July and every other month in the year need to become farm safety upskilling months on every Irish farm. The farming sector is unique in that it includes a wide variety of people, both young and old.

However, its uniqueness doesn’t allow it a free pass when it comes to farm safety. One farm death is too many. One farm accident is one accident too many.

No one working in the industry can turn their back on the everyday risks that are very obvious on-farm. The farming industry can and must change. Lives have changed for the better post covid-19 – both personal and business wise.

Change

The thinking in many Irish businesses around agriculture has been that face-to-face contact was necessary, often every day. Now, so much happens online and all that was involved in the running of in-person meetings has changed.

Of course, it’s not the panacea for everything and face-to-face is still the gold standard for some meetings. However, let’s face up to the reality that farm safety can and must change if we want the sector to continue as most farmers would like it to.

The most vulnerable people in farming are very definitely the young and old. Health and Safety Authority (HSA) statistics suggest that 51% of farm accident victims were 65 years of age or older. Over 10% of work-related fatalities involved people under 18 years of age.

It is only by upskilling, understanding and establishing where the problems are on your farm that you can change the numbers.