THIS year’s theme for Farm Safety Week (July 15 – 20) is ‘Farm Safety – A Core Value’ and seeks to focus on the practical issues that farmers can take to improve safety for themselves, their workers and family members.
“Farm safety is something that we often take for granted, of course no one wants to be injured or see others injured”, Farmsafe Australia chairman Charles Armstrong said.
“As an industry we have been improving our safety record, with reductions in the number of farm injury deaths approaching 65 per cent over the past two decades. However, we still need to do more.”
“Having safety as a major aspect of our business will not only reduce risks to those that work and live on our farms, it will also improve our bottom line. Even non‐fatal injuries can have major cost implications on things such as delays in harvest, damage to equipment and downtime needed to recover from such injuries,” he said.
“We want farming to be both profitable and safe, and we can do both if safety is promoted as a core value for your business.
“At the end of the day, it’s about making sure that everyone involved in the farm gets home safe and sound at the end of each working day. That’s a good thing not just for our families but also our business and communities.”
Further information on Farm Safety Week can be found at: www.farmsafe.org.au or by contacting the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety (02) 6752 8210 or your state Farmsafe group.
Practical steps that farmers can take to have safety as a core value include:
* Having a safety plan in place that identifies potential hazards and taking specific actions to fix these.
* Always be on the look‐out for new hazards and fix these as soon as possible once identified
* Setting clear safety procedures for risky work
* Making sure everyone that works on the farm understands and uses the safety procedures you have for your farm
* Having an emergency plan in place in case there are any incidentsKey facts ‐ deaths on farms (1 Jan – 30 June)
* Total number of deaths = 28
* Quad bikes = 6
* Tractors = 5
* Other mobile farm machinery = 3
* Children = 4
