Abstract
A lifelong dairy farmer from northeast Iowa was killed in the spring of 2006 when a 2-1/2 year old Brown Swiss dairy bull attacked him as he herded the dairy cows in for their evening milking. The farmer, who had moved to a nearby town, and his son continued to farm and do milking chores together. The father started to round up the cows from their open feedlot just before 4 PM. Shortly thereafter the son walked between the buildings of the farmstead, which blocked full view of the feedlot, on his way to join his father. He noticed several cows milling around near a building and gate at the southwest corner of the feedlot. He rounded the corner of the building and discovered his father lying in the springtime mud among the cows, against a cluster of dead tree stumps, midway along the building's east wall. As the son moved in to help his father, the bull approached forcing him to scramble back under the gate and around the corner of the building. The son then summoned emergency assistance. Although the bull had retreated to another part of the feedlot out of sight, rescuers remained anxious and watchful as they attended to the unresponsive victim, who had no pulse or spontaneous respiration as they prepared him for transport to the local hospital. The bull, which remained agitated throughout, was shot and killed by local law enforcement personnel with additional assistance from a local rifleman. Recommendations: 1. Keep a safe distance from bulls, watch them carefully when with them in open yards, and learn to identify aggressive postures bulls exhibit before they attack. 2. Install protective obstacles and "person-gates", and plan escape routes from open cattle yards. 3. Cull aggressive bulls from the herd and, in general, do not keep bulls past 2 years old. 4. Protect rescue personnel by creating an effective barrier between the bull and the victim.
Keywords
Region-7; Accident-analysis; Accident-prevention; Accidents; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Traumatic-injuries; Work-operations; Work-analysis; Work-areas; Work-performance; Work-practices; Safety-education; Safety-measures; Safety-monitoring; Protective-measures; Work-practices; Farmers; Agricultural-industry; Agriculture; Animal-products-workers; Animals; Agricultural-processes; Agricultural-workers; Agriculture
