Farmers urged to rethink old practices

THIS WEEK IS CANADIAN AGRICULTURE FARM SAFETY WEEK

Alberta farmers are being asked to rethink old farm practices that may not be safe.

This week is Canadian Agriculture Farm Safety Week, and with it comes some grim statistics, according to Don Voaklander, a farm safety expert from the University of Alberta School of Public Health.

"There are a lot of best practices out there for farm safety,” he stated in a news release.

Approaching daily work with a shift in thinking could go a long way to preventing unnecessary injury on the family farm.

A recent Farm Credit Canada poll showed 80 per cent of farmers felt their biggest barrier to on-the-job safety was simply sticking to old habits.

In Canada, farming is the fourth most dangerous occupation in terms of fatal injuries.

An average of 101 people die in agriculture-related accidents every year, according to data from Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting and researched by the U of A Injury Prevention Centre.

Farmers are five times more likely to die through work-related accidents than any other industry. Additionally, the child fatality rate on Alberta farms is slowly climbing.

Small farmers, often exempt from existing health and safety regulations, are especially vulnerable to injury.

As sole proprietors of their operations without employees or payrolls, they aren’t required to have worker’s compensation or occupational health and safety plans.

But, they can take action on their own, according to Voaklander, urging farmers to check out the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association for safety information.