Silo system a winner

Southland’s Pukerau School has won a coaching session with rugby legend Richard Loe thanks to a farming couple designing a system to prevent falls into their silo.

Donna and Denis Holland developed a rope pulley system which opens and closes the silo lid at their dairy farm at Kaiwera, near Gore.

Their winning entry in a competition, which encouraged farmers to send WorkSafe examples of farming safely, lead to them nominating the school to receive a coaching session from Loe, the Safer Farms ambassador.

WorkSafe sector lead agriculture Al McCone said the entry was a good solution to an ongoing problem on many farms.

‘‘It shows how farmers can take simple steps to reduce the chances of accidents.

‘‘Entering into silos, either from the ground or the top presents a significant risk to farmers, their families and workers. It is easy to be engulfed by bulk materials such as grain, sand, flour, fertiliser and sawdust. Bulk materials are not solid and there are often unstable areas or voids that may collapse under the weight of a person. This can cause a person to become trapped or buried in the silo.’’

Donna Holland said she and her husband designed the rope pulley system to reduce the likelihood of an accident occurring.

‘‘We get a lot of feed delivered into the silo and this system means nobody has to go up to the top. The ropes on the ground make it easy to pull the lid open. A computer also tells us when the silo is running out of feed.’’

Pukerau School principal Lisa Parish said the school was excited to have been nominated.

The entries were judged by representatives from WorkSafe, Beef + Lamb NZ, Dairy NZ and Federated Farmers.