Farms

FARMINGTON — The owners of two certified Utah Century Farms in Davis County are applying to a conservation board to be placed in an agricultural protection zone.

It is the first time in six years such a request has been made in Davis County.

WESTMORELAND, N.H. -- Olivia and Victoria Briggs help on their family's New Hampshire dairy farm a few days a week during the school year and more in the summer. The sisters, 12 and 8 years old, milk cows, help repair fences and sometimes ride in tractors.

"It's like a fair," said Olivia, a sixth-grader. "Except every one of (the animals) is yours."

But if parents Dana and Tiffany Briggs eventually incorporate Bo-Riggs Cattle Co. to protect the farm from liability, as countless other farming families have done, proposed U.S. Department of Labor regulations might prevent the girls from continuing much of their work here and on their grandparents' farm. It's work others have done for generations.

Farming is a dangerous way to make a living.

Livestock can be unpredictable and injure caregivers; farmers use heavy machinery that can tip and crush them; silos that store grain can become death traps that suffocate workers.

Each year, according to the National Child Labor Coalition, 30 children are killed working on farms. Twelve of those are hired help.

The Washington, D.C.-based coalition of unions, child-welfare organizations and human rights groups noted in testimony presented to support tighter regulations, "In 2006, an estimated 5,800 children and adolescents were injured while performing farm work. Every summer young farm workers are run over or lose limbs to tractors and machinery. Heat stress and pesticides pose grave dangers."

BRIGHAM CITY -- The Brigham City Fire Department is investigating the cause of a late Thursday night fire that destroyed a 50x50-foot hay barn, along with the approximately $125,000 in hay stored inside.