Farm Safety Week: Farming still the UK's most dangerous profession

Farms remain the most dangerous place to work accounting for 1 in every 5 workplace fatalities.

As Farm Safety Week gets underway in 2025, Yellow Wellies has highlighted the high level of fatalities on farm, with 28 worker related farm deaths across the UK in 2025 and 4 members of the public killed, including 2 children.

Farm Safety Week is the annual awareness-raising campaign run by UK charity The Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies).

This year, the charity has broadened the scope of the campaign and is working with Farmsafe Australia.

Farm Safety Week

Farmers Guardian will be using the week to raise awareness and share advice on how the industry can improve its record.

While the agricultural sector has long been associated with high rates of injury and ill health, recent data suggests that meaningful progress is being made in improving farm safety.

Historically, the industry has faced alarming figures, with over 23,000 reported cases of long-term ill-health and serious injuries. However, there are now signs of a positive shift with the number of long-term ill health and serious injuries falling to 18,000.   

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According to rural insurer NFU Mutual, the number of farm accident claims in the UK dropped from 937 in 2023/24 to 894 in 2024/25.

Incidents involving moving vehicles, falls from height, slips and trips, and trapped body parts continue to dominate the statistics.

Complacency is attributed as a major contributor, according to research carried out by the Farm Safety Foundation.

Stephanie Berkeley, Farm Safety Foundation manager said: "‘I've always done it that way' is a phrase we hear all too often.

Farm fatalities   

"Although confidence built over years on the land is a strength, it can also become a blind spot. When you start to underestimate the dangers of the vehicles, equipment and animals we know so well, we risk letting routine turn deadly. Experience should guide caution, not excuse it."

She said things were starting to change, but the pace was ‘too slow'.

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Ms Berkeley said too many were still relying on luck to get home safe.

"Luck is not a safety strategy. It is not a plan. It is not enough.  

She said she had one plea to everyone working and living in the industry to ‘please, stop and reflect'.

"Look at your daily routine, your equipment, your mindset. Ask yourself, what can I do today to make my farm safer? For myself. For my family. For the people who work with me.  

"Change does not happen overnight. It starts with one decision, one action, one conversation."

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For more information on Farm Safety Week visit www.yellowwellies.org or follow @yellowwelliesUK on Instagram/Facebook/X using the hashtag #FarmSafetyWeek