Tuesday, June 9, 2015

OHIO DAIRY FARM VETERINARIAN KILLED IN FEED MIXER ACCIDENT WHEN HE FELL IN THE MIXER




JUNE 8, 2015


MADISON COUNTY, OHIO

A dairy farm vet in Ohio was tragically killed in accident over the weekend. 

The worker was apparently pushing hay into a mixer when he fell in.

TMR mixers and tub grinders can be especially dangerous since they have powerful mixing screws often edged with sharp knives used to reduce particle size of long-stemmed forages. 

Because these screws often don’t rotate at exceptionally high speed, they can look deceptively benign. But once caught in their grasp, it’s virtually impossible to extract one self, say safety experts.

“It seems individuals that have fallen in have tried to reach for something or force feed down,” says  Cheryl Skjolass, interim director for the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Ag Safety and Health. 

“In one case, the individual stepped over the rail and in another case the thought is the individual reached too far with a fork. I know a few farms which have taken ladders off.”

The [safety] recommendations go back to the standard machinery recommendations,” she says. “Power off, lock out machine before repair or unplugging.”


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A veterinarian was killed Sunday on his family farm in Madison County.
Austin Ayars, 34, was found dead inside a grain feed mixer at the dairy farm on Rosedale Road near Mechanicsburg. He was found just after noon by family members who told Madison County sheriff’s investigators that he had been feeding cattle several hours earlier.

Ayars had recently returned to Ohio to be closer to his family after working several years in Arizona in a mobile veterinary practice.

Ayars is survived by parents, John and Bonnie Ayars; wife, Adrienne; son, Lane Wendell, 4, daughter, Layla Evelyn, 2, according to an obituary in the Urbana Citizen. The couple was expecting a baby boy in July.

Ayars graduated from Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007. He was working on the family farm as a farmer not a veterinarian, said Melissa Weber, spokeswoman for the college.

“Word travelled fast among his classmates who notified the college,” she said. “It’s devastating.”

The funeral is at 11 a.m. Thursday at Mechanicsburg United Methodist Church followed by burial at Maple Grove Cemetery in Mechanicsburg.