Need a hand with safety on your farm?
The Victorian Farmers Federation has worked tirelessly in the past few years to assist farmers improve their farm safety knowledge and practices through it’s Making our Farms Safer project.
Farm Safety Advisors with the project, John Darcy and Richard Versteegen, put their combined experience of 68 years in workplace health and safety to deliver the project and have been pleasantly surprised with the uptake from the farming community.
“The project is funded by the Department of Agriculture from July 2020 through to July 2023, designed to assist all Victorian farmers, not just VFF members,” Senior Farm Safety Advisor John Darcy said.
“Since we started, we have visited over 200 farms as part of our one-on-one farm safety visits.
“We start a typical farm visit at dining table, talking through legal obligations and providing a number of resources free of charge. Then we do the walk around the sheds.
“The typical farm visit is around three and a half to four hours.
“We also attend field days and run engagements with farmers at events of our own. We’ve clocked up over 110 speaking engagements,” Mr Darcy explained.
“It’s all about how we influence the culture and engage with industry that is really important. The response has been amazing,” Mr Darcy said
The project also shares farm safety news and updates through its dedicated website, podcast, a monthly newsletter, social media channels and videos on Youtube.
In 2022 the project clocked
up several major milestones, producing a series of SOP videos displaying safe means of carrying out some of the most high risk jobs on the farm.
It released two podcast series, the Making Our Farm Families Safer podcast and Farming through the wet Summer of 22-23.
The project also published its fourth handbook, the Child Safety on Farms guide and launched the Making Our Farm Families
campaign which feature terrific videos and stories from real farming families highlighting how they prioritise the safety of their children aged 10- 15 when performing work related tasks on the farm.
Other resources produced by the project include a Telehandler Safety Handbook, The Hazardous Chemical Handling and Storage guide and an OHS Consultancy Handbook which Farm Safety Advisors give to farmers during a farm safety visit to assist manage safety on their farms.
You can catch up with Farm Safety Advisor John Darcy in the Alan Heard Pavilion at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days.
If you would like to learn more about the VFF Making Our Farms Safer project or to contact a Farm Safety Advisor for free farm safety advice, visit www. makingourfarmssafer.org.au/ get-in-touch/