Getting back in the cab

By Allison Kinney, Ohio Ag Net

For many farmers, farming is more than a job. It is a way of life, built around the responsibility and pride that comes with producing food, fiber, and fuel for the world. That is why few things are harder than facing the possibility of having to give it up.

For Logan Heath, a farmer from Quincy, Ohio, that possibility became very real. Farming had always been a central part of his life, but for a time, he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to return to it.

“Around my senior year of high school. I was on my way home from shelling corn, and I got in an accident and rolled my truck. I became paralyzed. It will be four years this Oct. 20 since the accident,” Heath said.

Heath has been farming since he was able to walk, doing so alongside his grandfather and uncles. Together, they farm around 2,000 acres, growing corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.

“I’d almost view my family more as friends, we’re very close,” Heath said. “So, when this happened to me, I mean, it wasn’t good; it was like part of our farm was gone. But they are more than glad to help me with whatever I need, and they’re glad I’m back now.”

Even with his family at his side, returning to the farm was not as simple as just coming home from the hospital. For Heath, being able to get back to the work he loved meant finding a safe way to do everyday tasks that once were second nature.

“Before I had my lift, I used the loader tractor bucket and was put into the tractor that way. It was definitely not safe, and it wasn’t easy either,” Heath said. “I didn’t have any of this adaptive equipment. I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Experiences like this made it clear that continuing to farm would take more than just Heath’s drive and determination. Realizing this, Heath and his family began looking for solutions, leading them to Ohio AgrAbility.  

Ohio AgrAbility is a USDA-funded program designed to help farmers continue working after experiencing an injury, illness or disability. The program, while being partnered with The Ohio State University and Easter Seals Redwood, focuses on keeping people in agriculture by providing individualized support tailored to each farmer and their operation.

“AgrAbility itself is a relatively young program, and that’s why some folks say, well, I haven’t heard about this before,” said Director of Ohio AgrAbility, Dr. Dee Jepsen. “We’ve been around since 2009. We have more than 120 farmers in the program at any one time throughout the year. They’re all at different levels of assistance.”

That individualized support is where rural rehabilitation coordinator Rachel Jarman comes in. Through the process of visiting farms and learning what each farmer needs, AgrAbility helps to get farmers the tools and resources they need to keep working.

“We can go to the farm and just kind of assess their needs, make recommendations, and they can implement those needs on their own, or have us help them do so,” Jarman said. “We also partner with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, which is Ohio’s state vocational rehabilitation agency. When we partner with them, we help the farmer get paid services, like receiving equipment or things like that.”

Jarman directly helped Heath get to where he is today.

“I met Logan when he had just turned 18, and obviously, it was very clear that his wants and desires were to get back into a tractor and operate farm equipment and just continue to be a vital piece of the farm,” Jarman said. “We talked about all the different things that we thought he might want to do on a day-to-day basis and on a season-to-season basis. We quickly identified that he would need a lift and a track chair and some other small pieces of equipment to make sure that he could continue to operate farm equipment, check crops, work on equipment inside the shop, and do different things like that. All to make sure that he was able to remain successful as a farmer.”

Heath relies on this equipment daily. For him, no one day is the same, so his lift and track chair allow him to do anything he needs to.

“If I’m running equipment, driving a tractor, combine, skid loader, or whatever, I use my lift, and that will pick me up out of my wheelchair or out of my truck. It’s got a seat on it, I slide into it, and then that’ll put me right into the driver’s seat of whatever I need to drive,” Heath said. “And then the track chair, I can go anywhere I need to go. It handles rough terrain, big rocks, gravel, loose dirt, whatever with ease.”

This equipment not only makes daily tasks possible, but it also plays a bigger role in how Heath approaches everyday life.

“I can either lay in bed and rot away, or I can make the best of the hand I’ve been dealt and keep going,” Heath said.

Having the ability to get back into the fields and tractor cabs gives him the sense of purpose again, and which is something he refuses to let go of.

“It was really easy. We just got with Rachel, and then she came over, and we talked about what I need, what I wanted to do, and what I need to do. Then, I received the equipment I needed,” Heath said.

This is just one of the examples of how Ohio AgrAbility has helped farmers keep farming.

“We help anybody and everybody all the way from aching knees and aching backs up to amputation and parlysation. If you reach out, we would love to help you,” Jarman said.

For Heath, the impact AgrAbility had on his life is more personal.

“I would 100% give anyone AgrAbility’s number. It gave me a pretty big part of my life back,” Heath said.