Drowning in Grain: A Look at the Hidden Dangers of Farming | Short Film Showcase

So we've got a situation here with a farmer or child who's trapped in a grain bin. We've got plastic coffers here, and we'll be placing these on each side of the victim. These are actually going to protect the victim from the corn, to get the corn from collapsing in on [Music]. We can also work on trying to pull him out with a couple of people ready. Here we go, one, two, three. Okay, he's got himself with us. Being the only ones with this system within quite a long range, it may take us a while to get where we need to go. So it may be more of a recovery than it will be of a rescue, but we always hope that we can [Music].

Rising Sun and pretty quiet town, it's one of those places where you can ride your bicycles around. I spent a lot of time playing basketball on the basketball courts, like quite a few friends. When I wasn't with friends, I was on the farm working. It was like the coolest thing to do is to come to the farm and work. But now it's all mechanized, and it's kind of fewer people, bigger machines [Music].

My first job was in seventh grade. It felt like real life hit me already, and I've matured a lot faster than I see others. As a kid, I took care of the calves, put out hay, just erased the back, and stripped a lot back. I remember as a kid sitting in the strip and in all night and all day, ready to get out of there. That kind of set me up to doing a lot more, taking a lot more responsibilities. I try to stay out of the gossip and the drama and all that. I want to do myself. I try to make friends with everybody, you know, hey, how you doing? Hope you have a good day. I think that's where I kind of meet standards is everybody.

Obviously, with all the wet work that we're kind of limited to, we'll work just on maintenance stuff and getting things caught up. That means we get extra days off. We might get off in half-hourly. We were kids; Dad was so busy we didn't really see him very much. So we rode around with my grandfather, and he would drive in the fields. We were driving tractors and trucks when we were like seven or eight. And then once we started getting a little older, we slowly kind of worked into adult life on the farm. You put in all the sweat and tears, get them in the ground, they grow, in a sense like a grown kid [Music].

The farm chords out now. To get to this size, that took five generations to know all the work and sweat and blood that was placed. More than just a farm, it's just home [Music].

I got to travel about transportation time, you know, I'm starting to add up these costs, and sometimes we get in a hurry. You know, last year we lost 25 people due to a farming accident. So if I use this bin as the example, anyone come up here, give me anything? You know, the grain bin's about half full. All right, we got a guy here, and usually there's a little noise going on. Right? What happens right off the bat? He's yelling, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" You can't hear. Have we lost a guy already? Can we find him? And you know, you take one of these great big grain bins, how am I gonna scoop him out? Think about it; we don't want to lose anybody, right? We don't want to lose people. You know, in life, there's always rules, and we don't always like them, but it is for everybody's best interest because it's not gonna happen to me [Music].

It's actually happened just recently. The gentleman, he's probably mid-50s, he was in a bin. It was down to the bottom in December, but it was piled really high on the edge. Well, he was trying to dig it and pull the grain down, and it came down on him. This book got caught in the auger, so he was stuck there. It's so loud, you know, you can't yell really, and he wouldn't. You know, it's just one of those things; it's just like being underwater. Since he took a breath, that was pretty much it. I think anytime something like that happens, it's a shock for the community. It's kind of a wake-up call, and it's a reminder, you know, what we're doing is not entirely safe.

Nine-one-one, which emergency? No, and okay, I'll take you. My God, we need everything! Great, relax, K12 blades to cut into the bin. We need approximately 12 semis [Music].

I started Danish learning support. New volume. We've been dating for three months now. I mean, I'm really happy to see big growth off of our house, and it's laying. One of these days, you know, start building a family. I mean, I'm right on the edge of the real one. I stripped the headline around; I didn't have a dome light set up with the LEDs in school here. I got lucky. I plan on keeping farming, you know, kind of make it bigger if I can. Something I'm good at, and I don't want to, you know, go anywhere. My goal would be if I had a child that wanted to come back and farm, then I would be able to do that financially. For me, it was that same thing with, he loves tractors and "Hoorah!" Can we go by? He's like, "Ride! Ride!" You know, he wants to go to the farm. So it's a neat industry to be involved in because you can be with your family. It's still working [Music].

As far as dangerous jobs, the grain bin is a deal because, I mean, you can be gone in an instant, and it's not just me. It's my wife, Abbadon. You know, it's the rebels' force institute. So if I go, their whole way of life is good [Music].

It's always in the back of your head: is it worth it getting inspected? [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]