At Agtegra, we believe there’s nothing more important than safety.
Farming, grain operations, crop protection product handling, and agriprocessing – these can be hazardous jobs if safety isn’t made the top priority. Agtegra is dedicated to providing the safest workplace possible for all our employees and member-owners.
When an emergency strikes in the rural Dakotas, it can take several minutes before emergency medical service personnel arrive to the scene. With much of Agtegra’s region considered medically underserved, a partnership between Agtegra and healthcare providers has become a step towards filling the need for more people trained to help in emergency situations.
In collaboration with Dr. Matt Owens of Redfield Community Memorial Hospital and the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, Agtegra has become the first company to implement the Dakota Responders program, a curriculum created to train more people to provide emergency care for serious bleeding, opioid overdose, and use of automated external defibrillators (AED).
Because of Agtegra’s footprint in rural eastern South Dakota, employees are well-positioned to provide life-saving care until EMS personnel can arrive, which is why the program was implemented at the cooperative in 2022.
Each trained employee is provided with a “ditch kit,” which provides them with the life-saving tools they need in case they encounter an emergency.
Our Technical Rescue Team (TRT) is made up of a team of Agtegra employees who are trained and certified in high angle technical rescue. Training throughout the year, this team is equipped and ready to respond to a grain bin engulfment or any other scenario that may require a high angle rescue.
We don’t just keep our employees safe – we aim to promote safety in the communities we serve and beyond. From elementary schools to Farm Safety demonstrations, our safety team focuses on several different safety topics when talking to both youth and adults in our communities about the importance of safety.
