As I am writing this article it is currently Farm Safety Week (July 18-22), which inadvertently lets you in on a little bit of Farmers Guardian magic with deadlines for articles always a week before actual publication a long way in advance of when you see it.
However, I wanted to highlight this important week with not just the horrific facts and figures we all know but with something a bit more personal.
Farm Safety week is important to me for many reasons. You are talking to a girl who at agricultural college when shown the videos intended to scare the living daylights out of students about farm accidents sat there and thought well Ive seen worse.
My family as a whole does not have the best reputation when it comes to farm incidents as I have an uncle who was nearly chopped in half by a telehandler bucket, and another uncle whos hand now looks like hes a permanent rock star after getting it stuck in a spud digger. Luckily, they are still with us.
If you have read my previous articles you would also know I am no saint either when it comes to my own safety on farm. I have had my own fair share of incidents including my head glued twice and a broken foot and hand for good measure. To be honest I think my local hospital is pretty sick of me.
The truth is none of us are the best when it comes to our own safety when you are busy or rushing to get jobs done, especially now as we head into harvest, your own safety can feel like an afterthought.
Therefore, I urge you not to think about it for your own sake but think about it for your family and friends sake.
I have been there when the dreaded phone call has come and the whole world seems to stop, when you are told a loved one has either been seriously hurt or has died due to an accident. It is a horrific thing to experience and something you never forget.
The truth is I will not be alone in this experience. I could guarantee the majority of people reading this would have been in the exact same boat at one point or another, yet as an industry and personally, if we were honest with ourselves we are still so reckless with our own safety on farm. We need to do better.
We need to think about the gut-wrenching phone calls most of us will have experienced in our lives and think is this risk actually worth taking, because it is not us who will suffer if it ends in the worst way possible.
So please, let us do better
