Tim Sturgeon walks between two rows of cows lined up in his milking parlor. He limps a bit.

His left knee, torn apart when an injured cow slipped and fell onto it, has been replaced. The other is so bowed that the difference between the legs is noticeable even when he's in loose jeans.

At 61, Mr. Sturgeon has spent more time on his feet than many men would spend in two lifetimes. He is up before 5 a.m., bringing the cows in to milk. He is done for the day sometime after 10 p.m.

In between, he and his sons are milking, mowing and haying; loading the feed into silos; moving feed to the barns; and cleaning up after their 125 dairy cows and their calves. They spend days and nights tending to the cows, as dairymen and midwives.

Mr. Sturgeon can still do the milking because the cows come in onto raised platforms, placidly lining up to take their places along the milking machines. He and his sons can set up the machines without bending over and can clean the udders the same way.

"In the old barn, you had to get down on your knees," he said. "That's the start of every farmer's bad knees, getting down to milk."

Both the lives of Mr. Sturgeon and one of his sons changed for the better a few years ago after the county extension agent told them about the AgrAbility Project. The federal program offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is meant to help agricultural workers -- from livestock farms to crop farmers -- after injuries or when their bodies start to give out.

Like his father, Blane Sturgeon, 27, also needs help on the farm in Perry, Lawrence County, his great-great-great-grandparents bought in 1876.

Blane Sturgeon, the sixth generation of the family to work the farm, was nearly killed when he was crushed between the bucket and the cab of a skid loader on Dec. 18, 2000. He was 18 years old.

The accident collapsed his lungs, caused his heart to pump blood backward into his head and left him with nerve damage in his arms and hands. He doesn't have the strength in his arms or the trouble-free back one might expect of a young man.

"The accident aged me," he said. He was told by doctors that when he is 30, he will feel as though he were 45.

In the Sturgeons' cases, changes needed to help them keep farming were as simple as modifying a tractor so they can climb into its seat more easily.

The alteration to the Sturgeons' tractor lowers the first step from about 2 feet from the ground to closer to 20 inches and adds a stair up to the seat. The handrail gives the men more security to pull themselves into the seat.

The change, which the Sturgeons estimated would cost $450 to add to their newest tractor, means they can climb on and off without the strain of the smaller, steeper, factory-installed tractor steps.

It's a simple change. But Linda Fetzer, project assistant and outreach coordinator for the Agr-Ability Project, said it can be hard for a farmer with a bad leg to get safe footing on standard tractor steps.

"It can make a big difference if they are getting on and off multiple times a day," she said.

Agricultural work, when forestry, fishing and hunting are included, had more work-related deaths as a percentage of the work force than any other industry in 2007, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bureau also shows animal production, which includes farms and slaughterhouses, to be among the top 10 industries for worker injuries. That number, however, does not factor in any farm with fewer than 11 workers, which includes most family farms.

The goal of the AgrAbility Project is to arrange for resources for those farmers so they can continue to work despite injuries or illnesses.

Last year, 45 percent of the clients served by Pennsylvania's AgrAbility Project were suffering from a chronic health condition, such as arthritis, Ms. Fetzer said.

Forty percent of the clients had farm-related injuries or health conditions, such as back injuries, amputations or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is exacerbated by the dust in silos.

Fifteen percent of farmers who received services last year had suffered non-farm-related injuries from recreational activities or vehicle accidents.

Ms. Fetzer said that when she first meets with farmers, they are reluctant to accept help from AgrAbility's team.

"The farm families are so independent," she said.

When the team from AgrAbility came to meet with the Sturgeons and told them the state's Office of Occupational and Vocational Rehabilitation would pay for improvements to help them work, Tim Sturgeon said he did not believe it would happen.

"Usually, when something is too good to be true, it is," he said.

"We felt so awkward taking," Blane Sturgeon said. "We're so used to working hard for everything we do have."

For Blane Sturgeon, the Office of Occupational and Vocational Rehabilitation paid for a series of conveyors to move feed.

Each day he moves 700 pounds of haylage, 900 pounds of corn and 750 pounds of protein for the cows and calves. Before the conveyers and feed bin were installed, he did it all with a 12-inch shovel.

AgrAbility also arranged for suspension seats to be installed on two tractors and a hitch on a tractor and trailers to allow hitching and unhitching without Blane having to climb on and off.

The program also funded a mini-utility vehicle -- similar to a Honda Civic-sized dump truck -- so that Tim Sturgeon can get into the fields and gather the cows in the morning without walking over the uneven ground.

AgrAbility does not provide the money for the accommodations. The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation pays for those through the Independence Capital Access Network program, a joint effort of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

In 2006, the most recent numbers available, the capital access program spent $214,000 on accessibility modifications for 12 small businesses.

The program does not work just with agriculture. It also is designed for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Justin Fleming, a spokesman for the state labor department, said there are no separate statistics kept for those businesses.

Ms. Fetzer said each farm and every farmer has to be looked at individually.

"I ask them, what do you do during the day that your body hates you for the most at night."

Once she meets with the farmers, she sends out an occupational therapist such as Angela Hissong, who assesses needs by watching how the farmers work and what they would need to work more easily.

Mrs. Hissong said some accommodations she has been able to get into place for farmers included a trailer to help a hoof trimmer handle cows and an industrial milk shake mixer for a woman who was having trouble mixing formula for calves.

Other changes have made greenhouses accessible to wheelchairs.

Blane Sturgeon said that when he went to a farm equipment show, he saw a tractor that had been equipped with hand controls and a lift so that it could be used by someone who has lost the use of his legs.

When the Sturgeons met with the AgrAbility team, "they kept coming up with ideas," Blane Sturgeon said. "They were just great to work with."

Tim Sturgeon said it took about a year to get all of the accommodations in place.

Back in 1966, when he bought the farm from his father, it was one of 20 dairy farms in Perry. Now it's the only dairy farm left.

"We're the best dairy farm in Perry Township," Tim Sturgeon said. Then he paused and added, "and the worst."

They are squeezed by milk prices that have dropped to less than half of what they were last year and down to the same price as 1978. That's why Mr. Sturgeon and his three sons, Thad, Wade and Blane, cannot afford to hire help or buy anything that is not essential to the operation of the farm.

"I'm not saying we would have gone out of business without AgrAbility," Tim Sturgeon said. But when he goes to bed at night, Mr. Sturgeon, the patriarch of the last dairy family in Perry, is in a lot less pain than he used to be.