Every time I hear of another death on the news I shudder - we all know how easy it can happen even if we can’t fully comprehend the devastation to families. At this stage everyone knows someone who has been affected by a farm accident.

We have all had a near misses that, when you think back, could have gone much worse. Some of my earliest memories on the farm seem to involve my hands. Taking off a power shaft I lost a nail as the shaft fell on it, when picking stones I managed to land one on my own hand, and I even managed to slice my thumb half off with a hook while cutting briars in a ditch. I still have the scars to remind me.

Yet between these small accidents and the tragic ones, there continues to be a level of disconnect between farm safety and farmers.

I have carried out the farm safety checklist on my farm when it came out first and highlighted things that had to be fixed. However, in many cases they remained just that - a danger highlighted, put on the list of things to do, but not important enough that it gets actually done.

One was an old dirty water tank that was well railed off but still has a small opening in the lid. It was on the list to be done but it wasn’t until our dog had to be dragged back out of it that a safety cover was made and it was finally taken off the list.

At one stage we even promoted my wife to health and safety officer - a fresh pair of eyes that would make sure things were followed up on. However, it still fell back on me to get many of the smaller things done.

The National Farm Safety Awareness day is a great initiative getting farmers and their families to look at the dangers in their farmyard. There will still be accidents on farms but the key focus has to be to keep them small. We can do this by making sure every danger is minimised and not left on the list until an accident forces you to fix it.

There should be another date put in your diary – the date where you are actually going to have everything on the list completed. Make sure it is soon before you have a real reason to do it.