Farm Safety Week – 20th to 24th July 2009

Farmers and farming families are continuing to be injured and killed on Western Australian farms. Farm Safety Week is an opportune time for farmers to consider making adjustments to their farming practices to ensure everyone, including visitors and children, remain safe on farms and stations.

Last year’s WA Farm Safety Award Winner, Rod Birch, has taken steps towards improving the safety on his farm.

Rod, who with wife Shelley crops wheat, canola and lupins at their property Catalina Farms, 30km south-east of Coorow, was presented last year with the CSBP sponsored award. Mr Birch said he had always considered risk mitigation a very important part of his farming enterprise and farm safety was a natural part of this process.

“The safety of our family members, our staff, contractors and visitors to the property is paramount,” he said. “It’s about being proactive rather than reactive so we have as many protocols in place to avert possible dangers or risks.”

“In 1998 we chose to adopt a QA (quality assurance) program for our entire business in the belief that eliminating the risks meant less problems and a more successful and enjoyable farming enterprise.”

 “This includes full farm safety induction for all new staff, regular updates for existing staff and promoting the mindset that we don’t take risks and they shouldn’t either.”

Farmsafe WA Alliance is an independent, not-for-profit, non-government organisation encouraging and leading the way to safer farming. We would like to encourage farmers to adopt a safety culture on their farm similar to Rod Birch and his family.

As part of Farm Safety Week, Farmsafe WA will be releasing daily media releases that will focus on key farm safety issues such as child safety on farms, road safety, noise injury prevention and four-wheel motorbike and machinery safety. Other checklists and information will also be made available for anyone interested.

For further information on Farm Safety Week and for further media releases click the link below or contact Michelle Taylor at the office on  (08) 9359 4118.

Monday 20th July 2009 Media Release Drive Safe

Tuesday 21st July 2009 Media Release Child Safety

Wednesday 22nd July 2009 Media Release Four Wheel Motorbike

Thursday 23rd July 2009 Media Release Hearing

Friday 24th July 2009 Media Release Machinery

Friday 24th July 2009 Media Release Conference

2008 Farm Safety Week – 14th – 18th  July 2008

On average, the equivalent of a cricket team is killed on Western Australian farms each year and there are approximately a ‘jumbo jet’ full of passengers hospitalised each year. Over ¾ of these hospitalisations occur to males and half of the fatalities occur to residents of the farm.

Vehicles (including All-Terrain Vehicles), falls and tractors are the most common causes of traumatic farm fatalities. Farm machinery and equipment are the major causes of injuries to WA farmers. 

As part of Farm Safety Week, Farmsafe WA Alliance and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety are raising awareness on the main farm hazards.

Four key health and safety areas have been highlighted this year (Click on the link to see the information sheet):

1. Tractor Safety

2. ATV Safety

3. Farm Machinery Safety

4. Workshop Safety

To assist farmers and farm workers to reduce the risk of injury and death caused by these four areas a series of fact sheets, have been developed. The fact sheets provide area specific health and safety information and help farmers identify hazards and the action needed to eliminate or manage the hazard.

To further help farmers and farm workers a simple one page Farm Safety Basics Checklist is available. The Farm Safety Basic Checklist again helps farmers identify potential hazards, prioritise action needed and establish a timeline for the elimination or management of the hazard.

To coincide with Farm Safety Week, Farmsafe Australia has published a new safety guide for farmers, Farm Machinery Guarding – a practical guide, in which common guarding problems and solutions are provided. This guide compliments the already available information booklets, A practical guide for safe use of ATVs and Small Utility Vehicles, and Health and Safety in the Farm Workshop: A practical guide. To download these guides, visit the Farmsafe Australia website.