A farmer uses a wide variety of equipment compared to a factory worker who usually is limited to just a few jobs revolving around a single piece of equipment. A lot of the times, the equipment the farmer is using is outdated and he can't afford to buy newer machinery, so they try to fix what they have. With so many parts, it is hard to fix the machinery correctly. During planting or harvest seasons, a farmer tends to work very long hours, which makes him more fatigue, and less capable to do things correctly. .
The prices in corn and soybeans as well as livestock put a lot of stress on a farmer. Watching day in and day out, gambling on what you should sell the years work for is a hard thing to do. Farms are decreasing due to the fact that bigger corporations are taking over the smaller farms, thus putting more pressure on the small farmers. This causes higher stress, which makes it more prone to have accidents. .
Many of the pieces of equipment look somewhat harmless, but are most likely dangerous to operate. Often a tractor will pull several wagons filled with grain from the field to bins. Besides the traffic hazard, if these wagons are not loaded properly, they can become unsteady and rollover. Another hazard wagons have is they do not empty properly and form a crust on top of the grain, which must be broken. When this happens, the operator will often climb on top of the wagon and manually move the grain or break the crust. This leads to a "quicksand" effect, which can suck the worker under leading to suffocation. .
Other machinery can appear hazardous even to the untrained eye. A corn head for a combine has many pieces of equipment that have several moving parts, many of which are sharp. Often farmers will repair their own equipment. As a combine is designed to pick grain, separate the grain from the rest of the plant, temporarily store the grain, and dispose of the waste, the machinery is usually very complicated to fix and can be dangerous.
