Farm Safety Week With Amy Wilkinson

Hey Readers,

When Xpert Workwear approached me to write an article on farm safety week, I did, in all honesty, question their choice of writer.

As, like many probably reading this, I can't claim to be a safety saint on the farm. Working in the fast-paced environment of our large, mixed beef and arable family farm, safety can sometimes be left a little by the wayside, especially in times of high pressure when all you really want is to get the job done. Unfortunately, it's usually in these scenarios that accidents can and do happen. This is coming from someone who has had to have their head glued twice and has had a 600 kg heifer stand on her liver. Like I said, I'm not always a safety saint, and if I'm brutally honest, I know these accidents could have been avoided if I had taken the time to think about the possible consequences of rushing in. I'm not saying that all farm accidents can be avoided, but I do believe that we as farmers could take a little more time before rushing into a task. Ask yourself, 'Is this stupid?'

As a kid growing up without Sky (posh telly as I call it), I was obsessed with the CBBC show called Horrible Histories. Each episode features sketches representing a selection of different eras and civilisations throughout history in a humorous way, mainly through catchy songs. One of my favourite sketches on the show was 'Stupid Deaths,' with its catchy jingle that the actor would sing at the beginning of the sketch dressed as death in a blonde wig. It started off as death playing airport security and worked up to an X Factor audition-style set-up with death clearly imitating Simon Cowell, and two skeletons with wigs obviously meant to be Louis and Sharon. (This was never actually referenced until in one episode death smacked Louis's skull off and said 'pull yourself together Louis'... noughties TV gold right there.) Anyway, the whole premise of the sketch was that people from throughout history would meet death and tell him the way in which they died in order to see if he will let them through to the next stage, if you like, i.e. the afterlife. All the untimely demises featured were 100% true and, as the sketch name suggested, 'stupid'. Why am I telling you all this? Well, the sad truth is according to the Health and Safety Executive, agriculture has the worst rate of worker fatal injury (per 100,000 workers) of all the main industry sectors, with the annual average injury rate over the last five years around 21 times as high as the all-industry rate. This means out of all other sectors we are the most likely to go to work one day and not come back home to our families. This really needs to change!

Something that has changed my perspective on farm safety, as silly as it sounds, is stopping for a second when approaching a job and asking myself: is this stupid and will this end up with me on 'Stupid Deaths'? Because I can assure you no matter how stressed you feel in the moment, no job is worth that, and I am sure your families would agree with me.

So please, while working, take a second to check: is this safe? Maybe you might realise there is a better way of approaching the task or safety measures that you could implement. And if you are already a safety saint, it will give you time to sing the catchy 'Stupid Deaths' jingle to yourself as just a quick reminder.

(Google the jingle at your own risk; it will get stuck in your head.)

Stay safe, Amy Wilkinson