Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production · California
Bowles Farming Company
Los Banos, CA · ~57 workers · 4 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.
- F
- Failing Safety Record
- 9.6
- Avg TCR
- 4.5
- Industry avg
- 0
- Fatalities
The verdict
Bowles Farming Company runs at 213% of its industry's injury rate - far more dangerous than the typical Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production workplace, earning a grade F.
- F
- Failing Safety Record
- 9.6
- avg TCR · per 100 workers
- 4.5
- industry benchmark (BLS)
- 29
- recordable injuries tracked
Grade compares Bowles Farming Company's OSHA Total Case Rate of 9.6 to the Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production BLS benchmark of 4.5 (213% of benchmark) across 4 years of Form 300A filings (2016–2024). <a href="/methodology">See methodology</a> for reporting-limitation caveats.
Injury rate over time
Bowles Farming Company's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 4.5 industry benchmark.
Where Bowles Farming Company falls in its industry
352 Melon farming (e.g., cantaloup establishmentsSafer than 13% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 5.4.
Narrower to California alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #157 safest of 178 Melon farming (e.g., cantaloup employers in California.
Trend analysis for Bowles Farming Company
Between 2017 and 2023, Bowles Farming Company's Total Case Rate worsened from 7.9 to 8.8 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 11% increase across 6 years of OSHA reporting.
The safest year on record was 2017, at a TCR of 7.9, while 2022 saw the highest rate, at 13.6, a spread of 5.7 points between the best and worst reporting years. That's a wide swing relative to the establishment's overall rate, worth checking the year-by-year table below for whether a single severe year is driving the average, rather than a sustained trend.
Summed across those 4 reporting years, Bowles Farming Company recorded 29 total injuries and illnesses, with no fatalities reported in any of those years. Readers comparing establishments should weigh the 4-year trend above alongside establishment size, since a larger workforce naturally accumulates more raw incidents even at a lower per-100-worker rate.
Verify This Employer with OSHA
The 29 injuries shown on this page for Bowles Farming Company are sourced from its own 4 years of mandatory OSHA Form 300A summaries. Cross-check the underlying establishment record directly against the federal source, name, NAICS classification, recordable case totals, and inspection history are all searchable on OSHA's Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data system.
Verify on OSHA Establishment SearchSource: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data. NAICS 111219 - Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production.
DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2023)
What is the DART rate formula?
DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) is computed by OSHA as incidents × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. The 200,000-hour denominator equals roughly 100 full-time workers, which lets establishments of very different sizes be compared directly.
3 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 136,446 hours worked = 4.40 DART
Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping
Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State
| Benchmark | TCR | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bowles Farming Company (this establishment) | 9.58 | OSHA ITA Form 300A, 4-year avg |
| Broccoli farming, field, bedding plant and seed production industry avg | 4.50 | BLS IIF, NAICS 111219 |
| California state avg (all industries) | 5.64 | OSHA ITA, state-level rollup |
Industry benchmarks: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) program
Reportable Incident Timeline
Year-by-year reportable incidents (recordable injuries + illnesses + fatalities) submitted by Bowles Farming Company to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application. Each row anchors to OSHA's inspection records search where you can pull the underlying inspection case numbers and citations for that establishment-year.
- 2023: 6 reportable incidents · 6 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2022: 10 reportable incidents · 10 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2018: 7 reportable incidents · 7 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2017: 6 reportable incidents · 6 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
Source: OSHA Inspection Information System (IMIS) - inspection case-number records
Year-by-Year Safety Data
| Year | TCR | DART | Injuries | Illnesses | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 8.8 | 4.4 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 13.6 | 13.6 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
What this grade means for you
Use this grade as a relative read on Bowles Farming Company's reported OSHA injury record versus its Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.
- At 213% of the Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production benchmark, Bowles Farming Company reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
- Judge this record against the wider Melon farming (e.g., cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, watermelon), field, bedding plant and seed production sector, where injury rates vary widely, before comparing it in isolation. See the industry
- Grades reflect 2016–2024 filings; check the latest establishment record straight from OSHA, or look up a different employer. Look up another
Safety grades reflect employers' self-reported OSHA Form 300A filings from 2016 to 2024 and can lag current conditions. A grade is not a guarantee that any specific workplace is safe or unsafe today. See our methodology and disclaimer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Bowles Farming Company's safety grade?
How many injuries has Bowles Farming Company reported?
Similar Employers
Matched by safety record across the industry, by workforce size within California, and by nearby establishments in Los Banos - a different peer set than the category browse links below.
Similar TCR (~9.6)
Similar size (~57 workers)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure and grade on PlainSafetyScore is computed directly from OSHA's published Injury Tracking Application data and BLS industry benchmarks, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these safety grades, or report a data error. Data current as of 2016-2024 OSHA ITA release.