Tillage and dairy farmers most at risk of injury

THE majority of agricultural accidents happen in intensive farming areas, a safety conference heard yesterday.

Long working hours during the harvest season, a higher use of dangerous machinery and more animal herding are among the factors which contributed to the increase in accidents and deaths.

Tillage farmers in Kildare, Meath and Wicklow as well as dairy farmers in the Golden Vale in Munster are particularly at risk.

Teagasc, the farm advisory service, is carrying out detailed case studies in these risk areas, which were identified in its most recent National Farm Survey.

Health and safety specialist John McNamara said practical safety measures were needed to cut the number of farm deaths, which reached 19 last year.

“Farmers haven’t spent enough time on this type of work. Unless they take action and get a satisfactory lifestyle, they won’t have successors.”

About 30% of workplace fatalities occur in the farming sector, which only employs 6.5% of the workforce.

The farm safety conference at University College Dublin heard that the high level of farm deaths was a problem in Denmark, Sweden, the US and other countries around the world.

UCD researcher Anne Finnegan, who carried out the National Farm Survey for Teagasc, said it was not accurate to write off farmers as negligent in safety procedures.

“It’s difficult for farmers to be self-critical and identify the hazards when they’re so familiar with the environment.”

She said farmers were swapping among a variety of tasks every day. She added they were under increasing work pressure due to a decline in income.

Ms Finnegan said there was also a misconception about safety among farmers.

“In the National Farm Survey, 73% of farmers said they found farm work was dangerous but 75% considered their own farm safe. There’s a contradiction there.”

The ageing profile of Ireland’s 130,000 farmers has also contributed to the rise in accidents.

Last year, a 74-year-old farmer died when his tractor caught fire and he was trapped in the cab. An 89-year-old woman was killed on a farm when a bull charged at her, while a 66-year-old farmer died when he fell through the perspex roof of the shed he was painting.

Teagasc sent self-assessment safety checklists to every farmer in the country last year and has received 20,000 replies so far.

Debbie Claunch from the University of Kentucky told the conference that children, who are often most at risk on farms, had a great ability to learn about safety and to transmit this knowledge to their farming parents.