward as that seems, it's rules like these that save lives.
Farm safety is life safety for those living around large machines, undomesticated animals, and lots and lots of land.
According to the Minnesota Farm Bureau, of the more than a million children who live on farms in the United States, 100 are killed every year in farm accidents, and more than 22,000 are injured. Forty percent of fatalities occur from June through August.
Open water, uncovered machinery, and many, many vehicles are just some of the hazards present on farm sites that can lead to injury or death. Add in a few animals and the potential for tragedy is increased.
A University of Nebraska study of youth farm fatalities between 1995-2000 indicated 25 percent of deaths were machine-related, 17 percent due to motor vehicles, and 16 percent resulted from drowning.
Nevertheless, families manage to survive unscathed year after year; and keeping the home place a safe place is not an accident on a farm.
Ron Fowler raised his children on the farm, and now that his children are in business with him, his grandchildren are often found running around.
He said over the years safety has become a bigger issue, as equipment gets larger and buildings get more complicated.
He grew up on a dairy farm with four sisters and three brothers; none of them suffered any major injury. When he was growing up, there were no hog pits to fall into, he said.
He remembers putting pits under his barns when his children were young. Wood slats covered the opening, and one unlucky cat fell between them. Fowler fished it out, and showed the dead cat to his children to illustrate the danger.
"We said, 'See what would happen if you fall in?'" he said. "We would use life lessons. You don't want the kids running scared, but they need to see the consequences. It is a fine line. It can be a dangerous atmosphere."
That danger made Ron's wife Dora nervous as a young city girl newly married and living on a farm.
"I was not raised on a farm and you always hear the horror stories," she said. "I didn't want my children to be one of those statistics."
Dora took it upon herself to drill safety rules into the children as they grew. She kept a separate playground area for the children near the house to keep them out of their father and grandfather's way, and she never let up on the issue in discussion.
"The kids will probably put that on my gravestone," she said. "Never run up to a tractor!"
"(Dora) was petrified about raising kids in the country," Ron said, but according to her, the only injuries they suffered were non-farm related.
Even with constant reminding, kids can find a way to get into trouble.
Ron tells of a day he was up fixing a roof when his young son told him it was time to come and eat. It was then that he realized the 2-year-old was on the roof, having climbed up the ladder to talk to his father.
Even so, the couple has had close calls, most recently involving their grandchildren.
Ron drove a tractor into the yard and two youngsters quickly pulled right behind it in a four-wheeler. But Ron had driven more forward than he intended and needed to back up. There was no way he could see directly behind his equipment. Ron did stop the tractor, but not before a portion of the four-wheeler was pinned under the tire. The children got a safety lesson that day. If you can't see the driver, the driver can't see you.
"Only by the grace of God were they safe. It put the fear of God into them," Dora said. "It really re-opened our eyes with the grandkids."
