Handy reminder to care for yourself
Every time someone hands Paul Walker coins, he remembers the need to look after his wellbeing. The Pongakawa dairy farmer, who has been on the job since 2005 when he came home to his family farm, lost the ring finger on his right hand in October 2008 in a horrific incident when he tried to fix a fan belt-driven water pump.
They had lost water to the houses on his farm and he turned the machine off and tried to work out what the problem was.
“I thought I’d fixed it, so I turned the machine back on and headed home and then I heard something. Instead of turning the machine off again, I didn’t,” he says.
“I put my hand where it shouldn’t have gone and off my finger went through the fan belt pully.”
Walker negotiated the 100m from the water pump to the house and then straight to the hospital and into surgery.
“The body is an amazing machine and I did what I had to do. My finger was hanging off and the shock set in. It took about 40 minutes for it to hurt and then it was pretty painful.”
Walker is not alone. Agriculture is New Zealand’s biggest export earner but it’s also one of our most high-risk industries. In 2020, there were 22,796 farm-related injury claims accepted which came at a cost of $84 million to help people recover.
That’s more than 60 farmers getting injured every day. That’s a big impact on them, their families and the rural community when they get taken out of play.
In the past five years in the Bay of Plenty there have been 7846 farming related injuries accepted by ACC, with 1635 injuries in 2020. This was the highest number of claims for a year in this period.
Farmstrong is a rural wellbeing initiative for farmers and growers to help them “live well to farm well”.
In 2016 ACC became a strategic partner of Farmstrong, joining FMG and the Mental Health Foundation, and in 2020 increased their investment to $3.5 million over the next five years.
Walker says his injury was preventable.
“If I had been thinking clearly it would not have happened. When I explain to someone now what I did, I just can’t believe that I did that, but it was the result of stress and pushing myself too hard. Through overload of work you just don’t think properly.”
An Acc-funded study for Farmstrong shows 58 per cent of recently injured farmers linked their accident to stress associated with farm work. A quarter said it was a major factor.
Exhaustion, lack of sleep, the stresses of farming, being isolated from friends and family and being unable to take a break all add to the risks that a farmer or farm worker will have suffer an injury, the research shows.
“Every time someone gives me
coins and they drop to the floor it is a good reminder of a time where I shouldn’t have been under so much pressure,” he says with a laugh.
Walker says with Farmstrong he has learned that your wellbeing has to be a priority.
“That includes removing yourself from the coalface and doing things that empty your stress water bottle. You need to give yourself that breathing space, so your water isn’t pouring out the top of the bottle.”
Walker is coming into his 17th season on the farm and says despite the challenges and the workload there is nowhere else he’d rather be.
“I love being out in the elements whether that is good or bad weather. When it is a nice day there is no better office that being on the farm. Most farmers just love their animals as well and I am no different. I get a lot of pride out of having happy and healthy animals.
“They return the favour by producing an income and supplying food
for the world. It’s a rewarding role.”
He encouraged all farmers to be proactive in a prioritising their wellbeing.
“When you are pushing yourself on that farm and you take it too far it has a huge impact on your own output and also increases the chances of getting injured. When you are self-employed without staff you have no one to fall back on apart from yourself.”
And there is no one responsible to check on the hours you have worked.
ACC head of workplace safety Virginia Burton-konia says ACC is challenging all New Zealanders to “Have a Hmmm”.
“It’s important for everyone, especially farmers, to take a moment to think about what they are about to do and think about what could go wrong to prevent injury.”
Turn to page 15 for the start of our special liftout, Agri-view 2021.