S4E10: AgrAbility, Respirator Fit Testing, and Farm Stress: Resource Episode!

Recorded: 12/11/2025 

With the winter meeting season fast approaching, it is a good time to highlight some of the Penn State Extension resources that will be available at meetings and conferences upcoming across the state. Linda Fetzer shares information about the AgrAbility program, Shane Williams discusses respirator fit testing, and Ginger Fenton shares Farm Stress Resources. 

Hosts: Ryan Spelman and Justin Brackenrich
Guest(s): Linda Fetzer, Shane Williams, Ginger Fenton

Photo credit: Steve Williams 

Links:
S4E10 Links 

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Transcript

Ryan Spelman (00:18)
Welcome to another episode of the Agronomy Highlights podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Spelman, and today Justin is back as my co-host. So Justin, how are you doing today? I'm doing really good, Ryan. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, sure. I say back because I feel like it's been a while since the two of us have done one together. So it feels good. We did sub team updates. did back to basics was probably the last time we worked on something in mid-November. Yep, that's right. So hopefully.

Hopefully our viewers are enjoying kind of the mix up of things and let us know, let us know what you're liking about some of the new things we're trying and not. So right now we're kind of moving into that winter meeting season. And so me and Justin, we're kind of talking about the fact that, you know, there's a lot of resources outside of just the pesticide programming that we do around the state. A lot of opportunities for folks to

interact with different resources that Penn State has to offer. So our idea today was to kind of invite a few people on who have booths, tables, programs to share this winter and give them a chance to talk about those programs and maybe advertise, you know, where they're going to be, where you can meet them in person. So I don't know, Justin, what do you think? Yeah, I think you summed it up really well. This may feel a little bit

of us trying to get you to come to our meetings and maybe it is, right? But I think it just kind of speaks to maybe the breadth of what Penn State is doing. And as you hear Ryan, I think I expect that we're gonna learn a lot of new information today too, talking to these groups and these different projects. join us, let's listen, see what they've got to say and hopefully we'll see you at one of our upcoming meetings. Yeah, for sure.

So first up we have Linda Fetzer of the Agrability group and Agrability is a great program that enables folks with disabilities to access the things they've always done in the farm and help people to get the resource they need to

to get some equipment to help them do what they do better.

Justin Brackenrich (02:18)
So Linda, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you work within Penn State and the Agribility Program this morning.

Linda Fetzer (02:26)
Great, thank you. My name is Linda Fetzer and I'm extension program specialist with the Ag Safety and Health Team and that's through Penn State Extension and the Penn State Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. one of my hats that I wear is working with the Agribility Project. I'm actually the co-PI and the project manager for Agribility and that has been a program that I've been involved with since 1996. So it's a long-term program.

and it's just a really great resource for producers.

Justin Brackenrich (02:56)
So, and I'll tell you when the way that I came to this is I got a letter in the mail kind of talking about aggrability and what it was in their newsletter and they were mentioning that they were gonna be at a bunch of different events across the country really and setting up. But Linda, talk to us a little bit. What is aggrability?

Linda Fetzer (03:13)
Sure, Grability is a grant project through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, NIFA, and in Pennsylvania, it is a partnership between Penn State Extension and UCP of Central Pennsylvania. The way it's mandated is that it has to be a nonprofit partnered with the land grant university. So you're bringing both of those worlds together to better serve the ag producers in the state of Pennsylvania and across the country. Those producers who have a

long-term health condition or a disability that's impacting their ability to stay in farming.

Ryan Spelman (03:46)
Yeah, so I'll share it. So I think it was maybe two years ago, I was stationed right next to your booth. And I thought what was really cool is you had all of these, I guess, accessibility tools that folks could use on the farm.

And there were so many handy things, like there were these gloves that had little finger lights on them. So that could work for anyone, right? To be able to work in dark areas. Maybe you're working in a tractor or a combine. And then you had these weightlifting hooks, right? That you could carry buckets for. And you know when those metal wires on the buckets really hurt your hands, you just hook it right on there, right? So maybe you can talk about what like the...

The mission of this program is in getting resources to folks that maybe have disabilities in the ag world and help to keep them going, but also for folks that just like, know, things that make things easier, right?

Linda Fetzer (04:38)
Absolutely. Yeah, we'll be at several events. Like Justin said, we'll be at Keystone Farm Show in January, we'll be at the Crop Growers Expo in January, and we'll be at PASA. Those are three of the ones that were coming up. And we always have those those low tech tools like Ryan, like you were talking about, because it's really about working smarter, not harder. So what we just actually did a presentation yesterday for the AgWorks.

grant about ergonomics and when is an ergonomic solution and when is assistive technology. And the ergonomic solutions are those work smarter, not harder things like the weightlifting hooks. If you're not getting that.

If things aren't digging into your hand and you can use those weightlifter hooks to take that pressure off your hands, it's going to save your hands and your forearms. So those are just very, very simple things that you can do and put in place to protect in the long run. But for a person with a disability, we look at things very low tech, like some of those things, to very high tech. So it could be if they have had a stroke or something that they need to get into the tractor seat.

So there might be a platform lift where they kind of take a step onto the platform or sit down and it's like a little elevator. It's going to take them right up to that operator seat and then maybe hand controls. So like I said, we really specialize all of our services for agribility clients to that person, to that farm operation. So we're going out to the farm. We're doing free onsite assessments. Okay, so I always say, what does your body hate you for the most by the end of the day?

Those are the types of tasks and responsibilities that we want to really look at and dig deep as to, okay, how do you do it? How often do you do it? Is there a way to change it? Is there a way to maybe transfer that job to somebody else? If you can't, is there a modification to the equipment or an introduction of a piece of equipment that might be suitable to make that person

be able to be more independent with less strain on my body and reduce the risk of secondary injuries.

Justin Brackenrich (06:51)
So if someone wants to get involved in this type of program, where do they start? Who do they contact? And I'm sure it's a huge open question because there's the low tech stuff all the way up to these high tech things you just mentioned. But what's kind of their first step in getting involved or getting you involved?

Linda Fetzer (07:07)
Maybe. The first step is really just emailing or giving us a call. And I'll provide that information for you that you can send out. And really, we just kind of get a snapshot. We do that intake form and kind of get an idea of, where are you located? What types of issues are you having? What type of farm operation? Now, when we talk about assistive technology or modifications or equipment,

The one thing our grant project does not have is the money to fund those things. So we want to get you linked with some places very, very quickly to see if you're eligible for those services. And one of the biggest is the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. And their whole purpose in life is to work with folks with disabilities in regards to employment. So that takes some time.

One of our first things after intake is if we think they're going to be a good person to work with OVR, we're going to refer them to their county office or regional office to get them linked in, to get that paperwork started so that when we come out to the farm operation, then we can kind of do that recommendation report, send it to OVR and to the farmer that we're working with so that they can look at, okay, what types of things are going to be the most beneficial and see if some of those

pieces of modification or equipment can be implemented and provided.

Ryan Spelman (08:29)
So I'm guessing that because you're working in this area where you know of some of the grants available, are you able to help them with that application? Like are you able to, you go to the farm, the assessment and like, is it helpful to have you guys in their corner when going through that process, if that makes sense?

Linda Fetzer (08:48)
When they do the intake with OVR, we usually don't help too much with that unless we're asked to. ⁓ The OVR counselors are great to work with. It is just a long process because they have to get medical records and those types of things. So it does take some time. We always check in with them every so often to say, okay, how's the process? Did you apply? Have you heard? So we try to encourage them to be advocates for themselves to keep following up.

with the OVR counselors and it really is a good process. It just takes time. But we really have worked well over the last 30 years with OVR and with the farmers. And so, like I said, it is a good process. It's just not a super fast one because you know, with any type of state agency and with all different medical, getting medical records, things just take a lot of time.

Justin Brackenrich (09:42)
So this may be a question we have to shift somewhere else in this, but with such different ends of the spectrum of low tech to high tech, when does a person, how does Justin say like, you know what, this is a task that's difficult for me, I better call Linda, right? Or how do I know when it's time to call or when I meet eligibility or is it showing up at one of your booths and just looking at what low tech stuff you've kind of got hanging around and taking ideas home or is there?

I don't know what I'm trying to say, how do I know when it's time to call Linda and get involved in agribility?

Linda Fetzer (10:15)
All good questions, and I'd say all of the above. We always say it takes like seven touches of information before somebody calls us. And unfortunately, sometimes people should have called us years ago, but they haven't had a chance to go get that hip replacement or that knee surgery because they have nobody to help them on the farm. So they've prolonged getting those surgeries, which has really impacted.

how much more severe the recuperation is going to be after those surgeries. So I would say even if you're starting to feel things with joint impairments or different types of arthritis, the sooner you contact the better and we can provide information along the continuum. So maybe it's just some ideas to begin with if we don't think they're going to be qualified for like OVR, but there's also the Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation that can help.

provide some low cost loans and sometimes mini grants to provide funding for different things. So there are times we work with a farmer for five years. So we're working with them for a long period of time on that continuum.

Shane WIlliams (11:21)
.

Justin Brackenrich (11:21)
So,

you know, once we start these questions, right, didn't it just, my brain fires so fast. So if you're thinking about the number of farmers in Pennsylvania, like ballparking, what percentage or what number of farmers are you kind of contacting with this program?

Linda Fetzer (11:37)
They ranges from year to year, but we know that we are not serving as many farmers out there that have some type of health condition or disability. We know there's a lot more out there that could benefit from our services. And that's why we do the PR events, the newsletters, the articles. Cause like I said, it takes seven touches. So a neighbor sees us at a farm show, picks up information, the farm wife or the husband.

picks up the information, it just takes so many different exposures to the information. And then people are like, I should have called you years ago.

Shane WIlliams (12:15)
It

Justin Brackenrich (12:16)
And have

statistics say, right, the average farmer age in Pennsylvania is 55.4 years old. And this is not anything against our farmers. But I mean, that that's aging, right? And if we're talking years to get through some of these programs, more people should certainly be making these phone calls or reaching out to you because as we age it, it's great to start these processes. So how would they we've talked about reaching out to you.

What about virtually or in person? ⁓ Tell us a little bit more about the events you're going to go to or how they connect with you online or to get more resources.

Linda Fetzer (12:49)
I'll provide the information for online. I'll provide my email. Either of those ways are great to either do an online forum that comes to me or to give me a call or give me or just email me. And like I said, we will be at the Keystone Farm Show. We'll be at PASA. We'll be at Crop Growers Expo. And I think that's it for the winter meeting season right now. And yes, the average age of a farmer is 55 right now. And

I always go out when I'm out to the farm, I always talk to the younger farmers too that are in their 20s and 30s as I see them jumping off the tractor steps. like, your body's going to hate you for doing this in 20 years. If you, and those are those, those things that you don't realize in your 20s and your 30s, when you think you're invincible, how much that catches up to you with knee pain and knee replacements and hip injuries in later in life.

So again, it's that ergonomics in the beginning, if you kind of put the ergonomics in place in the beginning, you may not need this much system technology later on.

Ryan Spelman (13:57)
Yeah, that's a great way to put it. You know, I'm picturing, you know, some dumb things that I've done jumping off tractors or something like that. You know, I think we've all done those things, but especially from a farmer perspective, you're doing these actions every day. So to get involved with you guys early to understand, you know, where are some of those pressure points that I can alleviate and help remedy it in the front end. then later on, you have a lot of resources for them when things do go wrong. Right. So

Thank you, Linda. Like Linda said, we'll put all of those events that she's going to in the description below so that if you guys want to connect with her in person or someone from their Agrability team, you can do so. So thank you, Linda, for coming on today. And we really appreciate you sharing ⁓ what Agrability can do for our folks in Pennsylvania.

Linda Fetzer (14:44)
Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Justin Brackenrich (14:46)
And one last thing before we close, maybe I should have asked this question sooner too. Agrability is not specific to Pennsylvania, right? This is a national program. so, know, Linda would be your point contact in Pennsylvania, but if you're listening from another state, that just takes a little bit of time on the internet to Google agrability and get in there and find your person to work with wherever you're at, right?

Linda Fetzer (15:10)
Yep, and they're welcome to email me and I'll happily introduce them to the people in the other states or if their state does not have an agribility project, I can direct them to the National Agribility Project and they can field some of those requests as well.

Ryan Spelman (15:25)
Thank you very much.

Linda Fetzer (15:25)
Thank

Enjoy your holiday break.

Shane WIlliams (15:28)
Yeah.

Ryan Spelman (15:29)
All right, well, next on our kind of client resources we have here, have on Shane Williams. He's a pesticide educator and we're gonna talk a little bit about the respirator, I guess, fit testing program that Shane kind of oversees or works with. And we're gonna talk a little bit about the safety of why you even need that. So, Shane, why don't you introduce yourself and a little bit about that program that you're working on.

Shane WIlliams (15:54)
Yeah, thanks for having me guys. Yeah, I'm Shane Williams. Like he said, I am a Pennsylvania native. I grew up in Westmoreland County and I went to Penn State. I have a degree in landscape architecture, which you know, sort of relevant, sort of not in what I do now, but Penn State's my alma mater. And then I moved south to Savannah, Georgia and was a branch manager there for

a landscape company for many years and worked for the city of Savannah. So in the public and private sector, I've dealt with pesticides and management of that for some years and then moved back to state college. So I'm now near the university, University Park campus, and that's where I work out of. And I've been with the pesticide education program through

through extension since, is it 2021? So a few years now. The respirator fit test program is one of the programs that I coordinate for pesticide education. And what that entails is the, so on the label, it doesn't necessarily matter what you do, it's what product you're using.

So if the label requires a respirator to be used as part of personal protective equipment or PPE, if it's required on the label, of course you are required to follow the label since it is the law. So if it says you need to wear one, then you have to take some steps before you can wear a respirator. ⁓

Justin Brackenrich (17:27)
So if our people

aren't hearing anything once they've heard the labels the law like a thousand times, right? And we're always encouraging people read your label before you purchase, before you apply and after you apply, right? There are all of these times that you need to be reading that. What section in that label would they find information on respirators if they needed one?

Shane WIlliams (17:48)
That would be under, let me make sure I'm not saying the wrong wording here. That'd be under precautionary statements. Okay, excellent. So if you're reading through the label, you want to come to precautionary statements and then under there you'll find the personal protective equipment section. And then you'll want to read through there to see, you know, what you need to wear. And you can always wear more than the minimum, but you're required by law to wear, you know, at least the minimum protective equipment.

And it's also worth

Justin Brackenrich (18:18)
Like what is the standard minimum protective equipment, PPE for people?

Shane WIlliams (18:22)
That's going to be a long sleeve shirt, long pants, shoes and socks. So, you know, pretty basic stuff, but you can't be out there in shorts and flip-flops spraying chemicals, right? So that's usually the absolute minimum. And then more often than not, you know, it's also going to require like some level of chemical resistant gloves, possibly, you know,

possibly an apron, you know, depending what doing. And then respirators are certainly something that may be required depending on the product that you were using. And it's worth mentioning too that your personal protective equipment could change from mixing and loading or transporting that pesticide versus actually applying it. So you need to make sure those, all that will be found in that same section, but you need to make sure that

you're reading the whole label and you might not need a respirator for, you know, part of it, but you might need it for, you know, the mixing and loading or the applying or both. So you need to make sure you're familiar with what you need to protect yourself.

Ryan Spelman (19:29)
And correct me if I'm wrong, Shane, but the label will also indicate where it talks about the respirator, the type of cartridges you need, right? So like some people have maybe one cartridge that they use. It's actually important that there's different types of cartridges for different types of products and that you pick the right one, correct?

Shane WIlliams (19:47)
Correct, yes. So when you're reading the label and you're in that section, you're going to see where, you know, it'll say the respirators all have to be NIOSH approved. And that's the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. So that way you know that they're actually tested and certified, that they're...

They're gonna protect you, they're not just some off market or counterfeit or, we ran into that with COVID with the N95s. You know, there's something they can just call an N95 and then there's NIOSH approved N95, right, that are actually tested. And when everybody was scrambling to get ahold of those during the height of COVID, you had to be careful to make sure it was NIOSH approved to know that it was actually tested for safety standards.

So first and foremost, it's going to say that it needs to be NIOSH approved and that will be stamped right on the respirator and on the cartridge, right? The cartridge will be stamped with that if it's real. And then it'll say something effective like NIOSH approved particulate filtering respirator equipped with an NR or P class filter. And those

those are, when they say NRP, N is not oil resistant, R is resistant up to eight hours, and P is for proof, for oil proof. And then it comes with a number, either 95 and 99 or 100. So for example, everyone's pretty familiar now with the N95, and that means it's not oil resistant, and it's 95 % efficient.

So it's going to filter out about 95 % of particulates. depending on what you're using, that product will determine what you have to use or the minimum you have to use in filtration.

Ryan Spelman (21:40)
Awesome. So you have your NIOSH approved mask. You have the right cartridges, the right type and size. Now, can you talk a little bit about where this fit testing comes in? Why it's important that you get it fit tested? And are you required to have it fit tested once you have your mask?

Shane WIlliams (22:00)
Yes, absolutely. And that's something we really try to get out there. So this is great that I'm able to speak to this. It is a requirement. So worker protection standard, the WPS adopted OSHA's language in, I believe, about 2015. So it used to be newer. Now we're going on. I mean, it's been a decade now, right? So things move slowly. But it's been this way for about 10 years. And what

⁓ worker protection standard requires is if the label says that you have to wear a respirator for that product, then you are required to do, three things. You're required to have a medical clearance or medical evaluation. in that basically, you know, make sure that you can wear a respirator. And what I mean by that is it does

you don't want to say it labors your breathing, but if you're going to put something on your face that's filtering, it is going to change, you know, slightly how you're breathing. So you have to have a medical evaluation or clearance, we use that word kind of interchangeably, that you're able to wear one first and foremost. And that can look like, for us, for the fit test program, if you sign up with us,

you come in and we have a third party with us because I'm not medically, I can't do anything medically, right? That's not my background. So we have medical personnel with us and you will fill out a questionnaire and it'll ask you things like, do you have high blood pressure? Do you take medications? Do you have a history of heart attacks? There's a whole list of things. It's much like when you go to a new doctor and they give you that sheet

that's four pages long or whatever and they want to know history, right? So it's sort of a medical history. From that, the medical personnel that's there will look over with that and that's confidential. That's between you and that medical person to look over that information and they know what I kind of call their red flag list. If you answer questions certain way, they're going to have follow-up questions. And more often than not,

from what we've seen is they say, okay, you're good to go ahead and actually do a fit test. If they do have a concern, if there's something on there that they just really don't feel comfortable fit testing you in that moment, they might say, we're gonna take this back to our onsite doctor and they're gonna call you and tell you further instructions. And that might be, we want you to go actually to a physical doctor's office and have this.

you know, looked into before we proceed. That doesn't happen very often, but so that's step one, the medical clearance. Does that make sense?

Ryan Spelman (24:40)
Yeah, definitely. my understanding too, so the fit test, the goal is that we want to make sure that it actually gets around your mouth and nose and seals off, right? So that all the air exchange is coming through those cartridges instead of coming around the mask, right? So once you are cleared, then that's where you come in with the fit test. So can you talk about what the fit test looks like, right?

Shane WIlliams (25:05)
Right, well I only brought up step one because we actually offer that at our fit test events. offer the medical evaluation and clearance. So you'll do that as not only requirement, but we try to be a one-stop shop. You can get all the, to stay compliant with WPS, you can do it all with us. So you do that first, assuming you're cleared, then we move into the fit test. And...

The medical personnel is also there to do the fit test with you. So what we would need from you as a participant, we need you to bring your mask or masks. You would need all respirators that you wear. And that means brands, that means different sizes. You if you use two different kinds for whatever reason, you want to bring both. If you, for whatever reason, or you're not sure, you say, I have a small size and I have a medium size, bring them both. We'll see which one fits you better.

Because that is, you know, you're right, Ryan, that is the goal. You need to have this seal around your face. If it doesn't seal, it's not doing you any good. So you bring your respirators. You are required to be clean shaven, which is sometimes a hurdle, because even one hair follicle between, you know, that mask, the sealing area of the mask and your skin

is enough for particulate and vapor to get through. So those are usually our biggest hurdles. Make sure you bring your respirators with you with cartridges and be clean shaven. If you can do that, we can help you with the rest. And then you go through a fit test. And that lasts somewhere around 10 minutes.

The way we do it, there's qualitative and quantitative fit tests. We typically do the qualitative. The quantitative is where they actually hook you up to a machine and they can use numbers. We sometimes have that option available to us, but more often than not, it is qualitative. And what we mean by that is you will put a hood on without your respirator and they will use like a sensitivity spray.

they'll spritz a little bit of that into the mask at a concentration just to make sure that your body is able to detect that as a test. Once you can detect that, which takes a couple seconds usually, then you don your respirator and they put the hood back on you and then use the concentrated version of that same chemical that is like a taste and smell detector.

And then they'll have you do some different things. They'll have you speak with your mask on, because you're not gonna be using your mask stationary, right? You're gonna be applying or mixing and loading. So they have you move around, they have you speak all while they're spritzing this into that mask. And they're asking you if you can detect anything. And it's a pretty strong odor. you you can tell if it's there or not. If you do detect something,

They have you readjust your mask sometimes, take a five minute break, get a drink of water and retest. Because the goal is really to help you be successful in this, right? We want to make sure you're safe. We want to make sure it's fitting properly. So that process usually takes somewhere around 10 to 15 minutes to do that.

Justin Brackenrich (28:19)
So I'm thinking about this in the form of a producer or the questions that may come up. I'm sitting here. I've got my label. I read it. It says that I need a respirator. That automatically now is going to flag in my head that if I require a respirator, I'm also required to have a fit test and the medical evaluation. So now I'm thinking, OK, where do I get this done?

I know that it's not going to take a whole lot of time. We've talked maybe 30-ish minutes or so to get this whole thing done through the medical evaluation and through this. It doesn't seem that complicated. Talk to us a little. Well, sorry. It doesn't seem that complicated to me as the farmer walking in or the producer coming in. I'm sure there's a lot more science to it. for me, I don't need to stress about it. I don't need the labor. I need to show up with my mask and my cartridges and whatever I need to do to

fill out my medical history, which is me, is to call my wife and ask, what medications do I take again? Right. So have that information. So then how do they find one of these? Where are they at? Are there, you know, do you need to register for them? Do you fill the paperwork out ahead of time? Give us a little bit more about how we connect with you to get this done.

Shane WIlliams (29:23)
Right, absolutely. So it is theoretically, like outside of our program, theoretically, you you can contact a health facility, different medical facilities or providers and ask them for this. have heard, doing this program, I've heard from a lot of individuals that they have a really tough time finding someone that will do that.

they're out there, but they are a challenge to find. So that's just more reason that we've really pushed our program. And our program is free. We're able, thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, we have a grant that we're able to offer this at no cost to the farmer, producer, applicator, ⁓ which is great. The medical facility, I'm gonna assume they're gonna charge you because they're providing you that service, right?

Maybe not, but that's my assumption. we have tried to go to, we've been growing the program, we've been trying to go to the same events because it's worth noting that this is an annual requirement. Your fit test has to be done annually, whether you change sizes, whether you change brand of respirator, at a minimum you have to fit test annually.

and you will get a card that says on it when you're done testing that you tested with this brand, this make model and size and that you have passed. And you will keep that wherever you keep your records. And if you were to have a PDA inspector or someone ask you for your records and they see that you use a respirator, they're gonna ask you for your...

your fit test card and your medical evaluation and your training, which is the third part that we also offer. So where can you get this done with us? I have a website, or well, I shouldn't say a website. It's through Penn State Extension, but it's an article where I list the upcoming events.

Justin Brackenrich (31:21)
If you send it to Ryan and I, can get that in the show notes.

Shane WIlliams (31:24)
Yeah, yeah, I just sent it to you. So it's a Penn State extension article and I made it so if you're just out there Googling, trying to find information, if you put some combination of Penn State upcoming respirator, something like that, it's gonna pop up. It's gonna start by explaining the process. It's gonna tell you, know, who needs to do this, the parts that you need to do, which are the evaluation, the fit test, the training, keeping records of that.

And then at the bottom, it's gonna give you a list of upcoming opportunities that we offer. So for example, we have the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention happening in Hershey. That's our first one for 2026 that we have available. So that's January 27th and 28th. That one typically you have to be signed up for that event to be able to fit test.

But then we do offer where if we're in the area and you're not attending the event, you are welcome to come because we want to be able to accommodate as many people as we can. So there's a whole list here. Unless you want me to, I won't read through them all. we try to get around the state because we do offer this ⁓ statewide.

So, you know, for example, we're up in Erie, we're down in Wexford near Pittsburgh, we're in Adams County out east and Berks. So we try to kind of pepper it all over the place so we can try to accommodate as many people and limit your drive time. Yeah, definitely.

Ryan Spelman (32:56)
Sorry, I was just going to say that the list on online is really helpful, right? To be able to go on there and see, OK, what's the most convenient place that I can go? And I just wanted for our audience, particularly to plug the the crops conference in Lebanon on February 3rd, because if you need your pesticide credits or CCA credits, specifically agronomic credits, you can get those there and you can also get a respiratory respirator fit test. And when you go and

you ⁓ do the registration for that online, I believe there's an option for them to select a time to get that done there.

Shane WIlliams (33:33)
You are right. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes, we will be at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center on February 3rd for that crops conference. And if you are signing up online when you do registration, it is an option. So yeah, please take advantage of that if that's something you need. So.

Justin Brackenrich (33:51)
Well, Shane, we appreciate you joining us. We've talked about who needs the respirator fit test. We talked about what the fit test is. We've talked about where you get them. I actually learned a lot today, too, not actually, and I'm surprised by that. the one thing that kind of interested me the most that you said is this is an annual thing, and it's suited to one respirator. So if you are using multiples, if you've got, and I think about this maybe in like

terms of orchard folks, like if you've got one at this farm and one at this farm and one at another one and you're moving around, you need to be tested with all of those different products and it needs to be done annually. So I think that's a really good thing to bring up and we appreciate your knowledge on this topic. So anything else before we wrap up?

Shane WIlliams (34:36)
Just wanted to throw out there the third part. The training is also required annually, and that's for how to properly use and wear and care for your respirator. And I provide a 30-minute presentation at all of these fit testing events. It's actually worth one core credit. So if you need a pesticide credit, that's helpful. But it also satisfies the Work Protection Standard ⁓ respirator compliance.

So they say that you need annual training. And then also kind of as a disclaimer, at a minimum, these are annual requirements. If you were to change sizes, if you were to have like, you know, in a car accident and have facial scarring or get dentures, something that's gonna change the shape of your face, or you're going to change, you know, what you're doing.

that's gonna drastically change your kind of your health or your...

size of the respirator, something like that, then you do need to retest. But if you've done nothing differently, it's still an annual requirement. And that's kind of the hardest thing is getting it out there for everyone. What's that?

Justin Brackenrich (35:44)
What if I go to too many holiday parties between now and the first of the year? Do I need to go in and get a respirator fit test?

Shane WIlliams (35:49)
It's all relative, We say if you gain substantial weight or lose substantial weight, I don't have a number, but I guess if your face changes enough, you're supposed to, you know, required a...

Justin Brackenrich (36:00)
trying

to lay off the ham this week.

Shane WIlliams (36:02)
Right?

Ryan Spelman (36:02)
All right, well, thank you, Shane, for coming on today. We really appreciate it. This is a really valuable resource, and hopefully our listeners take advantage of it. So thanks again, Shane. Yeah, we appreciate it.

Shane WIlliams (36:14)
Yeah, thank you. You can always reach out to my email, go to this web article, and I do update that pretty frequently. There'll be some more added to this. I'm kind of conservative on what I put on here, because I don't want to put something up and then have to take it down if something changes. these are the ones that are set. I have some in the works, and they'll get added to this as I confirm those. So thanks for having me.

Ryan Spelman (36:34)
Thank you.

Ryan Spelman (36:36)
All right, well, last but not least on our kind of client resources episode we have on Ginger Fenton. Ginger is again, another educator with Penn State Extension. She's a dairy educator and she's out on the western part of the state around where Justin is. And she also

does a lot and kind of oversees some of the farm stress programming that we do at Extension. So Ginger, I'm going to let you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about that programming.

Ginger Fenton (37:06)
Sure. Thank you very much for inviting me today. As you mentioned, I am a dairy team member on the West Coast of Pennsylvania in Mercer County. And part of my work on the dairy team, I'm interested in anything related to diseases and ag safety and health. And that has what led me to have an interest in farm stress that, and I tell people, you know, we seem to get more questions from dairy producers when things are either really good or really bad.

And unfortunately, when milk prices have been low, we were getting more and more calls from dairy farmers. So that led me to take an interest in farm stress and to see what resources Penn State Extension could provide. I've been working in this area now probably since 2017. I am the co-leader of the farm stress team at Penn State, which I'm very

proud to be involved with that team. think I'll say it that way because there are some people that really care and are very interested and dedicated to what they do. That team works across units. So Ryan, you're a member of that team. have agronomy and natural resource educators on the team. We have animal systems educators and several from the food families and communities unit who have

more programming expertise in family well-being and providing mental health resources. So I think it's a nice collaboration and a partnership. And then just the other thing I'd like to throw in in my intro that you both know this, but I also farm at home. So I can see some of these things from a farmer perspective too.

Ryan Spelman (38:41)
Yeah, so and I can speak to it being on the team. It really is kind of a cool thing to be able to bridge the gap between, I mean, there's folks that focus in on mental health, family well-being, financial health, and it really is, it's a practice in bridging some of these areas and being creative about how we can share ideas and get them to the right people.

So maybe Ginger, to that perspective, maybe you can talk about what maybe some of the focuses of the current program we have going on and maybe highlight a few of the ongoing efforts on the team right now.

Ginger Fenton (39:20)
Sure. Some of the things that we have been offering include programs for both farmers and for ag professionals. Ones that we've been doing specifically focused on farmers. It's a program called Mending the Stress Fence. It's a short half hour program. We're offering it online. We're glad to do it in person for groups as well. And it covers the different aspects of wellness. It talks a little bit about active listening.

and asking questions, which I think is a great skill for anybody. Regardless, it'll help get you further in life if you're a good listener. So that's one of them for farmers. We're piloting a program called Ambiguous Loss. It's something that I'd heard about for years, but never quite knew what the term was and what it meant. And ambiguous loss basically is when you can't quite

identify what that feeling is, where that loss is coming from. So I think maybe the best way for me to explain it, and I work with dairy, so I go back to a cow example, but if a farmer sells all his cattle. And you look at that empty barn day after day, just kind of that feeling in the pit of your stomach that things aren't the same. And that's what ambiguous loss encompasses. And one of the things we talk about is maybe working on changing your

identity to encompass other aspects of agriculture beyond dairy farming. So we've been working more with that on our team. Another program that we're working on is a QPR, which stands for question, persuade, refer, specifically for farmers. Penn State's been updating this. I'm hopeful that in the next few months, this program will be released. We've been working with our Ag Safety and Health Specialist, Dr. Florence Bicotte.

to revise this. It's an hour and a half program and it will be offered online. It's also one that we'll be able to do in person once we get it through all the steps that we need to be able to launch that program. But as I mentioned, it's specifically a suicide prevention program. So it's just kind of like a first aid skill to have in your back pocket that you hope you don't need it, but you have that information should you need it.

One of the other things I would like to mention, it's not really an ongoing program, but I don't want to forget about it, is a resource that I would encourage all farmers, anybody to put in their phone, 988- put it in there as a contact. It's the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You may not need to call it for yourself, but again, you never know when you'll need it and what situation you're in. And I encourage

people to put it in their phones because you can call on behalf of someone else. If you go to visit a friend that you're concerned about and you feel you need to make that call, you can do it and they will walk you through it. We don't have to be the experts. There are experts that we could call on that can help us through that.

Justin Brackenrich (42:12)
So Ginger, you've gone through a lot of these programs. Ryan and I are both taking notes in the opportunities and the things that are here. So the question I have, and this may be a challenging one, is how do you get people to be interested in them? And I say that not negatively, but they should be, but they probably aren't. And there's all the stigmas of mental health and being involved and what that looks like.

How do you talk to your neighbor if you're wearing your farming hat? Or how do you go to one of these meetings and convince these folks like, hey, come over here to the first aid mental health table and let's talk about what we've got for you without them having this concern.

Ginger Fenton (42:50)
That's a great question, Justin, and I think that's one that I have thought about many times.

And I go back to, guess, IV farming, we're a community. Farmers in crisis tend to respond first, I think, and help other farmers. And so it is a matter of maybe preparing yourself. You don't know what you're going to walk into. As I said, if you, might just ask a friend, you're like, Hey Bill, how are you doing? And wow, you didn't, didn't realize all the things that were going on.

in his life and the way he answers you. So I think it's good for us, you know, just as members of the Ag community to kind of plan ahead and know if somebody, you ask them how they're doing and they tell you honestly that you have some things in mind, ways that you might be able to help them.

Justin Brackenrich (43:42)
I tell people a lot working in this job that there's like the the agronomic or in your case the dairy part and there's the numbers but there's also like a lot of the farm visits I go one you can kind of feel or maybe they just want someone to talk to sometimes right it's it's I asked my wife when we have conversations and she's talking about things is this one that you want an answer to or do you just want to talk about it right so that

That keeps things a little more balanced at the house so I'm not fixing every problem that comes up. But I think that's something else to consider when we're out there. Is this something that they want an answer to, or is this something that they just want to talk about?

Ginger Fenton (44:24)
Yeah, that's a great point, Justin. I think you can get away with that at home, but I'd be careful about how using that one in the field as much. That said, I am very well aware when I do certain farm visits that it may be more about the conversation and just having somebody to brainstorm with. Another perspective coming up with ideas. There are a lot of tools that we can use that

may help us manage stress that maybe we don't rely on as much. I'm a huge advocate for risk management programs and planning ahead. I think we've talked about that a little bit in the past. But knowing about those types of things, I think, can be very useful.

Ryan Spelman (45:04)
So maybe we can, so to continue this conversation of how do we access these resources or get some interest in these resources, if I'm a farmer that is interested in these resources, what's my best way to find them, right? So if I wanna say like, okay, like what does the farm stress team have to offer me because I'm going through this challenge or that, like how do I find you guys and how do I find the resources that you have given access to?

Ginger Fenton (45:32)
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for asking that. That made me think of something too. I just want to share, back to your second question. One of the things that we have seen with farmers on surveys, what we did one in Pennsylvania and 90 % of them felt that, know, farm stress and mental health was important. So I think people understand the importance of it. We do talk about it and hear about it a lot. That said, there are resources on the Penn State Extension website.

You can go to extension.psu.edu. You can call your county extension office and they will help put you in touch with one of the farm stress team members. And we can help you provide or find resources for your area. There were a couple of things I wanted to mention that I think are very useful tools. One was just recently launched. So I mentioned the 988 helpline.

put that in your phone. There's also another helpline available in Pennsylvania called the AgriStress helpline. That number is 833-897-2474. But what I mentioned that was recently launched, AgriStress has a mental health provider professional directory online. And I actually went in and checked it out here before our conversation. You can type in your area, your zip code, or if you're looking for a specific

aspect they say you're dealing with a farmer who's battling alcoholism and they can help you provide or find providers in your area through that directory. So that's certainly something you can look at again. You Google through the AgriStress helpline. It's at, not Google, the website is directory.agrisafe.org.

And then the other.

Justin Brackenrich (47:13)
Ginger will work with you to get some of these links So if you will share them with us then we can get those in the show notes and so, you know If you're listening along or you're in your vehicle or something don't feel like you've got to get all this stuff written down or come back if you just go down to the show notes we can we can get you connected to these things

Ginger Fenton (47:29)
or things.

Ryan Spelman (47:30)
To that point, I actually, you guys put out a great article last April called Navigating Farm Stress Resources, and that has about 20 different links, that included in there is the agri-stress helpline, the suicide crisis lifeline, a bunch of these. So I'll make sure that article gets embedded so that instead of putting a bunch of links, people can go to that.

Ginger Fenton (47:54)
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I want to circle back. We're talking about suicide prevention lines and those resources, but one of the other things that you can go to Extension for to talk about is planning, farm management, and some of the more preventive type practices. We're here to help with that too, and maybe we can help alleviate and provide tools before the stress gets overwhelming.

So extensions, we're great at connecting people with resources. And we're here to do what we can. We work across all different areas. So please reach out.

Ryan Spelman (48:32)
Sure, yeah, I mean just before this conversation we were, you know, in the green room per se, we were talking about economic stress and like how just as simple as like me or Justin can and even Ginger on the milking side, like we can go through an enterprise budget and work with you on that. That's a huge stress of part of stress, right, is economic situations. like things like that, extension, that's what we're here for.

Particularly to this farm stress programming, as we go into the winter season, is there anything on your radar as of events that folks will be having a booth or table at that people can come talk to someone in person?

Ginger Fenton (49:08)
Absolutely. Yes, are, the Farm Stress Team is going to be at various events. We work closely with your crops and agronomy team. And so there are crop stays that will be throughout the state. I know in a few of them, we actually have a few minutes where you'll hear from one of the Farm Stress Team members, or if not, look them up. They're probably going to be out of booth and have some information, have a side conversation with them. We're here for that.

You know, don't hesitate to approach those folks.

That's one of them. Another one, I believe that Chai Catalone, one of our coworkers, is also on the agenda at the PA No-Tell Conference that's going to be in Eastern Pennsylvania. And so I appreciate that invitation, the connection, and just the awareness that farm stress isn't just focused on livestock production. I think for so many years, in my case, it focused on dairy, and we're really realizing that it goes beyond dairy. We want to reach across teams.

So we are also working with the horticulture team and trying to get resources out to our orchards and to our produce growers and our green industry and other folks too.

Ryan Spelman (50:20)
Awesome. Well, so keep an eye out if you're going to these crops days. I know for one I'll have one at my crops days. We sent a list out. hopefully you'll start to see these folks just had all kinds of different Penn State extension events. Justin, do you have anything else to ask or Ginger anything to add before we close out here?

Justin Brackenrich (50:38)
I

think this has been an excellent episode and an excellent group of conversations, right? And so often we kind of get in this production mode or what are we going to do? we, as we would call it, self-care, right? We got to think about ourselves and how we can make this job easier. Extension, like Ginger said, connects a lot of people, but there are a tremendous amount of resources out there. People often, I knew where I'm at, it's usually

⁓ you're with 4-H or Master Gardeners, right? That's the assumption that most of Extension does kind of in the West. But if you've got something on your mind, regardless of any of these things we've talked about, reach out to Extension Office. Like, I'd almost guarantee you there's someone that can help you as a resource. And if that person doesn't know, they can find someone because they're just kind of boundless opportunities and things to connect you with folks here.

Ryan Spelman (51:27)
Yeah, I think what a great episode just covering that the spectrum of the things that can be stressful or resources to help you help yourself on the farm, right? Starting with if you have a disability with agribility, getting to be able to do the things that you've always been able to do and can continue to do then protecting yourself from chronic exposure to pesticides with respirator fits and then finishing it off with.

you know, protecting your mental health and getting access to stress resources. So I think it's been a really well-rounded episode. And Ginger, we appreciate you coming on today. So thank you. And to our listeners, thank you for listening to this episode and we'll see you on the next episode of the Agronomy Highlights podcast.