AgrAbility Provides Help and Hope to Hoosier Farmers with Disabilities
In partnership with: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
Two miracles occurred in Laurie Hayn’s life on Sept. 18, 2018, when the Marshall County farmer was swept into a combine. Although she lost her left arm and leg, first responders marveled Hayn was still alive when they arrived at the field.
Some would say the second miracle is Hayn’s outlook. She says she never despaired over losing her limbs.
“I was going to keep living, but I knew things were going to be different now,” Hayn says.
To keep living her life, she wanted to keep farming. Hayn and her husband, Dale, have farmed together for 40 years. Along with Dale’s brother and his wife, Ron and Julie, the four now manage about 5,000 acres of corn and soybeans near Plymouth. An avid hiker, Hayn had completed the most difficult section of the Appalachian Trail just two months before the accident.
With prosthetics and positivity, Hayn moved forward, but in the fall of 2019, she realized she needed additional assistance. She connected with Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), which got in touch with AgrAbility, a federally funded grant program to help farmers and ranchers with a disability keep farming.
AgrAbility has many facets, including education, training and marketing, but its core tenet is personal visits to farms and ranches, according to Steve Swain, rural rehabilitation specialist with the Indiana AgrAbility Project – one of 21 state-level AgrAbility programs.
“We do a formal farm assessment to discuss the needs and how to overcome the limitations the client is facing and then make recommendations to Vocational Rehabilitation,” says Swain, emphasizing AgrAbility does not buy the equipment clients need but serves as the referral organization.
After assessing the Hayns’ farm, Swain recommended several pieces of equipment: a lift to get Hayn up to the tractor cab, an automatic opener for the pole barn doors and a Kubota utility vehicle.
“VR is the main funding source, and every state has a VR,” he explains, noting AgrAbility’s assessment and Indiana’s VR services are free to the client.
“These things are tools,” says Hayn, who is often asked to encourage other amputees. “I tell people to use these tools because they are out there. Who cares that you need a tractor lift or a power wheelchair to make things easier?”
See more: Across Generations: Hoosier Homestead Program Honors the Arnold Family
A Circle of Help and Hope
AgrAbility has existed since the early 1990s. Swain is also an assistive technology specialist with the National AgrAbility Project, housed at Purdue University’s Breaking New Ground Resource Center. He notes AgrAbility has always provided services to individuals from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In 2014, however, the national project significantly expanded its outreach to underserved populations: African American farmers, Native Americans, Hispanic/Latino ag workers and farmer veterans.
Joe Ricker, veteran outreach coordinator for AgrAbility, says most veterans leaving service with a disorder are not always noticeable in the way physical disabilities, like Laurie Hayn’s, are.
“More of the disorders today are mental – PTSD or traumatic brain injury,” Ricker says.
A 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army, Ricker helps veterans connect with resources ranging from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to the nonprofit Hoosier Uplands.
“Seeing veterans get to the next level is really rewarding, and I leave ‘next level’ open. Sometimes that’s financial, and sometimes it’s finding a peace they were struggling to find,” Ricker explains.
Swain says about 20% of Indiana farmers have some type of disability or limitation.
“That number is probably low because they don’t want to admit their problems are limiting the work,” Swain says. “Especially with our spinal cord injured farmers, they don’t see a way to keep farming. But when we show them the lifts or the hand controls for operating the tractor, it’s like flipping a switch. You can see them start to figure out how they are going to do it. Their fire for farming is relit.”
See more: Indiana Outreach Programs Help Farmers Improve Their Mental Health