Farming can be a very dangerous job. Each year, many Michigan farmers receive serious injuries due to accidents on the farm. Getting those farmers back to work and doing what they love is the goal of Michigan AgrAbility.
“I was in a grain auger accident where me and my husband were offloading some grain from a wagon to an upright bin and my foot got caught in the green auger,” said Brittney Duncan, who farms with her husband, Joel, in Shiawassee County.
The accident, which happened a year-and-a-half ago, led surgeons to amputate her right leg below the knee.
Not long after her accident, she was introduced to Ned Stoller and his team with Michigan AgrAbility.
“I called Michigan AgrAbility before I was fitted for a prothesis,” says Duncan. “During their first appointment out here, I was still healing from the amputation surgery, but I knew I wanted to hit the ground running as soon as I got back on my feet. And, so we made that call and they got the wheels spinning right away.”
She says Michigan AgrAbility made several visits to her farm—then, put together a custom plan and made modifications to equipment and barns to help her get back to work.
“We now have things from ramps to fenceline feeders for sheep, so that I could feed my sheep barns without ever having to go inside of the pen because sheep are pretty pushy, and my stability and my balance isn’t as good as it once was,” she says.
“He also got us hooked up with rubber floor ramps, so I can pull carts over door jams without having to lift things higher.”
Duncan adds that Michigan AgrAbility not only helped save her family’s farm, but it also helped her with her mental health after her accident.
“My husband and I were considering selling absolutely everything when the first came along. Since Michigan AgrAbility visited and made their changes, we have not had to get rid of or downsize much of anything.”
“So, if I would have had to give up farming because of my accident, it would have been a whole different mental load issue,” she says. “As much as it is about the physical ability for me to continue doing this, it’s also about the mental and emotional perspective. Farming is my life and who I am, and I didn’t want to give it up. Michigan AgrAbility made it possible for that to be the case.”
For more information—or to make your donation to help fund Michigan AgrAbility, visit MichiganAgrability.org.
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