Iowa Warns Farmers on Deadly Livestock Accidents

Deadly livestock-related accidents in Iowa are not that unusual, so farmers need to be cautious and have an escape route, a workplace safety expert said.

John Lundell of the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center said that one person dies from a livestock-related accident each year in Iowa. The center conducts research about workplace deaths and raises awareness if there are common elements that can be prevented.

Edna Miller, 53, of Kalona, was working on her farm when she was attacked by a bull on July 28. She died three days later. Miller had been trying to separate the bull from the rest of the cattle when it attacked her. Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said the bull had recently showed aggressiveness, and the family was planning to take it to market the following day, which they did.

“When I heard of this unfortunate incident, I immediately recalled similar incidents. One of our purposes is to identify particular causes of fatal injuries on the job,” Lundell said. “Unfortunately, these cases aren’t that unusual in Iowa.”

Lundell said farmers should be leery of bulls that previously have been aggressive, avoid breeding them, have them euthanized or sent to market. He also said farmers need to be aware of a protective mother around her calf and have escape routes in mind when working in fenced areas.

The previous livestock-related death in Iowa was in June 2010, when a 60-year-old farmer died in Decatur County when he was stepped on by one or more animals trying to escape while he was leading them onto a trailer, Lundell said. The center does not release more specific details about the cases.

In 2009, the center’s Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program co-authored a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that looked at human death due to cattle in four Midwestern states, including Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

From 2003 to 2008, 21 cattle-related deaths occurred in those states. Nationally, 108, or 5 percent, of the 2,334 deaths that occurred during the production of crops and animals in 2003 to 2007 were cattle-related, according to the report.

The study of Midwestern cases found that 67 percent of the victims were 60 or older, 95 percent were male and, in all but one case, blunt force trauma to the head or chest was the cause of death. In one-third of the cases, the animals had previously exhibited aggressive behavior.

Topics Agribusiness Iowa