7th Jan

2019

Farm Safety: Working with Machinery

The TFA have renewed its pledge to the Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) charter. The aim of the partnership is too reduce farm, work place fatal accidents by 50% by 2023. We aim to achieve this through;

  • providing leadership to improve the safety of farms and allied industries.
  • to reduce the numbers of deaths and major injuries to farmers, workers and anyone else coming into contact with farming activities.

As part of our commitment to the FSP, we will be producing blog posts throughout the 2019 with top tips to improve farm safety in conjunction with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and FSP.

Working with machinery and vehicles is an everyday necessity for farmers and in many cases these machines can pose a serious risk to users if not well maintained or looked after.  Hands, hair and clothing can be caught by unguarded PTO shafts or other unguarded moving parts such as pulleys and belts.People can be injured by front-end loaders, falling from a moving tractor or being struck by its wheels.

Machinery and transport continue to be the main causes of life changing and death on farms. Over the past year, there has been some improvement in the numbers of farmers losing their lives however we have put together some top tips to improve safety when working with machinery.

Top Tips

  1. Safe Stop – Handbrake on, controls in neutral, engine off and remove keys whenever you leave a machine or vehicle.
  2. Where possible, carry out a visual inspection of the machine prior to use.
  3. Never remove or modify guards to save time.
  4. Only use a machine if you know how to use it safely and have received suitable training.
  5. Machines have no brains so always use your own, a second of lost concentration can cost your life.
  6. When driving any machine, always wear a seat belt.

For further advice on working with agricultural machinery and guide to best practices please visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/topics/machinery/farm-vehicles.htm

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