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Indiana corn farmers recognized for grain bin safety program
The Indiana Corn Marketing Council has been awarded the Nationwide 2023 Top Sponsor award for the partnership that brought rescue tubes and training sessions to rural communities around Indiana.
Courtney Kingery CEO of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Soybean Alliance says every single grain bin entrapment is preventable. “By the corn farmers sponsoring this program, through the Corn Marketing Council and partnering with Nationwide Insurance, it’s about eliminating every one of those entrapments,” she says. “It’s about making sure the farmers go home at night and making sure they go home to their families every night.”
AUDIO: Courtney Kingery, CEO, Indiana Corn Marketing Council
In 2022, there were 42 grain-related entrapments, a nearly 45% increase of 2021 and the highest number reported in over a decade.
Indiana farmer and Indiana Corn Marketing Council president Paul Hodgen says it is a unique opportunity for the checkoff to partner with a private organization. “Three hundred seventy-three people have gone through the training,” he says. “In conjunction with Nationwide, we’ve provided several sets of tubes throughout the state for two years.”
He tells Brownfield this is one-way check-off dollars are used to benefit Indiana’s farmers. “I can’t think of anything that falls under producer engagement than making sure everyone comes home alive and well at the end of the day,” he says. “That’s where it’s at in terms of the charge of the checkoff was education and promotion educations. This falls within that.”
AUDIO: Paul Hodgen, Indiana Corn Marketing Council
Iowa, along with Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota, typically have the most total farm injury reports and grain bin entrapments annually. In 2022, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio were tied for second in reported farm injuries with six each.
Photo courtesy Indiana Corn Marketing Council.
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Author: Meghan Grebner