ORANGEVILLE — When Mark Baker started Stateline Farm Rescue 30 years ago, training for first responders often left out important skills for dealing with farm accidents. As both a firefighter and farmer himself, Baker knew that farm rescue training could have the potential to save many lives.

“We recognized that fire departments are very proficient in car extrication, for instance, or doing live fires, things of that nature,” Baker said. “But when you talk about a tractor that’s overturned or a (power take off) entanglement, there’s so much ‘what? What do I do?’”

To help minimize the gaps in farm accident training, Baker formed the group of other first responders and agricultural professionals with the goal to teach agricultural rescue and trauma. In the decades since, they have trained fire and EMS departments, nurses, doctors and farmers from all around the world. 

A changing field

As agricultural practices and machinery continue to develop and change, so do the best methods for responding to farm accidents. Since the group formed 30 years ago, Stateline Farm Rescue has had to grow and adapt to the ever-evolving field of farming.

“Agriculture changes every single day,” Baker said. “We constantly have to keep learning.”

Mixing that with an overall lack of universal farm rescue training tactics, the group has had to work through a lot of trial and error. 

“At the time I got into this, there wasn’t really a dedicated group as us that were doing (farm rescue training),” he said. 

Over the years, they have worked to become the frontrunner in international farm rescue. Groups from as far as Australia have turned to Stateline Farm Rescue for guidance in developing farm rescue protocols, Baker said.

Domestically, Stateline Farm Rescue has helped developed rescue protocols and programs at various universities and for multiple states including at Kansas State Fire Academy.

Even with specific protocols and methods in place, the training team has to continuously make changes to cater to specific regions’ needs, Baker said. What is a common farm accident in Wisconsin may be unheard of on farms with different focuses. Because of that, the team will focus specifically on what each individual class needs to learn. They will also focus on the most basic form of rescue to ensure that even a fire department or other personnel with none of the farm rescue-specific tools and machinery can know what to do in the case of a farm accident. 

Some of the most common rescue methods they train in include grain entrapment, tractor rollover and combine entanglement and entrapment.

Educating and saving lives

Knowing that they cannot be at the site of every single farm accident, Stateline Farm Rescue works to educate as many people as possible to save even one life.

“You’re still not going to win every fight,” Baker said. “You’re still going to lose somebody, that’s never going to stop, but if we can educate and just change one life, that’s cool stuff.”

After a grain bin tragedy that resulted in the death of two Mount Carrol, Illinois, teenagers, Baker worked together with the now-owner of the Great Wall of Rescue to create the device, which is now sold world-wide to aid in grain bin entrapment rescues.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to win the super bowl, but I can tell you what it’s like to save a life,” Baker said. “We don’t get golden rings for that, but we sure do get a high five.”

A typical training course with Stateline Farm Rescue includes an eight-hour class, half of which is hands-on training. 

Monroe Fire Department has gone through the training multiple times, fire Chief Dan Smits said. In split-second decisions, the training can save the life of both the victim and those responding.

“[Farm accidents] are not that frequent, but when they happen, they’re very important,” Smits said. “The training definitely makes a difference in how you respond.”

It is not uncommon for Baker to hear from first responders who attended a training that they were recently able to save a life using techniques learned through the course, Baker said. 

“It’s changing and saving so many lives,” he said. “We do it because we want to save lives.”