Farming has become one of the most stressful occupations. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recently examined 130 occupations and found laborers and farm owners had the highest rate of deaths due to stress-related conditions like heart and artery disease, hypertension, ulcers, and nervous disorders. Farm stress stirs up many images; racing to town to buy spare parts and finding they have to be ordered, listening to the radio and hearing the market drop daily and your bin stands filled with last year's crop, rushing to get the hay baled before a storm, watching a hail storm wipe out a year's labor,

Although agriculture is stressful, it is also considered between the 2nd and 4th most dangerous occupation based on fatalities. The fatal outcome rate for farming is 4 times more than for all occupations combined. The fatality rate for all occupations combined is 9 per 100,000 whereas farm fatalities are 48 per 100,000. The most common time for accidents and injuries to occur is during the warm weather months especially summer and fall. These are the traditional months that farmers are mostly active in the field.

Something that one wouldn’t think would be dangerous on the farm is raising animals. Animals place the farmer at some risk because of their unpredictable behavior. Bites, contusions and head trauma often result from the animal's behavior. In addition, infestations can occur from direct contact. Another safety concern on a farm is that animals may transmit infections, called zoonoses, to humans.

Some topics in this essay:
Safety Health, Farmer's Tan, Take-Off PTO, Farming Farming, noise exposure, hazard wagons, injuries occur, people tend, piece equipment, farming easy, occupations combined, common injury, farmers exposed, easy job,