BEATING THE ODDS 2016

A monthly supplement to The Delmarva Farmer

HARRISONBURG, Va. (Nov. 29, 2016) — Craig Bailey has forgotten some of the details about the farming accident that resulted in him losing his right hand more than two years ago.
Even though the prosthetic hook where his hand once was stays with him as a constant reminder of how it’s changed his life, it hasn’t stopped him from farming and expanding his business.
The accident happened in August 2014. Bailey was spreading shavings in one of his three turkey houses, working alone, and used his hand to wipe shavings away from near the spreader belt.
“Long story short, I was in a hurry,” Bailey said. “I stuck my hand too close to it and I knew I was in trouble.”
He said somehow — one of those forgotten details — he got himself unstuck, turned the tractor off and calmly called his mother to help him get to a hospital. After five days in University of Virginia Medical Center, in Charlottesville, Bailey was back home contemplating what’s changed for him. He refused to feel sorry for himself. With four children of his own and employees depending on him, giving up in any way wasn’t an option.
“Monday morning, I’m out there working. I’ve got turkeys coming,” he said. “It was like, ‘How are we going to get this done? It wasn’t me-oh-my, it was, ‘Ok, what’s next?’”
Bailey grew up milking cows on his family’s farm. Eleven years ago, they stopped shipping milk, but still own a small group of high quality dairy animals for breeding and raise the calves on the farm. Along with the turkeys he raises for the Virginia Poultry Grower Cooperative, he farms about 75 acres of soybeans and wheat and has operated Greenmount Grain Roasting, since 2003, now with two mobile roasting units criss-crossing the state.
Talking frankly about the accident now, Bailey is quick to point out it could have been worse. He’s been able to operate the equipment on the farm without needing any major retrofitting. And had the accident happened in colder weather, the spreader’s belt could have easily caught his jacket’s drawstring or sleeve and done much more damage, even killing him.
“I think in reality I dodged a pretty good bullet,” he said. “My injury was not life-threatening but my accident was.”
He also recalls the generosity of friends and neighbors who helped out after the accident.
“During my accident I realized how much people could stick together,” he said. ”I had a lot of free help.”
He added the accident also showed him the importance of talking to and encouraging other people facing major hardships in their life. He tries to more often ask friends how their doing and listen and offer help.
“People can help you with that,” he said. “That’s what we’re here for. That’s why we’re people.”
In the time since his accident and recovery, Bailey has had to learn to write with his left hand and accept the fact that somethings just take longer to do. A few weeks ago, working alone at dusk, getting a wire nut on a pair of wires took him 45 minutes.
“The real small intricate things are sometimes the hardest. What used to take 10 minutes before can now take an hour,” he said. “Everything is built for two hands.”
He’s hired out more repair work on his equipment and learned to ask for help more than before but still doesn’t let the disability beat him.
“When I can’t do it I get very frustrated about it. I’ve got a job to do,” he said. “I think farmers in general just have that get-up-and-go or you won’t last long.”
Those who know and work with Bailey attest his “get-up-and-go” is still fully intact.
“My impression of him is Superman,” said Bob Privott, Bailey’s marketing consultant for Greenmount Grain Roasting. “But,” Privott adds, “it’s all too easy to think you’re Superman and life can catch up to you.”
If there’s a silver lining to his accident — Bailey chooses to see one — it’s that it forced him to refocus on the farm businesses, being more managerial rather than trying to do as much as he can by himself.
“It’s helped me become a little more dependent, he said. “What I mean by that is I’m more apt to ask for help than before.”
He’s not any less busy, he said, but with his oldest child Mikayla graduating from Virginia Tech in May and coming back to the farm, putting her in a position to succeed is more a priority.
“I try to keep things moving, but as old as I’m getting, I needed to take another look at everything.”
Bailey said with Mikayla more on the farm soon, he may have more time to talk to groups about the importance of farm safety. So far, demands of the farm have kept him limited in doing a lot of advocacy but he said for those groups he has talked to about how important proper safety precautions around farm equipment is, it’s been impactful.
“When you start taking your arm on and off, it gets people’s attention,” he said. “When you go through these events, it helps you learn.”