SYRACUSE - Last fall, Dan Kaiser was using his old tractor to pull a wagon of silage on his upstate New York farm. Kaiser was chugging up a hill when the rig suddenly began jackknifing and sliding backward down the slope.

“I would have been thrown off except for the seat belt. It was something brand new, so I was using it,” said the 59-year-old Kaiser, who raises 25 beef cattle in Newfield, about 70 miles southwest of Syracuse.

Just three weeks earlier, Kaiser had retrofitted the tractor with a roll bar and seat belt. He used a $300 rebate from a one-of-a-kind state-funded program to help cover the cost.

“I can't say that it saved my life, but it sure kept me from getting banged up,” said Kaiser, who has since convinced a neighbor to take advantage of the rebate program.

Deaths and serious injuries from tractor rollovers account for anywhere from a third to half of all farm-related accidents. Since 1987, manufacturers have been required to equip new tractors with a host of safety devices, including roll bars and seat belts.

But there are thousands and thousands of pre-1987 tractors that carry on extended lives doing the less-heavy duty chores around the farm, transporting tools, moving trash or hauling feed.

Less than 400 New York farmers - barely more than 1 percent of the 34,200 in New York - took part in the first year of the rollover rebate program, but that was a promising start, said John May, director of the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health in Cooperstown, which administers the program.

“We have a long way to go ... But as we progress with this for a couple of years, the mind-set and level of attention to this as an issue is gradually increasing in the farming community,” said May.

There are several hundred rebate applications still pending, May said. And he said he was encouraged that nearly 1,300 farmers have called the program's hot line.

This year, the program has increased the maximum rebate from $600 to $703 - mostly in response to the rising costs of materials, but also as incentive to attract more participants, May said.

“We are hoping that as farmers see others using the program, they will decide to take part, too. We want it recognized that this is what a good farmer does. You don't put people on tractors that aren't safe,” he said.

The New York program - the most ambitious of its kind in the country - was slowed by its own success, producing a run on rollover protection kits, May said. Some farmers had to wait more than six weeks for backordered kits to arrive at stores, he said.

“We have been literally telling farmers for decades that they really need to do this. So last year, there was suddenly more interest and stores didn't have the inventory available,” he said.

With the program paying up to 70 percent of the cost, the average rebate last year was about $520, May said.

The New York Senate agreed to spend $200,000 on the program in each of its first two years.

Agriculture remains one of the country's most dangerous professions, with an annual average of nearly 30 deaths per 100,000 workers, according to federal statistics.

Last year, there were 24 farm-related deaths in New York, including 8 involving tractor rollovers, May said. Because there is no centralized reporting, May said officials can only estimate the number of injuries.

While the program makes good sense, it may not be practical for all farmers, said Ralph Gaiss, senior vice president of the Northeast Equipment Dealers Association.

There are only four or five companies that manufacture the roll bar kits for pre-1987 tractors, Gaiss said. And, for some of the older models from the 1950s and 1960s, kits are not available and installing a roll bar becomes a custom job requiring special modifications.

“If it's installed by a dealer and needs modification, the cost can go up to $3,000. A custom-made roll bar might go for $1,500-$1,600. Some of these tractors - which a farmer might be using 30, 40 hours maybe a year - may not even be worth half the cost of the roll bar,” Gaiss said.

“Sometimes it just doesn't make a lot of sense ... particularly if a farmer owns a flat piece of land. The chances of turning that thing over are very, very minimal,” he said.

To learn more:

Hotline: 877-ROPS-R4U.

On the Net: New York Center for Agricultural Medicine & Health: http://www.nycamh.com