ST. CLOUD -- Disabled farmers gathered at the Holiday Inn, in St. Cloud, today (Monday) for the 21st Annual AgrAbility Fenceline Conference.

The conference is designed to help farmers who are injured on the job get back to work.

Dan Stores is the Minnesota AgrAbility Program Manager. He says the program helps farmers overcome workplace injuries.

"Instead of saying they need to leave the farm and do something else, we try to find ways were they can continue to work on the farm," says Stores.

Those in the farm industry know it can be a dangerous profession.

David Glamm lost his leg in a farming accident in 2005. He says the program has helped him overcome his disability.

"It's a process to get through the program, but some of the modifications they come up with are amazing," says Glamm.

Some of the technology available to disabled farmers are chair lifts into the tractors, mechanical arms, tools you can operate with one hand and wheelchairs that can travel in the fields.

Stores says that while the tools and advice the conference offers is helpful to disabled farmers, the friendships built is what helps the most.

"We had some newly injured farmers here that really benefited from talking to some of the old veterans that have lived with their disabilities on the farm," says Stores.

If you are interested in learning more about the AgrAbility program visit their website at www.equipalife.org.

 

Disabled farmers gather at the Holiday Inn for the 21st Annual AgrAbility Fenceline Conference. (PHOTO: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON News_
Disabled farmers gather at the Holiday Inn for the 21st Annual AgrAbility Fenceline Conference. (PHOTO: Alex Svejkovsky, WJON News_
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