Wales Young Farmers' Club (YFC) has called on the industry as a whole to put a halt on the 'alarming' number of farming related injuries and fatalities.
This year alone has seen 14 fatalities with incidents involving machinery, handling livestock, moving farm vehicles and falling straw bales.
Wales YFC is a member of the Farm Safety Partnership, which along with a range of organisations, aims to raise awareness of farm safety, change attitudes and ultimately reduce the number of injuries and fatalities within the industry.
Arwel Jones, Wales YFC Chairman, said farming injuries and fatalities is becoming 'an all too familiar trend'.
He said: “The reminders that farms can be dangerous places are everywhere yet we are still seeing family members not returning home after a day’s work on the farm, up and down the country significant heartbreaking incidents are occurring in our rural communities.
“We all have a duty of care to ourselves and everyone around us to take more time whilst carrying out our work and think about the precautions we can put in place so that everyone stays safe.”
Who Would Fill Your Boots?
Stephanie Berkeley, who runs the Farm Safety Foundation and coordinates the Yellow Wellies – Who Would Fill Your Boots? campaign, which raises awareness of farm safety among young farmers, commented: “Why is it that our industry just ‘accepts’ that we have a poor safety record? It is the third month of 2017 and already we have lost 14 farm workers. This is devastating for families, communities and the industry at large.
“The problem of accidents on farms is simply not going away. We are not naïve enough to believe we can solve this entirely but by digging deeper into the detail and engaging with the younger farmer, we have found that significant improvements in behaviour are possible.
“As the farmers of the future, young people with a solid knowledge of safe working practices will have a greater capability to make informed and safe decisions which will stand the industry in greater stead.
“We developed The Curve ‘Farm Safe’ module with YFC members to be delivered by young farmers for young farmers at club level and we hope that together we can start creating a stigma around risk taking, make a difference and change attitudes to farm safety in tomorrow’s farming community.”
Club nights on safety
YFC's across the UK members are encouraged to run club nights on farm safety to raise awareness.
Wales YFC each year runs an 'Efficiency with Safety' competition, where judges will set tasks and mock accidents for Young Farmers to respond to.
Mr Jones said: “The come home safe message must be in everyone’s minds and if we as young farmers can alter attitudes among the young and make farm safety decision making as automatic as putting a seat belt on when you enter a car hopefully this will see an end to these bad news stories”.
Wales YFC is keen to get the message out to its members and the whole agricultural community to make safety a priority and come home safe.
