Farming one-handed

SEBEKA, Minn. — Farm safety stays close in mind for Tyler Brockpahler, who knows how quickly injuries can happen. Brockpahler lost part of his right arm to an accident involving a round baler roughly eight years ago.

“I’m more thoughtful now about what I am doing,” he said. “I was a lot younger then too, so you think nothing bad can happen. Getting older adds that to you either way.”

At the time of the accident, he was starting his dairy career. Today, Brockpahler milks 65 cows in a partnership with his father-in-law, John Malone.

As a child Brockpahler was out helping his father with many different jobs on the farm. After the accident, however, he has been a little more cautious in having his four children doing some of the same chores he had done.

“Dad was happy for the help. But I have been a lot slower at getting them to do that stuff,” he said. “They haven’t done hardly any tractor driving.”

At the time of the accident, Brockpahler said his oldest two children were roughly 5 and 4, and the youngest two had not been born yet. For them, he said, their dad having one arm is the way things have always been.

Brockpahler’s accident was in July when he was out baling hay at his father’s farm. He had stopped to unclog the machine when the baler pulled his arm in between the rollers.

“It was between two rubber rollers so there’s no slipping back,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of blood loss or anything because the belts burned it instead of cutting, so it was getting cauterized as it was coming off.”

The Gehl baler, which Brockpahler said was worn out at the time of the accident, dislocated his elbow and was starting to cut through the skin above by the time he had pulled his cell phone out of his pocket with his other hand. He called his dad, who was home, then called 911.

Brockpahler’s father and first responders used bars to release the spring tension in the baler to get his arm out.

“The ambulance came out there and I was in there for a little while,” he said. “Then a helicopter picked me up in the field and took me to Robbinsdale.”

When he arrived, doctors worked to fix the damage to his arm.

“They tried to save it for a while that night,” he said. “It wouldn’t circulate blood again so they took it off. 

After a few days in the hospital, Brockpahler was sent home.

“They don’t really keep you; I was surprised,” he said. “Once you’re done bleeding, they want you out of there. One reason I had to be there that long was a lot of skin grafts, and that takes time. They don’t do them all in one day.”

When Brockpahler went back for a check-up, he was readmitted for a few more days before being sent home for good.

Along with learning how to now do everything with one hand, Brockpahler also had to switch to his non-dominant left hand.

“You never become truly left-handed,” he said. “ You can’t change your brain.”  

He added, “I’m sure you could do most things one-handed anyways. I guess it’s just getting things back to normal again afterwards.”

The accident did not slow Brockpahler down. The following winter and spring he worked on a barn on his property.

“The barn was unfinished,” he said.  “At that point, it hadn’t been milked in since the ‘80s so I was working on getting all that going. “I already had cows. I had friends that were milking them for me.”

Brockpahler said the barn will be a hundred years old next year. Currently, he has a few heifers at his property, but most of his herd is at his father-in-law’s place.

Brockpahler’s hobbies have been affected by the accident. Brockpahler was mid-season playing center field for the Nimrod Gnats amateur baseball team when the accident happened.

“Obviously I’m not throwing anymore,” he said. “This kind of ended that sooner than I would have liked, but now I’m too old.”

Brockpahler is still part of the team, lending his experience to coaching instead.

He also has had to adjust to how he would normally hunt.

“I shoot a little different than I used to (and) not as well either,” he said. “You’ve got to have a rail to set it on. There’s no freehand shooting anymore.”

Even with these changes, Brockpahler has gotten a few deer in recent years.

“I did find a company that makes a trigger that you hook on the trigger and put it in your mouth so you can pull,” he said. “I haven’t ordered one yet, but I think I might do that one of these days.” 

Around the farm, Brockpahler only uses a prosthetic for milking cows.

“I’ll hold the milker while I put it on,” Brockpahler said. “Otherwise, I never wear it. … That prosthetic seems to be more of a danger if you’re trying to use it.”

Brockpahler said the prosthetic gets caught on everything.

“Even milking cows, when they are swishing their tails, you always get them hooked in the hook so you’re always pulling that out,” he said. “I just don’t feel good wearing it around other than milking.”

To help with chores and tasks around the farm, Brockpahler said he uses vice grips and makes tools to help with everything from welding to greasing machinery and more.

“I can do almost anything,” he said. “The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to A.I. cattle again. I still can’t do that. I haven’t figured out a way to rig that up. That takes two hands.”