FOREST CITY — On Nov. 22, 2012, Jerry Tibbs lost more than his legs. He lost the joy of farming.
On that day, both of his legs were amputated below the knee due to complications from heart surgery.
It could have been the end of doing something he loves. And at first, he thought maybe it was.
“ ‘I’m in a wheelchair. My life is doomed. I can’t do anything,’ ” he said. “That’s what it was like at first.”
Tibbs works a small farm in Mason County using several tractors, among them four antique International Harvester models. They are collector machines he displayed in parades and tractor shows and also used for cutting hay and plowing small plots for others.
After losing his legs, he wasn’t able to climb aboard the machines using his prosthetic limbs.
“I was scared to death to get up and off of them,” Tibbs said. “My wife was doing all the tractor driving we needed to do, or sometimes I got someone else to help.”
Then he saw an ad in a newspaper about the AgrAbility Unlimited program. Administered by the University of Illinois, it is the state’s version of the National AgrAbility Project.
SPONSORED BY the USDA, the program’s stated goal is to help eliminate or minimize obstacles that prevent farmers from performing their job.
“Typically, in this day, they tend to be chronic diseases or trauma,” said Chip Petrea, a U of I agricultural engineer who oversees the Illinois program.
“As the population gets older, we deal with aging problems that are aggravated by some sort of disease or illness.”
Petrea is the client contact manager. In his role, he determines whether there is a need that qualifies for help, and then goes about helping to provide the means.
“I’m the person who would talk initially with the individual and decide how best we might be able to assist him, whether through cost-share, adaptations, materials or other things,” he said.
The national budget is just $180,000. As such, there are virtually no funds for nuts-and-bolts solutions. In fact, the Illinois program has been operating on fumes.
“For the last several years we have not had any federal funding,” Petrea said. “We secured donations from different sources to keep the program going. We just re-filed our application with USDA last spring and soon we’ll have federal funding again.”
Tibbs’ case was referred to the state Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS). The agency worked with AgrAbility Unlimited to come up with a solution to his problem. Extra steps were installed on the tractors to enable Tibbs to safely climb aboard and back down.
SUCH A case is not uncommon. Petrea has worked with others who need some help after losing a limb, bringing the case to DORS or some other agency.
“The best funding source is the DORS,” Petrea said. “Once one becomes a client, I can help provide justification based upon what other farmers have found they needed in these particular instances.”
Often, it’s a lift to get them into their combine or hand controls on equipment.
“I helped a gentleman get a front-end loader for a tractor he had for clearing brush in order to start an organic beef herd,” Petrea said.
In another case, AgrAbility Unlimited was called upon to install freeze-resistant faucets for a livestock operation so the producer wouldn’t have to carry buckets of water for the cattle.
Tibbs is quick to recommend the program to others like himself who need a little help.
“They can help you. Don’t feel like you can be shut in for the rest of your life because you lost an arm or a leg in a farming accident or anything like that,” he said.
“If you still want to farm and be productive in life, do it.”