Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing · Minnesota
Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault
Faribault, MN · ~69 workers · 5 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.
- F
- Failing Safety Record
- 7.2
- Avg TCR
- 3.3
- Industry avg
- 0
- Fatalities
The verdict
Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault runs at 217% of its industry's injury rate - far more dangerous than the typical Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing workplace, earning a grade F.
- F
- Failing Safety Record
- 7.2
- avg TCR · per 100 workers
- 3.3
- industry benchmark (BLS)
- 22
- recordable injuries tracked
Grade compares Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's OSHA Total Case Rate to the BLS industry benchmark across 5 years of Form 300A filings (2016–2024). This reflects reported recordable injuries, not an independent safety inspection -- underreporting is a known limitation of employer self-recordkeeping.
Injury rate over time
Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 3.3 industry benchmark.
Where Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault falls in its industry
386 Cheese (except cottage cheese) establishmentsSafer than 30% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 4.8.
Narrower to Minnesota alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #17 safest of 25 Cheese (except cottage cheese) employers in Minnesota.
Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault has an average TCR of 7.2, which is 217% of the industry average (3.3) for Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing. This is significantly worse than average.
The letter grade is a transparent derived index PlainSafetyScore computes from public OSHA ITA and BLS benchmark data, not an official OSHA rating or safety certification. Full formula and thresholds: Methodology.
Trend analysis for Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault
Between 2020 and 2024, Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's Total Case Rate improved from 7.5 to 4.6 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 38% decrease across 4 years of OSHA reporting.
The safest year on record was 2023, at a TCR of 3.1, while 2021 saw the highest rate, at 11.9, a spread of 8.7 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 5 reporting years, Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault recorded 22 total injuries and illnesses, with no fatalities reported in any of those years. Readers comparing establishments should weigh the 5-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
All injury, illness, and fatality figures on this page are sourced from Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's own 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 311513 - Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing.
DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2024)
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.
2 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 129,541 hours worked = 3.09 DART
Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping
Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State
| Benchmark | TCR | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault (this establishment) | 7.16 | OSHA ITA Form 300A, 5-year avg |
| Processed cheeses manufacturing industry avg | 3.30 | BLS IIF, NAICS 311513 |
| Minnesota state avg (all industries) | 5.18 | 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 Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault 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.
- 2024: 3 reportable incidents · 3 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2023: 2 reportable incidents · 2 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2022: 6 reportable incidents · 5 injuries, 1 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2021: 7 reportable incidents · 7 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2020: 5 reportable incidents · 5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4.6 | 3.1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 8.7 | 5.8 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 11.9 | 11.9 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 7.5 | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
What this grade means for you
Use this grade as a relative read on Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's reported OSHA injury record versus its Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.
- At 217% of the Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing benchmark, Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
- Judge this record against the wider Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing 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 Prairie Farms Dairy - Faribault's safety grade?
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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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.