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What to expect during Harvest Safety Week
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Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi everyone. Thank you for listening. My name is Steven Kilgher and I'm the managing editor of Feeding Grain magazine and the host of the Feeding Grain podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive deep into the issues affecting the feed manufacturing, grain handling, and allied industries. Today's episode is brought to you by the Binwip from Numat Systems. The powerful dual impact Binwip removes the toughest buildup in blockages and industrial storage silos without hazardous silo entry. Learn more today at binwip.com.
Interview with Jess McClure: Harvest Safety Week
00:00:30
Speaker
Today I'm talking to the National Grain and Feed Association's Senior Vice President of Safety and Regulatory, Jess McClure. And he's here to talk about NGFA's upcoming Harvest Safety Week. Jess talks about this year's theme, participate, prepare, protect, and how companies can get access to the association's free safety education materials and what Harvest Safety Week hopes to achieve both this year and in the future.
00:00:55
Speaker
I hope you enjoy the interview. If you want to help out the podcast and are listening to this in a podcasting app, wait listen and subscribe. If you're listening online, sign up for the Feeding Grain newsletter, Industry Watch. There you see all the newest podcasts. As soon as they drop, be able to stay up to date with all the news from around the industry. Now onto the show. Hi Jess. Thank you so much for joining me today. This is actually your second time on the podcast. So we really appreciate you coming back. Well, hi Steven. It's great to be here. I appreciate the invitation.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah well i see you at every trade show i go to and i feel like all over the place but for anyone who might not know you are even ngfa in gfa in this mission can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and gfa sure so i am i just want to see your vice president see.
00:01:39
Speaker
and regulatory with the National Grain Feed Association or National Trade Association headquartered here in Washington, DC. We represent members within the grain feed and processing industry that operate over 8,000 facilities nationwide. And we have 27 regional state affiliates nationwide as well. Yeah, NGFA is, and we love NGFA because you're kind of the organization that perfectly aligns with our magazine. You are feed and you are grain, which is us.
In-depth on Harvest Safety Week and Resources
00:02:09
Speaker
So we always really love having you guys on. Well, and it's great to be here. We love talking about a lot of the resources that we have, especially when it comes to safety. And I think how they all tie into our upcoming harvest safety week. Yeah, that's why you're here today. You guys have your upcoming ah feet. I don't know why, but harvest safety week doesn't roll off my tongue as it should. Because if you're upcoming harvest safety week,
00:02:35
Speaker
And can you tell me a little bit about kind of a significant because this is what your third year doing it fourth year? It's actually so this is our fifth annual harvest safety week. It's scheduled for August 19th through the 23rd. And when we initially launched this five years ago, it was an effort to more widely share all the resources, the grain handling safety resources that we have on our webpage at ngfa dot.org forward slash safety. This is such a it's a hectic time of year for a lot of the grain handling facilities.
00:03:06
Speaker
with lot of the increased traffic additional seasonal workers demanding schedules And we think that this is a great opportunity to make sure that all of these facilities are aware of how their employees can be adequately prepared. Yeah. And it might be especially important this year because at least so far here in Wisconsin, it has been a wet year. And I know the wetter the grain is coming in, the more safety issues you tend to have. So it seems like this might be a really crucial year for this kind of thing correct think the important part two is that a lot of this information, well basically the entire event's virtual rights, we're going to be introducing some new training videos on these important topics and we're also going to be having a webinar or a presentation offered each day. So every facility is different, they all have different types of needs and we want to make sure that but with all the training tools that we have we can help to address that because as you said It can be very wet in Wisconsin, but other areas may not be having as much moisture. And so there may be other areas that they want to focus on too and want to make sure that the free resources that are going to be available, that everyone is aware of what's out there.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's the nature of the business, right? 50 miles away, you could have completely different conditions than you have here. So you really have to be prepared for all situations. And this year's theme kind of reflects that it's participate, prepare, and protect. Can you explain a little bit about these three aspects and how they're crucial to ensuring that everyone stays safe during the harvest season? Sure. So the theme, as you said, participate, prepare, and protect. That the theme is is by participating and sharing Harvest Safety Week resources,
00:04:43
Speaker
preparing for hazards during the harvest season, and protecting the employees that transform America's harvest into food, fuel, and fiber. I think it's also so important to point out too that the free resources are made possible by the support of the National Grain and Feed Foundation, which is fully funded by donations and values granted employee safety as part of its mission.
00:05:08
Speaker
And also, but what I really like is I believe a lot of your resources are free to everyone. And that includes, you know, grain facilities. We deal with this all the time, but for someone who has, you know, just a lot of onsite storage or something like that, they probably don't have the education and training that's been drilled in in our own industry.
00:05:26
Speaker
So the fact that these can also be, because this can be harvest safety for everyone, not just grain facilities. This is also harvest safety for farmers and our producers, partners out there. You're right. I mean, this information don't have it separated a member or non-member. It's available to anybody that wants to use it. So for a lot of our members that they would like to forward this to their customers, the producers, they're more than welcome to. We've encouraged that. And I think as we all know, with everybody that's out there, there's so many workers at facilities now that maybe didn't have an agricultural background growing up. And so there's a lot of this is new to them. And so the more information that's out there for them to use, I think that's very important. I think but it's also important the videos, right? A lot of the videos that we're going to be um developing, are also short enough that they can be something you could watch on your phone if needed, which I think is ah very important nowadays when it comes to training. Yeah, great for anyone with a newsletter or something like that who wants to kind of get the word out. Can you talk a little bit about the training videos and resources you're going to have available, especially the new ones that are coming up? this year sure so our new safety training videos beyond shuttle loading and rail safety and bin site entanglement hazards. As I mentioned they're going to be designed easily to watch in a couple of minutes and they're based on our safety tip sheets which are also available on our safety section of our webpage. So basically these short two minute videos, two to three minute videos I should say, we already have one posted. A lockout tag out and these others will be very similar
00:06:59
Speaker
And like I said, they could be watched on a phone, tablet, on the website, and it will be for for for both members and non-members. Well, and you mentioned new employees, right? So if you have new employees, this is the perfect time to really be drilling all that safety information in. Best get these good habits in early in their careers versus waiting until they've learned the wrong way how
Upcoming Webinars and Training Initiatives
00:07:22
Speaker
to do things. I think it's also, in addition to the videos that we have, like I said, they're based on our safety tip sheets that are based upon the OSHA osha standards and best practices. We're going to have a live webinar with people smart consulting which is going to be focusing on employee onboarding as since we're gonna have so many new employees as I've previously mentioned maybe many may not have an agricultural background that's going to be
00:07:45
Speaker
on Tuesday, August 20th. And then we're also going to be having a video presentation with M&M specialty services and they're going to be focusing on brand quality management. So for example, preparing and all the bins for storage, right? Because obviously there's going to be a, with the harvest coming in and, you know, making sure those bins are in the right condition to be, ah to be loaded. Well, if people spark consulting, they're a great team over there.
00:08:08
Speaker
We've had them on the podcast before, and they're very friendly, very easy to understand. I mean, their webinar is going to be great. I mean, it sounds like a really good lineup that you guys have, especially with webinars, which I always like because people can ask questions. And this is a situation where people will have questions. Exactly. I was going to say that PeopleSpark, they spoke at our Convey 24 conference in Omaha last week, and it was a great session, very interactive. Yeah, I didn't make it to Convey this year, but it sounded like you guys had another great lineup.
00:08:37
Speaker
It was a very well, it was one of the highest attended event that we had had in at least the last 10 years so as far as attendees and exhibitors. So it went great.
Convey 24 Event and NGFA's Long-term Safety Goals
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, that is exciting. I'll have to come back again. I happened to be on vacation during that week in July this year. So to get to come that's a good excuse. ah So what are some of the long-term benefits you hope to achieve through initiatives like Harvest Safety Week? The long-term I mean benefits. I think obviously it's just making everyone aware of the resources that we have.
00:09:04
Speaker
I think obviously safety is a pillar of NGFA of our organization and I think continuing to work and develop training resources and to make those, to make everyone aware of what what is available and benefits of the membership within the organization. We not only have these safety tip sheets, videos, we have guidance documents and compliance with federal OSHA regulations. We also do a lot of training sessions too with our state and regional affiliates. so There's a lot of resources that we have and having an event like this is a great opportunity for those that may not be as familiar with to utilize those services. Well, especially with everything changing, right? Already we just had a ruling from OSHA about heat illness at workplaces and walk around rules. So stuff's always changing and always updating. So it's really that they kind of stay on top of this stuff.
00:09:53
Speaker
Exactly. So people who want information about Harvest Safety Week want to be in the know.
Engagement Strategies and Future Plans for Harvest Safety Week
00:09:59
Speaker
What should they do to kind of get that information? So anyone can sign up to receive our marketing emails. So from ngfa.org. So you can create an account with us and you'll get all the Harvest Safety Week emails.
00:10:13
Speaker
And I would just suggest you do it at least a week ahead of time so you can ensure you get the registration link for the live webinars that I mentioned. um And we encourage everyone to share this information. So if you're already receiving this and You know, there's some employees or others that aren't getting it, please forward to them, encourage them to sign up for it. And there's also on social media, we share a lot of the tools and safety resources that members value with the, it's the hashtag, it's a hashtag harvest safety week and tag and GFA. Excellent. And I encourage everyone to do that. There'll be a link to sign up to their newsletter and their mass marketing in our little podcast description, plus the website. If you want to go and kind of check out what they have for safety resources.
00:10:53
Speaker
One other item to add is that this year, we'll keep an eye out as you drive and an ear out as you listen to your local station. So we're actually working with Lamar Outdoor Advertising and there's several regions across the Midwest that we're going to have billboards that they'll be dedicated to our safety week. And we also will have radio ads airing on-farm broadcast turnout.
00:11:16
Speaker
Great to hear that you guys are trying to reach people in every way possible, especially because, you know, only so many people are going to go for the email marketing, but it's hard to ignore a billboard on your drive. And we're very fortunate, exactly. NGFA, Jeeps, and the Grand Handling Safety Council, we have an alliance with OSHA, and through the alliance with OSHA that we have, and one of the opportunities we have is to work with ah ah organizations like Lamar Outdoor Advertising that also has an alliance with Ocean. As part of that, this is part of the safety outreach effort. So that's a great opportunity as part of the ah the relationship that we have with the agency and how that allows us to work with other groups. Definitely. And it's good to hear you guys taking advantage of those opportunities. So I know
00:11:57
Speaker
haven't even done this week, Harvest Safety Week yet. But are you guys planning on continuing to grow this? I think our ultimate goal is to make agricultural, agriculture a safer industry. So the more we can boost awareness and encourage the use of safety best practices, the more workers or arrive home safely at the end of the day. That's our ultimate goal. And so we hope by doing this Harvest Safety Week, we hope to continue to increase the marketing efforts for this event each year so more people are aware of the tools that are available. And we hope every one of our member companies will be aware of Harvest Safety Week and incorporate the safety training and insights in each harvest. I mean, as someone who has to write up a story every single time someone gets hurt in our industry, it's not fun.
Closing Remarks and Safety Emphasis
00:12:38
Speaker
It's not pleasant. And it is, I imagine, very, very hard to have that conversation with an employee's family after something happens. So staying safe is the most admirable goal I think we can have in our industry.
00:12:50
Speaker
Yes, it is staying safe and and making everyone aware of the resources that are out there. If there are any questions and to utilize those tools and resources are there. Yes, yes, yes. Well, Jess, thank you so much for talking there with me today. I really appreciate it. Well, appreciate the opportunity and appreciate Feeding Grain for promoting this event and making these resources available to your subscribers and to to those within the industry.
00:13:16
Speaker
Of course, always happy to do it. And we'll have to have you on again to talk about some other safety issues, especially, you know, heat prevention, all these things that are coming down the pipeline that people are going to have to have plans for. Correct. There's ah there's a lot of current issues out there, a lot of proposed rules and that we're working on addressing. Sounds great. Well, thank you, Jess. and Thank you everyone out there for listening. Until next time, stay safe.