By John Seewer
The Associated Press

Parry Cochran climbs up silos, drives tractors and feeds cows on his farm in northeast Ohio. Yet he lost his left hand in a truck accident 16 years ago.

"There's nothing I haven't been able to overcome," said Cochran, 33, who runs a 700-acre farm near Wooster. "It's not something you can teach somebody. It's all trial and error."

The only special equipment he has are vise grips that attach to his prosthesis.

For generations of farmers, overcoming a disability meant doing it on their own. Now there is specially designed equipment, such as tools that attach to prosthetic arms, and dozens of support groups for disabled farmers.

"When we got started, we found there was very little information a farmer could turn to that would help them remain independent," said William Field, supervisor of Breaking New Ground, an outreach program for disabled farmers.

The 25-year-old agency, which operates through Purdue University in Indiana, has published 30 guidebooks offering practical tips.

Arthritis and Agriculture, published this year, suggests that farmers move the control levers on tractors to cut down on stretching and bending, and that they use power equipment to move heavy objects.

"Most of the products out there target office workers or recreational uses," Field said. "Our audience wants to drive a tractor or a bulldozer."

Advances in tools and machinery also benefit the aging farm population.

The average age of a U.S. farmer is just over 55 years, and many are beginning to deal with more aches and pains. Field said the program is seeing more farmers with arthritis and joint problems, ailments that can be tied to years of milking cows or shoveling manure out of livestock stalls.

There is no clear number of how many farmers have a disability. Only 10 states keep track of farm accidents and injuries.

Several studies have estimated that it's as many as one out of every five.

"Many times farmers don't really consider themselves disabled," said Ronald Schuler, head of the federally funded AgrAbility Project, which is based at the University of Wisconsin and serves 26 states.

Program employees meet with farmers and suggest what tools and equipment will keep them farming. They also help pay for some items.

The agency helped Jon Stauffer, a farmer in Milford, Neb., buy an all-terrain vehicle that helps him get through his fields. Walking had become difficult after he had a stroke in 1988.

"At first, I turned it down," Stauffer said. "But we have to do a lot of walking in wet fields, and this thing goes through a lot of that."

Farming is among the top 10 most dangerous occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The National Safety Council, which tracks workplace accidents, estimates that 110,000 farmers nationwide suffered an injury last year that caused them to miss at least a half day of work.

Those numbers are probably low because farmers tend to work through a lot of pain and injuries, said Sam Steel, director of the council's Education Center for Agricultural Safety.

Farm machine makers have recognized that more farmers have special needs and are building more accessible equipment, Schuler said.

Companies build anything from mechanical lifts that enable farmers in wheelchairs to get on their tractors, to harvest carts that allow a farmer to sit closer to the ground and reduce the time spent stooping while picking vegetables.

Hubert Von Helton, who contracted polio at age 5 and is paralyzed from the waist down, founded a company that makes lifts for combines and tractors along with heavy-duty wheelchairs designed for barnyards and fields.

The lifts can cost between $8,000 and $10,000. But Von Helton said it's a small price to pay if it allows a farmer to feel he still can contribute.

Before starting his company in Brookston, Ind., Von Helton was a grain farmer for 15 years.

The first time he bought a tractor, he was on crutches when he went to the dealer's store. "He laughed at me and said, 'You can't even walk,'" Von Helton remembered.

He didn't give up. And neither do most farmers.

Ed Bell never considered another occupation even after he was shot and paralyzed in 1982. He was 21 years old.

"Part of that is just rural mentality," he said. "I'm a farmer. My neighbors are farmers. My friends are farmers."

Following months of rehabilitation, he returned to the hog farm where he grew up in Hagerstown, Ind. Friends and neighbors helped make a lift and hand controls that got him back on the tractor.

He began growing strawberries in 1985. It was something he always wanted to do.

"Everywhere I go, people see that my problems are worse than what they have," he said. "If that's my calling, so be it. I accept it and move on.

"... There are people who are carrying heavier loads than me."