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Grain bin safety essentials
23 Plays1 day ago
In this episode of the Feed & Grain Podcast, host Steven Kilger sits down with John Lee, Director of Safety, Health, and Environmental Services at the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois, to discuss one of the most critical topics in agriculture: grain bin safety. With fall harvest just around the corner and the grain bins filling up, it’s the perfect time for a refresher on safety best practices.
John draws on over 25 years of experience in the industry to share practical safety tips and insights on preventing grain entrapment and engulfment incidents, which are unfortunately all too common. From proper grain conditioning and bin entry procedures to the essential personal protective equipment (PPE) every worker should wear, John covers it all. They also touch on the challenges of maintaining safe conditions in both commercial and on-farm storage bins, as well as the role of safety training in reducing risks.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, my name is Stephen Kilgour and I'm the managing editor of Feeding Grain 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 New Mat Systems. The powerful dual impact Binwip removes the toughest buildup and blockages in industrial storage silos without the hazardous silo entry. Learn more today at binwip.com.
00:00:27
Speaker
Today, we're talking grain bin safety. It's a perfect time of year for that. Fall is coming around the corner and well, we're going to be moving a lot of grain. So now is a good time for a little refresher. Joining me today is John Lee. He's the Director of Safety and Health at the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois. Without further ado, thank you so much for joining me today, John. Would you mind just ah telling me who you are and ah your background in the industry?
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, my name's John Lee and I work for the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois. My title there is Director of Safety, Health and Environmental Services. And I've been doing it about 25 years. I've been in the safety world for about 29 years, I guess. Very cool. Well, I know you from the Grain Handling Safety Coalition. So you must do work throughout the entire industry. Oh, I do all over. I was just at a, oh, a FFA, Winnebago Boone County Farm Bureau meeting.
00:01:22
Speaker
for some FFA kids last week. And then the week before that, I was at the Henderson County Farm Bureau meeting for kids. Well, it's great because let's face it, safety something that should be drilled into people as early as possible. Oh, it is. and Start early. I'm up in Southern Wisconsin. We're getting pretty close to harvest now. And so we go over some green bin entry safety tips. and Ideally, no one ever goes in the bin, but we all kind of know that's not a realistic, it's not realistic for some situations. So make sure that it's as safe as possible. What are some of the things that people should do before they enter a green bin? What are some of the safety precautions they should take?
00:02:04
Speaker
Back up to the beginning of it, grain bin safety starts right now. As you fill the bins, almost all grain entrapments are because of out of condition grain or a lot of soybean pods, but you can't do much about the pods. You got to dry your grain down to the moisture as you want. You got to check the bins. You've got to core the bins after harvest so you get all the fines out of the middle.
00:02:21
Speaker
So that's step one, keeping the grain in good condition. Grain entrapment really happens when the grain is in good condition and flowing out of the bins like normal. The main thing to do is you got to have at least two people. You're talking about on the commercial side of things, right? Yeah. No, we do have some farm listeners and readers. So in the commercial industry, you have to have an entrant and an observer. That's requirement. And the observer is a full-time job. The observer has to stay there and watch entrant the whole time. And if the observer has to leave, the entrant has to come out. That'd be step one is never work alone.
00:02:51
Speaker
Actually, that'd be step two, I guess, after condition. And then never enter a bin that could flow while you're in there. Flow through the unloading equipment or flow from a grain slide or an unexpected movement of some sort. But commercially, they got to fill out a bin into permit, got to be signed off by the entrant, the observer and the entry supervisor. And then you got to have the observer in the entrance trained in all the hazards, bridging, hung up grain, as there's a flowing grain, condition issues. It can change from the morning to the afternoon. As you pull grain out, pyramids could form or a bridge could form. You're right. On the commercial side, a lot of this is required, but it's pretty good advice for people of all levels, right? Oh yeah, definitely.
00:03:32
Speaker
Never in a row, never going to bend with it flowing is critical. The number one cause of grain entrapment is this reclaimed hole plugs up with a chunk of something, corn, whatever, or bean pods. And somebody goes in there with a piece of PVC pipe or piece of rebar and they stand over it, start poking at it with the envelope equipment running. That's probably 80% of all grain entrapments.
00:03:51
Speaker
I'm sure you've seen the movie Silo not a few years ago. I remember ah sitting there watching it, and it's a great drama, but I'm also thinking to myself, man, this whole thing would have been solved with simple lockout tagout, wouldn't it? Oh, yes. Another old, the grandpa that's turned it on and engulfed the people. They just left him wandering around. He could have turned it on again.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, they never did show up being locked out ever. i No, it's one of those things. These are tragedies, but they're all preventable tragedy. Definitely. If it's bad enough, you just don't go in. You try to get it from outside. There's ways to get the grain out from the outside of the bin too. you Well, in the commercial industry, they have tunnels from underneath and they can rod those center sump holes or any sump hole from underneath. Unfortunately, they don't have tunnels everywhere and farmers don't generally have any tunnels.
00:04:34
Speaker
It's a smaller bin. You can use a long pole from the entry door for the bust-up things. Common sense will tell you not being the bin if you're trying to break it up. People get into brushes. Last year at Jeeps, I was really excited to see this thing called the Grain Weevil, which is a little robot that will go around. Oh, yeah. I've seen that. I've never seen it. I guess I didn't pay attention. They have one of those out there. No, they're not ready yet. Oh, I saw one. I've seen the pictures of them and how they work, but in the videos.
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, they they look really cool. So that's pretty cool. That was really neat. A lot more fun too to sit there with a remote control grain removal robot and drive it around in the bin, I'm sure. You know, but this year it's shaping up to be a wet corn year and generally in wet harvest means the next year is a big year for grain entrapments. The grain gets the grain goes out of condition.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's about that conditioning, right? And getting it ready, it's harder to do when it's wet. Can we talk a little bit about some of the PPE that you would want to but have on you, want to wear while you're getting into a grain bin? On the commercial side, if if you enter from the top, according to OSHA, the grain poses an engulfment hazard.
00:05:38
Speaker
You're supposed to wear a lifeline and a harness, and it's supposed to prevent you from s sinking further the waist deep. And that is very difficult to do in 90% of grain bins because they're sloped roof and you enter from the edge of the roof. You know what a grain bin looks like. Where do you tie it to? Where do you hook it to? There are the not passing pulley systems with anchor points in the middle. Anyway, so I think a minimum PPE for going in would be a dust mask. I think you ought to wear a harness every time you go in, whether it's tied to a lifeline or not.
00:06:05
Speaker
because if they had to rescue you, that's something they can hook onto. Boots and dust mask and a harness. Well, the dust mask is something to think about necessarily, because I mean, I've seen a lot of people go in without anything on their faces. Oh, yeah, um on i' i've I've done it too. It's, you know, you get molds, there's a lot of molds for them. Corn and soybeans, are they're all living organisms and they want to grow. And if they're too wet, molds form in there and those molds can make you really sick. again It's called green fever.
00:06:33
Speaker
I think the technical name is toxic or organic dust syndrome. And it can make you really sick. Moldy corn can make you really sick. Like we're flu-like symptoms. Maybe some people get so dehydrated with that, they have to go to hospital. Oh, wow. I never heard of that. But that makes sense, especially if it's out of condition porn, which is probably why you're in there in the first place, which oftentimes is moldy. Well, excellent. no The chances are if it's hung up, if there's a pyramid, I call them pyramid in the middle, or a tower, or it's crusted anyway, the odds of it having mold in there are really high. That's what happens, the mold form, and then the little microorganisms start getting in there, eating the mold, and they they all give off heat. That's when the mold produces even more, and then you get all, then people get sick. There's pores getting in their lungs. Well, yeah, and then another reason to have a mask on, right?
00:07:23
Speaker
yes Yeah, it is. Definitely. And, you know, an N95 dust mask, well, if you wear it correctly, which I would guess vast majority of people don't wear them correctly. You know, the straps got to be not twisted and the top one's got to be at the crown of your head and the bottom one's got to be below your ears. If you're wearing correctly, they only filter out 95% of the dust. That's what they're designed for. That 5% could still get you sick. So you better off not going in a moldy bin. Is it crazy that the name just finally clicked in my head, N95?
00:07:52
Speaker
but but Yeah, 95. Yeah, that's what what that means. Yeah, well, hopefully we all well we all have some practice wearing masks now. so Yeah, we all yeah we all do we all warm around all pandemic too. So so john what kind of training do you do for people? I do mostly commercial. I do the OSHA 1910-272 standard.
00:08:15
Speaker
Well, that covers maintenance, housekeeping, bin entry, contractor safety, drone of light now it's got all hazard monitoring equipment. I um ah base everything off of that pretty much. And then there's also other OSHA things, you know, lockout, tag out, hazard communication, fall protection, ladder safety. And I try to, I try to hit the big ones to get people railcar loading safety. This time of year, I do a lot of pre-harvest, like dump it, hazards and dump it.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the hazard monitoring equipment that people should be using? Well, you know, 4B and ah the two biggest, most common ones I see out there are 4B components. They're out of Morton, Illinois and CMC, which I'm not sure where they're out of. Well, if you haven't, we're back up for a second. If you have a concrete elevator or inside grain legs, inside a structure, you have to have this hazard monitoring equipment on there. And it's ah it's motion.
00:09:10
Speaker
meaning that if the if the leg plugs up, it's and there's an RPM reader they put at the bottom. So if the ah speed of the leg drops by more than 20% of its normal speed, which means it's starting to plug up, it shuts it off ah so you don't burn your lagging or drop your grain belt, which is a big loss at harvest time of course, or it could cause an explosion. And then there's also rub blocks or touch switches.
00:09:34
Speaker
So if that leg belt comes over and rides to the left or right, if it bumps into those red blocks and the red blocks, if they heat up, it's a brass block. And if it heats up if more than, I think it's 100, actually I don't don't quote me on how many temperature it is, but if it heats up to a certain temperature, it kills the leg before it gets too hot and causes an explosion. And then they also have these little probes that go into the bearings.
00:09:55
Speaker
And they monitor the speed, the temperature of the bearings. And if they get to, I i believe they're preset at 140 degrees, it shuts the bearing off. The number one cause of a green dust explosions is be bearings getting hot. And number two is rubs. It prevents two of the biggest hazards if they're working correctly. Well, even like the clog and stuff, the moment you get a clog, someone's got to go in there and clog it.
00:10:17
Speaker
So the other kind of the big conditioning one is you you see a lot of people use rain temperature sensing cables. Oh yeah, a lot of people have the, when they call those things, gosh I can't remember, I'm gonna blank. Yeah, temperature cables, temperature cables. And they're, you know, they're hooked to the floor and they, and arab I'd say most people have those.
00:10:38
Speaker
At least the commercial side of things I doubt farmers do. And they're, they're good. They're really good. sir Dr. Dirk Meyer at Purdue, or not at Purdue, started in Purdue, he's at Iowa State. He, he's big on reading the CO2 levels.
00:10:52
Speaker
thank He says that is a much better indicator ah of the condition of how your grain is storing. He does, but he likes temp cables for just certain areas, but for the whole bin, you the CO2 monitoring is better. what You know that ferment, your grain ferments, it gives off carbon dioxide and then you know if that level is too high, you know, hey, you got a You got to cool that grain down. You put it in that condition. When they get the grain and harvest, they can't make it better. They can dry it, but the general condition of it, it doesn't get any better. The grain elevators and farmers' goal is to maintain it and that it's in the but in the condition that came in and and until they get rid of this and send it to market.
00:11:28
Speaker
So you don't and you can't make it better. People think like they can make it better. I mean, you can clean it and you can dry it. But as far as the breaking up and that kind of stuff, you're not going to make it any better. Yeah. And what's what's there is there. And it seems like we're going to have pretty varied conditions depending on where you are.
00:11:45
Speaker
in the country because like you said it's going to be wet here and then it's been really dry. ah not hidden and stuff Sure. The perfect bad storm would be a wet harvest and then a market conditions that tell them to hold it till like July. That's when you really got a problem. Like the last two years they've been shipping grain like almost immediately because they the market needs it and you don't see there's many engulfments then. I imagine too with so much on farm storage now if there are those conditions that are like hold it hold it hold it and then you're getting in those bins that are less capable than you know commercial operations to really monitor it.
00:12:20
Speaker
And a lot of the farm bins don't have the the air systems, you know, they they might have the knowledge, they but their bins just don't have the, can't push the air that the commercial bins can. And some of the commercial bins don't either, but, you know, they're more likely. Yeah. Well, they have, you know, OSHA and other stands. So this is kind of a question because we do go to the commercial side primarily, but, you know, our customers, or their customers are farmers and producers and the people that tend to actually yeah get hurt in these kind of grain engulfment situations more and more now. Is there anything that a grain elevator, a local co-op or grain elevator, what's kind of the best course of action if they want to try to help or remind their producer customers about grain bin safety? I don't know how I'm going to get it out. that that's Give them the advice of, hey, stay out of it. If you use a grain vac, hire a mole master or some company that will come and get it out for you.
00:13:19
Speaker
just to remind them of the hazards. I mean, very few farmers don't know what can happen. It's just, they don't think it will happen to them. So what else? let's see what What was your quite original question? I'm sorry, I was rambling. I don't know, I rambled quite a bit with it. so it's not yeah I mean, the only things that just remind them of of the hazards of grain bins. I mean, there's probably, you know, the Purdue has the statistics and I was at 30,
00:13:45
Speaker
that 30 to 40 dolphins a year for the last many, many years. And their their numbers are probably way low. There's probably at least twice that many that have happened. Well, you think all the ones that happen and never get reported. absolutely say Right. And there's a lot of those, a lot of those, because nobody wants that publicity.
00:14:08
Speaker
No, no. I mean, also, because like you said, everyone knows, right? So it's kind of an embarrassment thing if you're the guy who actually gets, you know, stuck. It is the ones I know the farmers that survived, they're, they're, they're, they're embarrassed, but like, like I said, more than anything at the end of it, you better and then and then they put their, their friends and their families and their communities at risk to get them out.
00:14:36
Speaker
or something dumb that they did. Well, that's another big thing, right? There's a lot of oftentimes victims or potential rescuers, people who've been after them. Yes, for sure. For sure. You know, and then a lot of farms, you know, if it's a, you know, two brothers farm or father and a son, the son's in, the dad goes into getting them, and they're both at the bottom of the bin. You know, the farmers just need, there's just like anybody, the farmers need to not go in the bin that's flowing.
00:15:06
Speaker
You know, if that, if that been plugged up, don't go in there and poke it with the antelope equipment running, shut it off, then poke it and then get out. But the problem is they, if they can't find a, it's much easier, you know, if you've got the plug, if if the equipment's running, because then it starts flowing. But if they, they become part of the grain stream, if it does. Well, a lot of it's a lack. and Well, you see when you read the stories too, a lot of it's seems to be a lack of communication, not telling people where they are and where they're So suddenly like, oh, I hadn't seen him in three hours. Oh, he's been in the grain bin. And it's a real tragedy. So... Oh, I couldn't even imagine being caught in a grain bin for three, four hours before anybody found me. If I was up to my waist or something, that would be very, very scary. Dirty, dirty dusty, dark, and there's a lot of pressure on your body. And and you can you can die just from the pressures on your body. Your blood chemistry gets out of whack.
00:16:02
Speaker
um youre like I've been in some training where I'm trapped for like 10 minutes and my legs are starting to go numb. So I couldn't even imagine what your legs would feel like after that. Yeah, I can either. and Unfortunately, at that point, a lot of it becomes a recovery, right, versus arrest. Right, right. I was just at that oh but Winnebago Boone County FFA meeting last week and State Line Farm Rescue was there.
00:16:30
Speaker
and they were they they they had their equipment there where they could do the practice rescues and they were burying the high school kids. And one of the kids came because so there were stations and and the state line people came to me and one of the kids came and he was engulfed and he was wearing shorts and you could see his legs all the indentations of the corn in his legs. And he was with me for about 30 minutes and and when he was leaving they were still there. And he was trapped for maybe 10 minutes.
00:17:00
Speaker
This is a 17 year old. We're not talking, you know, older person. Yeah, i i I've become pretty good friends with the people at Oklahoma State University that have their grain rescue van.
00:17:17
Speaker
And Dr. Carol Jones and the whole group. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah, and if she, they keep convincing me, trying to convince me to come down to one of their demonstrations and get in the truck and I'm like, no, thank you.
00:17:32
Speaker
it's
00:17:35
Speaker
You shouldn't do it. You should do it. It's it's really eye opening. You'll find out if you've lost your phobic real quick. Oh, yeah yeah, I'm sure it'll bring up a lot of those guys. So, um well,
00:17:50
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for talking to me today I don't think I have any more questions but it's been really great chat. I think, ah like I said it's more about kind of reminding people, get the thing, get the word, and not necessarily get the word out but remind people that it needs to be constant.
00:18:08
Speaker
constantly on on their mind. It needs to be something they're always thinking and talking about. So we always try to devote a lot of time this time of year to kind of brain bin rescue and safety, just because, well, this is the time of year where it kind of all starts. I think at the engulfments will start for farms, depending on the market, but sometimes in January, but usually about March, March and April, there's a ton of them because they're selling grain for their taxes.
00:18:37
Speaker
So they're trying to get the grain out so they can sell it. And that's when a lot of them happen. They've been holding it on usually in low quality, right? Little lolly prep in there and it just gets worse over the winter. Yes, yes. And they can't get it out and they get in there. Gotta get out and get in there and rot it and become a victim now. Well, thank you so much. I hope we get to talk again soon. And I hope it's a great harvest season for you.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, it's a good time for me. I'm taking vacation. so Oh, excellent. Perfect. vacation and I'll talk soon, okay? Bye. Okay, all right. Thanks, Steve. All right, bye.