Tennessee

Four students from the Tennessee State University OT masters program chose to do their summer fieldwork with AgrAbility. Needless to say, they were the envy of their peers. The students and TN AgrAbility Zoomed on Fridays. Guest speakers included: Carla Wilhite, OTD, OTR/L, Asst. Professor at UNM - School of Medicine Occupational Therapy Graduate Program, and Dr. Derrick Stowell, CTRS HTR, education & horticulture therapy program administrator, UT Gardens, UT Dept. of Plant Science.

The big event was a field trip starting at the UT TSU Extension office in Rutherford County. The tour guide, Rachel Painter, UT Extension agent in Rutherford County, took the group through the Extension office where staff talked about different programs UT TSU Extension offered, toured the farmers market and Master Gardener garden, and toured the Villages of Murfreesboro, an assisted living home and their raised bed garden. The group then fueled their stomachs and headed to Mr. Frank Beard's farm (TN AgrAbility farmer). Frank showed the lifts for his tractor and he always has words of wisdom to share.

The summer program ended with a Zoom meeting the last Friday of July and watching the National AgrAbility video, "The Next Mission"
and FVC-TN video.

For their project to help TN AgrAbility, they created a Twitter account @TNAgrAbility and are working on updating the TN AgrAbility brochure. The summer of 2020 was the first time TN AgrAbility was chosen by students for their field work, and it was all virtual; so much fun this year to be face-to-face at times.

TN AgrAbility presented via Zoom to the whole occupational therapy master's class. The class learned the services of AgrAbility. To end the session, the four students who participated in the fieldwork presented a video of their fieldwork activities. A HUGE THANK YOU to Kelly, Sara, Chase, and Elijah for their work with TN AgrAbility during the summer.

It was a great two-day conference and networking with some of TN AgrAbility's friends with the Farmer Veteran Coalition of TN and cattlemen at the TN Cattlemen's conference! What a privilege to hear Dr. Temple Grandin talk again about autism and "Improving Cattle Stockmanship." Staff also met Trent Loos, radio personality, ag advocate, and U.S. patriot.

Thirty-one rescue personnel and farmers participated in the North Central W TN Grain Bin Safety/Rescue Awareness Training. It was hot, but everyone was very pleased with the training. Friday July 30 was the classroom training and Saturday July 31 was the actual hands-on with harnesses; ropes/hooks; walking on grain and rescue tubes. There were seven TN counties involved: Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Gibson, Henry, Obion, and Weakley.

Brent Griggs, GC row crop/Tyson Poultry farmer, quoted, "I've been involved with farming all my life. We need to be reminded from time to time of the dangers. I can see where a plan is needed, and someone needs to be in charge if an entrapment ever happens. Someone can't just rush in and pull a person out of a bin. We are fixing to start hauling grain off and harvesting next month. After this training, I need to go back to my farm and make some changes."

Jeff Lannom, county director UT Extension, Weakley County, said, "I appreciate the dedication of these men to give up a weekend with their families in order to be better educated and trained to help the agricultural communities of these counties represented. They have trained in extremely hot weather conditions to hopefully prevent a tragic family loss."

"This class was an invaluable training that helped prepare not only emergency responders but also producers for what could possibly be the worst day of their life. The local ag Extension agency, TN AgrAbility, as well as numerous other sponsors, have no idea how many lives they have effected through grain bin safety or how many they have saved by better preparing local responders as well as producers to respond to a grain storage emergency," stated Drew Norvell, GC firefighter/paramedic.

The statewide TN Grain Bin Safety/Rescue Awareness Training is coordinated by UT TSU Extension/TN AgrAbility and conducted by TN Association of Rescue Squads (TARS). The mission is to having trainings statewide for counties with row crop farmers, grain bins, and granaries. Forty-two Turtle Plastics Tubes were distributed throughout the seven counties participating. To date, this is the third training in Tennessee since March 2020, and 74 Turtle Rescue Tubes and 10 Great Wall Rescue Tubes have been distributed to 10 Tennessee county/city fire departments. May cobwebs grow on all of these tubes.

Tennessee AgrAbility would like to thank the sponsors who helped with funding for rescue tubes, meals, and training fees: Benton Co. Farm Bureau; Mason Hall Grain; GCUD; GC Farm Bureau; Paris Henry Co. Utility District; GC YF&R; Hyperion Metals; W TN Public Utility; W C Farm Bureau; Ronnie Bates Farms; Tyson Foods; TN Tractor; Brock Grain Systems (Justin Miller and Tim Moore); Nutrien Ag Solutions; Helena; Mid-South Farmers Co-op; Pioneer Hi-Bred Corteva Agriscience; Henry County Farm Bureau; Henry Farmer Co-op; Parker Farms; Gibson Farmers Co-op; Tyson Grain; Harper Farms; Milan Health Care Foundation; Crockett Co. Farm Bureau; TN Corn Promotion Board; and TN Dept. of Ag.

Thanks also to the following UT TSU Extension counties: Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Gibson, Henry, Obion, and Weakley, and to TN AgrAbility staff.

Submitted by Tennessee AgrAbility Project