Minnesota farmers could get rebates to deter rollover injuries

Up to $800 available
for older models

Minnesota wants to be more like Wisconsin, as a state where deaths from tractor rollovers have gone down.

Recently, state leaders in Minnesota had a meeting to discuss more than 200 farming-related deaths there in a 10-year period.

The fatal accident rate in Wisconsin has gone down during that same time, and a program to install rollbars on tractors is getting some of the credit.

Scott Highberger from Marshfield Clinic is a spokesman for the National Farm Medicine Center there, where protective bars are offered to farmers who use older tractors.

Highberger says rebates of up to $800 are available, to make it affordable for farmers to retrofit their tractors with the safety devices.