Sixty-seven-year-old Lorne Ella was bringing in a load of corn on his Hornby farm on Nov. 25 when he decided to climb to the top of a gravity box to put a tarp on a load of corn. Ella then fell 12 feet, hitting his back on the steel draw bar on the wagon before he landed on the ground, crushing his pelvis and breaking his tailbone and three vertebrae.
Lorne had recently been selected as the 2013 Jersey Canada Master Breeder (Read more: Master Breeder and Constructive Breeder Winners Announced) and still plans to accept his Master Breeder award in person in March despite the fact he has not been able to walk since an accident left him hospitalized.
An ambulance wasn’t able to get to Ella in the middle of the corn field, so a fire truck was called in. Ella refused to be air-lifted by helicopter to the hospital.
“I was rolling around in the corn stalks in sheer agony,” said Ella of Rock Ella Farms Ltd. “My tailbone is not very pretty in the X-rays.”
After two months in various hospitals and rehab centres, Ella was able to stand, and last week was told he can start attempting to walk with his left leg, using a walker.
“I have a great fear of taking a step right now,” said Ella, who is confident he’ll be able to accept his Master Breeder award at the Jersey Canada Annual General Meeting from March 20 to 22 in Winnipeg. “I’ve already booked my room at the end of March to accept the award. I have a power wheelchair now. I’ll get there one way or another.”
Ella dispersed his herd in 1999, but still owns six milking cows with different partners. He figures those cows and his old herd accumulated enough points for the Master Breeder shield.
The third-generation Jersey farmer credits much of his success to Duncan Belle, a cow he purchased in 1989. Ella said the cow’s ability to transmit genes was unparalleled.
“It didn’t matter what mate, her sons were just unreal,” he said. “She never had a bad one. She changed the Jersey herd.”
Ella’s passion was to exhibit at shows, and won a dozen breeder exhibitor awards over the years. A number of years ago, he owned the only Canadian Jersey herd to be named premier breeder at the North American dairy show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Ella, who sold his farm a year ago, said the injury won’t prevent him from helping out on farms this summer. “I’ll keep farming until the day I die,” he said.
Source: Farmers Forum
