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Making a comeback: WLC chair hopes to refocus on safety training
For Indiana Farm Bureau, farm safety training isn’t a new idea, but the INFB Women’s Leadership Committee believes it’s time to reinvigorate it.
The first steps in this initiative were two anhydrous safety trainings held in northern Indiana in February.
More anhydrous safety trainings will be held elsewhere in the state later this year, said Janis Highley, INFB 2nd vice president and chair of the WLC. Information will be distributed about these trainings closer to the events.
“The WLC is committed to the wellbeing of our Hoosier farmers and wants them to be fully educated in all safety precautions while using anhydrous ammonia,” she said.
So far, the program seems to be successful. Approximately 50 people participated in the trainings, which were presented with the help of the Keystone Cooperative Safety Team and Purdue Cooperative Extension Service.
“I have handled anhydrous for over 50 years,” said Joe Pearson, who farms in Blackford County and attended the Grant County training session. Nonetheless, he said he appreciated getting a “refresher” in anhydrous safety – and appreciated even more the “opportunity for my grandson and a young high school graduate who attended with me and now apply our anhydrous, to attend such a concise, well-prepared and presented, and informative program.”
Highley’s mother worked in a fertilizer plant, retiring after 42 years, and Highley herself worked there part time delivering tanks to farmers before eventually marrying a farmer.
“I’ve been around anhydrous basically my whole life,” Highley said. A year ago, there was a tragedy at a local fertilizer plant in which a man died instantly of asphyxiation after inhaling anhydrous fumes.
“It really hit home,” she noted.
Farm Bureau has a long history of involving itself in farm safety. Through the years, the state and county Farm Bureaus have sponsored tractor safety programs (including a series intended specifically for women), produced columns for publications including The Hoosier Farmer, distributed farm and home safety materials, cooperated with ag and youth organizations to provide information and training, promoted chemical safety, distributed road flares and promoted the use of slow-moving vehicle signs.
Much of the farm safety training has been coordinated by the WLC and its predecessors, the Social & Education Committee and the Women’s Department.
Since taking office in 2023, Highley said she’s had many conversations with other leaders and members about the WLC and her position.
“As I made my way through my first year as second vice president, one topic came up over and over – farm safety,” she explained. “There is a lot of history when it comes to Farm Bureau and farm safety, but over the years we had shifted focus in other areas. It’s time to change that.”
While the focus in 2025 is anhydrous ammonia safety, the WLC is collecting information from participants in those trainings as well as other members on what safety training they’d like to see.
“People have indicated interest in grain bin, equipment and pesticide safety,” she said.
“Mental health is another piece that I see in our future,” she added.
