Dale and Cindy Ekdahl got into the grain bin safety business more than a decade ago.
It started, Dale recalls, after a 13-year-old boy died not far from their farm in western Minnesota. The boy had been buried in grain, a common type of accident: Shifting grain inside the bin smothers a person who’s pulled under.
Those tall silver grain bins are ubiquitous in farm country. They’re used to store the fall harvest — but can also be dangerous. Each year, dozens of grain bin accidents happen across the country. Many are fatal.
The Ekdahls have developed a way to rescue people who fall into grain bins — and they hope state officials will do something to ensure that farms across the state have equipment on hand that could help prevent accidents altogether.