The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a farm death in Hartford on Friday. It tells us deputies were sent to Red Arrow Dairy on County Road 362 around 6:30 a.m. when a 35-year-old male worker was found unresponsive. Emergency life saving procedures were conducted by employees of the dairy and first responders, and the man was taken to Watervliet Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Deputies learned the worker, who was from Middleville, was subcontracted for a company out of Grand Rapids and was on site to conduct testing. He was found buried in corn silage, which is fermented high moisture food fed to the cattle. Police believe the victim was near the roughly 30 foot-high corn silage when some of it broke away and fell on to him. Officials from the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration were contacted and are investigating. The victim’s name has not been released.
