Promoting Quality Healthcare for Iowans.

Grain Rescue Tubes

O'Brien County

After a series of grain bin accidents in their area, the O’Brien County Farm Bureau decided it was time to make sure that area rescue teams were prepared with the right tools to save people trapped in grain bins. The county Farm Bureau led the drive to equip all of O’Brien County’s rescue teams with grain bin rescue tubes. “It’s a piece of equipment that we hope, other than training, never gets used," said O’Brien Farm Bureau member Jay Hofland. "But we want to have it there (in the fire departments) in case it is needed."

It didn’t take long for the county Farm Bureau’s efforts to save a life. A grain rescue tube donated through the drive was used by the Sutherland Fire Department to save a man trapped in a grain bin. “One of the fire chiefs called me and thanked me for raising the money because they had a chance to use the grain rescue tube and get a man out,” Hofland said.

Dr. Jennifer Davis Haden

Recipient of Iowa Farm Bureau's Rural Family Medicine Scholarship

Farm Bureau member since 1980

Dr. Jennifer Davis Haden, who grew up on a livestock farm in northwest Iowa, always wanted to practice medicine in a rural community. “From day one of medical school, the only reason I went into medicine was to go to a rural area where I understand the population, and I want to work with them,” says Haden, a resident at Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City.

A Des Moines University graduate, Haden received a medical scholarship from the Iowa Farm Bureau Foundation’s Rural Family Medicine program, in partnership with the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.

The Farm Bureau Rural Family Medicine Scholarships, worth $2,500, are designed to encourage medical students to enter an Iowa family residency and practice in a rural Iowa community. It also encourages residents, upon graduating from an Iowa family practice or residency program, to pursue a career in small Iowa communities.