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Nearly everyone in Ohio’s agriculture community knows someone who has been seriously injured or who has perished from an on-farm related incident. While fatalities in farming activities have declined over the last few years, the ultimate goal is to eliminate farm-related accidents altogether. That’s the vision of Ohio Farm Bureau’s Cultivating Safe Farm Operations eLearning Safety Series, a new, interactive, engaging and accessible online education program developed for a broad audience of farmers, workers and on-farm youth to make real changes in their farm safety habits.

Developed in partnership with Nationwide and Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Science’s Ag Safety and Health Program, the online safety series offers three 40-minute modules for learners and covers several basic agricultural risks. Each module integrates an assessment into the online platform to assure basic comprehension, which will help cultivate on-farm behavior modification.

To access the modules, prospective learners must create an account through the Farm Bureau University platform, which is provided in partnership with American Farm Bureau Federation and includes additional self-directed learning opportunities. In addition, successful completion of the modules satisfies the annual Workers’ Compensation Group Rating Program safety training requirement for Ohio Farm Bureau members who are participants.

The Cultivating Safe Farm Operations eLearning Safety Series would not be possible without the help of Dr. Dee Jepsen and Kent McGuire of Ohio State’s Ag Safety and Health Program, the team at Nationwide Insurance Risk Management Services and Ohio Farm Bureau’s e-learning consultant and Medina County Farm Bureau member Victoria Shaw. Additional thanks go to Alyssa Fodor of Medina County who shared a very personal story of her grandfather’s passing in a tractor rollover which was included in the program. These combined initiative efforts aim to fulfill the vision of “Creating a culture of farm safety to eliminate incidents in Ohio’s agricultural community.”

Visit ofbf.org/agsafety for full details and to access this free training program.  

This is a news release for use by journalists. Questions should be directed to Joe Cornely, 614-246-8230 or Ty Higgins, 614-246-8231.