This week is Farm Safety Week. As farmers head back to the fields for their autumn work, we encourage everyone to take the time to be safe.

By Jill Fennema –

On November 6, 2021, Mark Hiniker of Pipestone was involved in a farming accident that has changed the way he thinks about farm safety. Before this incident, he thought farm safety was important; now he has a passion for it. 

Mark and his wife, Carrie, have been farming for about 27 years. They have stock cows and also raise corn and soybeans. Carrie is also a substitute teacher at Pipestone Area Schools and Mark works as a seed salesman for Chandler Co-op. He runs the Chandler Co-op Pipestone Division. He has been there for five years, but has been a seed dealer for 25 years.  

This particular Saturday in November was the opening day of slug-hunting deer season. Mark’s son-in-law, Brad Hillard, was sitting in a tree stand about a quarter mile away from where Mark was applying anhydrous ammonia on the last 160 acres of his cropland. 

Anhydrous ammonia is a pressurized liquid that turns into a vapor when it leaves the storage tank. It is injected abut 8 inches below the soil surface to prevent it from going into the atmosphere. It is usually applied to cropland in the early spring or later fall when the ground temperature is cold enough to keep the gas in the ground, where it makes nitrogen.

He immediately fell to the ground and was gasping for breath. Anhydrous ammonia is attracted to moisture. When it comes into contact with water, it forms a corrosive alkaline called ammonium hydroxide. It also extracts water from whatever its comes into contact with – including the eyes and lungs, which contain the most moisture of any part of the human body. 

The affects of anhydrous ammonia on the body include instant dehydration and caustic burning. In addition to being in Mark’s eyes, throat, and lungs, some chemical sprayed on his leg and was burning his skin through his clothing.

While Mark was gasping on the ground, his phone rang. It was Brad. He had heard the sound of the coupler breaking loose – it sounded like a gun shot. He called Mark and asked if he was okay. Mark managed to say that he needed help. 

Brad immediately called 911 and then his own father and asked him to call 911 and direct the ambulance to the correct field. He raced across the field to Mark. When he found him and saw what was going on, he quickly got two bottles of water out of the tractor and poured the water in Mark’s eyes and into his mouth. Already Mark’s throat was starting to swell and he had a hard time swallowing any water, but even that small amount of water was helpful.

The field where Mark was working is close to Verdi, which does not have any emergency services of its own. Pipestone County Ambulance received the call and as soon as they heard that the accident involved a farmer being affected by an anhydrous ammonia leak, they called for an air ambulance out of Sioux Falls. 

When the EMS workers arrived, they treated him with oxygen and took his contaminated clothing off. They did not know it at the time, but they should have poured water on his burned leg.  

The helicopter took Mark straight to Regions Hospital Burn Center in St. Paul. Regions is a nationally recognized burn center. Before they lifted off, Mark wanted to argue with the EMS workers and say he didn’t need to go to the burn center, but they sedated him and off he went. They also intubated him to keep his airway open.

In hindsight, Mark can see that the EMS people knew what he needed better than he did and if he ever meets them again, he’d like to thank them. 

Mark spent about a week in the hospital, during which time he could not talk at all. He lost a lot of strength because he could not eat or drink. He received IV fluids for several days. Once he could start to eat and drink he rapidly improved. Carrie also had to learn to change the dressing on his leg burn before they could come home. He had a bad case of laryngitis that took about a month to subside. 

Now, a year later, he is fine. He had to learn to be the one who accepts help from friends, rather than being the one who is always on the giving end. “The small town community was overwhelming,” he said. People prayed for him and supported him during the whole ordeal. “That was special to me,” he added.

Since Mark’s accident, Jeff Einck, the manager of the Chandler Co-op, has implemented a new policy. Federal law mandates that every anhydrous ammonia bar that goes out also has 5 gallons of water on board, but it can be hard to get to that water when there is a leak. Einck now requires that a 5 gallon jug of water goes in the cab or rock box on each tractor so that it can be used in case of an accident. 

What did Mark learn? 

“To never underestimate the hidden dangers,” he said. 

His advice for other farmers?

“Don’t take things for granted. Danger is something you deal with every day in farming. You are not invincible. Think things through.”