The month of October will be marked by lots of frenetic activity on farms across Ireland, and the safety implications are obvious.
Sheds and other buildings will be repaired and cleaned out in preparation for the 2024/2025 housing season.
In tandem with this, large numbers of stock will be moved from fields back to their winter accommodation.
All of these activities are inherently dangerous and they carry a significant health and safety risk.
With more people than would normally be the case using plant and machinery, the risk of a serious accident taking place becomes all the greater.
Preventing accidents form taking place requires those involved in any farm-related activity taking that little bit of extra time to work through all the permutations with regard to what could and what could not happen.
October farm safety
No job is that urgent that an extra minute of preparation would not help the project to be completed more efficiently and safely, from everyone’s point of view.
All the regulations in the world will not improve farm safety levels on local farms. Mind you, any farmer found to be breaching any health and safety regulations must be dealt with vigorously by all the relevant adjudicating bodies.
What’s really required, though, is a concerted effort on the part of those involved within the farming industry to put their safety and the safety of others first at all times.
Children are particularly vulnerable, when it comes to farm accidents. They tend to get into places where they shouldn’t be, simply because they are young and full of life.
So, it’s up to parents to make sure that the next generation of farmers are taught from the get-go that farms are inherently dangerous places and that nothing can be taken for granted – ever.
Farm machinery continues to get bigger. Moreover, the speed that modern tractors and other powered vehicles can now achieve around farm yards and enclosed spaces is frightening.
It has gotten to the stage where I will always look twice before entering any farm building just to make sure that I am not about to encounter some very large piece of shiny machinery coming towards me at break neck speed.
The reality is that animals, machinery and slurry gases can all kill. Throw in the potential to fall off roofs, walls and the myriad other structures to be found in yards and it’s not hard to work out why farming is the most dangerous way-of-life followed in Ireland today.
Staying safe is all about thinking safe.