This article appeared in Lancaster Farming on Jan. 27, 2022. View the article on lancasterfarming.com.

Thanks to recent funding from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, a Pennsylvania-based program that assists farmers with disabilities will have strong funding for the next four years.

AgrAbility PA, a partnership between Penn State and nonprofit organization United Cerebral Palsy, or UCP Central PA, received $183,840 to be used over four years to provide direct services to farmers with disabilities and build the program’s capacity. The program impacts farmers through direct assistance, education and networking.

One success story is Snyder County-based farmer Andrew Snook, who received AgrAbility PA assistance in the form of a consultation and on-farm equipment.

Snook operates a 300-acre farm with 55 dairy cows in Paxtonville, Pennsylvania, with his father and wife. Snook was born on the farm and he bought the herd from his father in May 2013. But, in September 2015, he spent six weeks in the hospital and another eight weeks at a nursing home. Snook was recovering from a shattered leg and broken eye socket and nose following a 40-foot fall from a silo in 2014.

He continues to battle pain, discomfort and mobility issues. Snook uses a cane to help him get around the barn and his sense of balance when standing for long periods of time is impaired.

While healing, Snook looked into equipment and modifications that would help him with milking and accessibility. A family friend suggested he contact AgrAbility PA.

And so a project assistant from Agrability PA came out to the farm in spring 2016 and did an evaluation, which Snook said was “simple and straight-forward.” After that, the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation sent a farm coordinator and occupational therapist who specializes in working with farmers to visit Snook’s farm.

“I had a lot of ideas for things that I knew I needed, so that made it a lot easier. It took about a year until we got the equipment put in,” Snook said.

His dairy farm now has a rail system with automatic takeoffs. With this system, Snook does not have to carry or lift the milking units or rush around the operation. Rather, the carrier units run on an overhead track from the milk house to the stalls where the cows are milked. The units can be easily attached to the milk pipeline and to the cow while the weight is still held by the rail.

Through the AgrAbility program, the farm was also able to install gutter grates to cover the gutters that run behind the cows in the tie stall barn. The gutters can be difficult to step across and are a safety concern.

The farm also now has a Bobcat UTV, or utility task vehicle, about which Snook says, “It’s like my legs now. I can get all around the farm in a safe way. It’s wonderful. I don’t know how I’d get along without it.”

He also has a self-loading bale wagon and bedding chopper.

“The wagon will haul 10 bales at once, you just go out, pick them up and keep going. And we have a bedding chopper that is pulled tight behind a tractor so I don’t have to get off anymore; it has a spout on it and it spreads (the bedding). I can drive through and shoot bedding around in my loafing sheds,” Snook said.

Helping Farmers of All Kinds

Since 1995, AgrAbility PA has been granted $2.34 million by the USDA to conduct more than 600 farm assessments, provide direct services to more than 575 customers, and obtain $4 million worth of assistive technology and equipment.

According to AgrAbility PA’s outreach coordinator, Kendra Martin, the new funding cannot be used for specific equipment, but rather for on-farm assessments, training, technical assistance, educational resources, and occupational therapist visits to a farm. The Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, or OVR, also has a series of coordinators throughout the state who assist with these efforts.

“We work with a wide range of farmers — some have no mobility from the waist down and others have an ongoing health issue such as arthritis,” Martin said.

She explained that when an on-farm assessment shows that assistive equipment should be utilized on a farm, both organizations can be the conduit to locate resources to pay for on-farm equipment, such as finding low- to no-interest loans for assistive technology and equipment from private resources and ag credit organizations.

“The goal of the PA OVR is to keep Pennsylvanians with a disability employed. (With the AgrAbility program) we find that with farmers they may have a physical limitation, they may have aged into a disability, they may have an incident that has resulted in a long-term health condition. But it doesn’t mean they want to give up farming. So we’re helping them get the services and support (to keep farming) and find those resources,” Martin said.

Martin helped Snook, who has leg and knee limitations, to purchase a skid steer with a side entry, as opposed to front entry over the bucket, by utilizing a low-interest loan program of which he was otherwise unaware.

“The program has been wonderful and everyone that works there is so helpful,” said Snook.

'It Will Help Make Your Life Better'

Another farmer, based in Northumberland County, Brian Shepperson, also received assistance in the form of consultation and on-farm equipment, thanks to the AgrAbility PA team.

Shepperson operates a beef and grain farm, as well as a custom butchering shop and an 18,000 layer house for organic, free-range eggs. One of Shepperson’s primary contracts is with Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs in New Hampshire.

After experiencing a medical incident in 2006 that at first he thought was a stroke, Shepperson discovered that he had a fluid-filled cyst that developed and burst within his spinal cord near his right shoulder. It caused pain, weakness and severe inflammation that impacted his brain, spinal cord and motor skills. He was diagnosed with encephalitis myelitis — inflammation of the brain and spinal cord — which can disrupt the normal responses from the brain to the rest of the body, and from the rest of the body to the brain. This severe inflammation can result in symptoms such as paralysis and sensory loss.

For a year, Shepperson had to re-learn how to walk, talk, stand and sit, and regain his strength, endurance and posture control. Now, he uses a walker to aid his mobility.

But, he was still finding it difficult to keep up a full-day of packing and stacking eggs. On average, he was processing 18,000 eggs a day. In addition, the equipment was constantly in need of repair.

“It was totally worn out; the serviceman didn’t want it for parts or anything.” Shepperson said.

After a farm evaluation and assessment from AgrAbility PA and OVR, one of the key recommendations was a new egg packer as a piece of assistive technology.

In December 2017, OVR was able to help Brian acquire a STAALKAT FarmPacker 70, which can process up to 25,000 eggs an hour. Now Brian is able to use this piece of assistive technology to complete his work in a more efficient and safe way.

Brian is very grateful.

His advice? “Don’t hesitate to contact AgrAbility PA. If you can use assistive technology to ease the pain and strain from the day, it will make your life better. To have the financial help from OVR ... that was a true blessing.”

Martin said that AgrAbility’s work has a deep thread of hope running through it — helping farmers with physical limitations or disabilities make small-, medium- or large-scale adjustments on the farm, allowing them to continue farming for many years to come.

Martin said that farm work can be physically and mentally taxing on a farmer and his family members. These programs give hope to farmers, as well as to adult children, spouses, caregivers and others who assist on a farming operation, Martin added.

The consultation, evaluation and development of formal recommendations are free services available to farmers and agricultural workers in Pennsylvania.

Written by: Lisa Z. Leighton, a freelance writer who lives in Columbia County, Pa.