A farm is obviously a very dangerous place, with tractors, machinery and large animals – all of which can kill. With 21 farm deaths in 2016, the Health and Safety Authority has rated the profession as the most dangerous in Ireland.

But with all that said, for a child growing up on a farm, there’s no better life. I can vividly remember it from my own childhood.

Myself and my brother sat on opposite mudguards of our Ford 3600 while my father spread fertiliser with the Vicon wagtail. Nowadays, he would be prosecuted for having children under seven on board – there was no such law 30 years ago.

I can remember holding on tight as we bounced up and down the field, one hand on the door handle, one hand on the frame of the cab when suddenly a thought hit me: 'What would life be like if Daddy wasn’t a farmer?'

I don’t know what put this thought in my head but it was almost like a cold sweat moment. The whole idea was just totally incomprehensible to me. I had plenty of friends at school who weren’t from a farming background, but the idea that it was possible that we could have been born not farmers – that was just too much for me to get my seven-year-old head around.

You can’t beat learning them young

My own 5-year-old daughter is quite a girly girl. She’s mad about Frozen, frilly dresses and getting her nails painted, but she also loves getting on her pink wellies and waterproofs and coming out on the farm with me or her mother.

The education and information a child gets just from being on a farm is second to none, be it about nature, animals or plants. They get to experience new life and, unfortunately, sometimes death, but they get to learn about it in a very organic way.

She’s not too keen on the smell of either but she can tell the difference between cattle slurry and pig slurry after they’ve been spread, so she informed her mother recently.

My father always had a saying: “You can’t beat learning them young.” Myself and my brother were driving tractors when we were nine and drawing in silage when we were 11. It was the done thing at the time.

Showing children the dangers

As mentioned earlier, it is against the law for a child under seven to be a passenger in a tractor. As far as I’m concerned, the safest place for a child to be is in the passenger seat beside the driver.

Some might say that children have no place in a farmyard full stop, but I don’t agree.

Obviously at busy times their presence may not be appropriate, but bringing a child into the yard under constant supervision, showing them the hazards and dangers and letting them grow up with them will ultimately lead to a greater awareness and hopefully a greater level of safety.

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