How to be healthy and safe on farm to protect the productivity of your farm and the lifestyle you enjoy.

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Keep safe, keep farming (PDF 1.6 MB)

Summary

You can prevent many of the injuries and much of the ill-health that take people away from work by planning to manage risk. Each injury or illness means people can’t work, whether it’s for an hour, a day, or permanently. This impacts on the productivity of the farm and on your ability to enjoy the lifestyle offered by living on farm.

Key points

This guide will help you work out:

• the best way for you to identify, manage and communicate health and safety risks to family and workers
• what part other people on farm should play in risk management.

It’s about people and productivity

How can I use this guide?

I am in charge of the farm day-to-day

Use this guide to make sure you have done what is necessary to create a healthy and safe workplace. You are responsible for the health and safety of people who work for you or who are involved in, or affected by, the work on your farm. You are also responsible for the health and safety of others that may come onto your farm – you are expected to do what is reasonable and practicable. You need to talk with your workers and visitors about health and safety, and make sure they participate in farm health and safety.

I am a company director, trustee, or business partner

Use this to understand what is required on farm and the effort you need to put in over time. You have an obligation to exercise ‘due diligence’. This means, for example, you need to make sure you are up-to-date with health and safety requirements, you have a general understanding of the risks associated with operating your business, and that the business has available, and uses, appropriate resources to deal with the risks.

I am a contractor or visitor to the farm

Use this to understand how your health and safety procedures overlap with those of the farm. You have a responsibility to work with the farm business to make sure you all understand how to deal with any risks on farm — and to make sure that the farm understands and works with you to manage any risks your work may bring.

I work on farm

Use this to understand your requirements for health and safety on farm. You have a responsibility to look after your own health and safety, and to make sure there is nothing you do that puts others in danger. You have a right to be kept healthy and safe in the workplace by your employer. This guide shows what the business you work for is required to do and how you can participate.

What do I have to do?

Why planning for risk is important

Planning to avoid injury and work-related ill-health makes sense. Too many people rely on instinct rather than planning and as a consequence people get sick or injured, or are impaired or killed. The law compels you to put in place the steps that people should take to keep themselves or their family and workmates healthy and safe.

Engagement, participation and representation

An important part of everyone being safe and healthy is involving them in managing risk. We have included ways of doing this in the guide, as well as a fact sheet at the end of this guide.

Check your farm against the self-assessment table (PDF 60 KB) [PDF, 46 KB].

Make a healthy and safe workplace important

Suggested activities to get you started

Health and safety doesn’t just happen. It takes a conscious decision to make sure all the pieces are in place to prevent people from being hurt or becoming ill. Relying on everyone ‘just doing the right thing’ doesn’t actually reduce the number of illnesses or injuries.

Invest time and thought in planning to be healthy and safe, and it will pay dividends in productivity.

People are a really important part of the farm and planning for them is just as important as any other planning.

Planning is only one part of making a farm healthy and safe. More than anything, it involves leadership. At the core of this is a boss who wants everyone on farm to be healthy and safe, and leads the way with their own actions. It’s not just the boss who needs to lead. Each supervisor and every individual needs to be able to say “we can do this a healthier and safer way”.

There will always be people who say one thing and do another. Health and safety is an area where you have to judge people by their actions.

Do the planning

Prior planning prevents poor performance

Doing the planning has two purposes:

• It means the thinking about risks and how they will be managed is already done and up-to-date before work starts.
• It enables this thinking to be communicated to everyone who needs to know.

Health and safety planning consists of:

• Systematically identifying things from work that can cause ill-health and injury to people, and determining how those things can be eliminated or minimised.
• Making sure farm workers or other people working or living on farm are involved in identifying and managing risks.
• Making sure workers and visitors to the workplace are well-informed about the risks they might face while on site and are prepared to manage those risks.
• Consulting with workers and family if you are planning changes that could affect health and safety.

You don’t need to have large folders full of health and safety jargon. How you choose to record risks and risk management actions, and how you communicate with visitors, contractors, employees, directors or between farms, is up to you — so long as it is effective.

Risk management

We have divided this process into three parts. You might do them one after the other, or you can do all three parts together.

If you’re a bit stuck about where to start, the WorkSafe Good Practice Guide Managing health and safety: A guide for farmers lists common risks and hazards on farm, Do this with workers and family.

View our table of potential risks on farm (PDF 43 KB) [PDF, 34 KB].

Identifying risks

First up, you need to work out what has the potential to hurt people on your farm or make them unwell. You don’t need to spend time identifying and analysing every possible risk on farm. You should focus on those that could result in injuries or ill-health.

Managing risks

The greater the potential harm, the more you should do to manage the risk. So, the risks you need to pay special attention to are those that are likely to occur frequently and result in injuries or ill-health, or those that are not so frequent but could have a major effect (like death or serious injury).

Communication and keeping things up-to-date

You need to make sure that people on farm know about the risks that will affect them and how to manage those risks.

By thinking through the ways of managing the risks, you have done a big piece of work. To make sure all that effort isn’t wasted, it needs to be part of everyday activity on farm.

Risk management is only effective if it is up-to-date. The best way to make sure this happens is to talk about risks and make sure new ones are noted. Sometimes there are sudden changes (new equipment, or tomos opening up) and there needs to be a system for these to be recorded and promptly managed.

Risk register template (PDF 63 KB)

Making it work

It’s about looking after yourself and others

You have made the decision to be healthy and safe, and you’ve put the effort into thinking about your risks and how to manage them. Now you need to think about them every day. Health and safety doesn’t live in folders and pieces of paper. It happens in people’s minds and behaviour.

The best way to get people (including yourself) to treat health and safety as an everyday activity is to make sure it is part of everyday activity — not just an ‘add-on’. Here are two things that may help you achieve that:

Keep people involved

Involving people is a key part of making injury prevention part of your everyday farm routine. Talking about health and safety doesn’t need to be formal. It’s a chance for people to share their experience and information about what they know about the current state of the farm, or to bring up a maintenance issue that needs addressing. Make it easy for workers to raise health and safety issues, or to make suggestions. Set up a white board, for example, in a place where people regularly go.

It’s also an opportunity to bring up any near-misses, so that the team can learn from others’ experiences. You want to encourage an open environment where people can discuss things that have gone wrong and where people are not afraid to point out when something poses a risk.

Getting people started

You want everyone involved and thinking about health and safety, but how do you start? Here are some suggestions:

What does a health and safety management system look like?

A system is made up of a number of components which work together to have a desired result.

In this case, the desired result is everyone getting home from work healthy and uninjured.

There are many different ways you can put together a ‘system’ for your farm. It’s up to you how you do that – to make sure it fits with how you operate. There are no ‘right’ ways to do this – just make sure you have covered the ‘must do’ list.

Write down your actions in the farm diary

Don’t burden yourself with unnecessary paperwork

If most of your health and safety discussions are informal, it isn’t necessary to formally record them. You could, however, jot a few notes in your diary about what was discussed at a particular time and record any actions to be taken, and who is responsible.

You might also note any discussions you have with people who are doing short-term work on farm, such as shearers, fencers, forestry gangs, fertiliser truck drivers etc.

Why do any paperwork?

Paperwork can support good health and safety practice as a means of supporting memory, by helping to plan future work, and as a simple, easy-to-read reference sheet on actions you and others will take.

Is this enough?

Yes. There is no legal requirement to keep records about these types of conversations, nor is there any compulsion to have every visitor sign some paper each time they come on farm. Obviously, you need to know when people are on your farm. Your obligation is to understand the risks both parties bring to the farm, to work out how these are going to be managed, and to agree on who is managing what, and how. This doesn’t need to involve loads of paperwork.

Farm rules

What are farm rules?

Farm rules are very basic rules that you set for yourself and your workers about the way you want things to happen on your farm and the behaviours you all expect of each other.

What should they look like?

How they look is up to you. Record the rules in short and simple sentences. You might have rules for different parts of the farm — shed rules, vehicle rules, general behaviour rules, or you might have one set for everything.

Consider what you will do if workers don’t follow the rules – make sure people are aware of the consequences. You should include in employment contracts a statement that says any breach of health and safety rules will be treated as serious misconduct.

Make it clear that these are minimum standards. Discuss them throughout the year.

Farm hazard map

What is a farm map?

A farm map can be an aerial photograph, a land title map, or even a hand-drawn sketch, showing the boundaries of your farm. If you have an Agribase or FarmIQ account you will already have an electronic version.

If you are using a farm map to provide information for other people, try to use one that shows:

• Paddock boundaries.
• Main tracks/yards around the farm.
• The location and size of buildings on farm.

How is a farm hazard map different?

To take a farm map and turn it into a farm hazard map, simply draw the location of any hazards on it. A hazard is a potential source of harm that could have an adverse effect on people.

Make copies of the map so you can discuss the hazards and the risks they pose with workers or contractors.

How should i use it?

Make copies of your farm hazard map once you’ve completed it and put a copy on the wall of the work room or implement shed. Keep some copies in your office/diary and give it to whoever you think needs it — whether it’s a new worker, or a contractor. An electronic copy can be easily emailed.

You can give people copies of it, draw and write instructions on it and generally use it to make things very clear where people can go, the hazards they might face and what you want them to do. Some farmers put the farm rules or parts of the emergency plan on the back, so contractors and visitors have no excuse! Update it with information that comes to hand, such as a recently sprayed paddock, or where you have put the new offal pit.

Emergency plan

What is an emergency plan?

An emergency plan is a document that sets out what to do in an emergency and contains key farm information that will help people in an emergency.

How do I create an emergency plan?

Consider events that would constitute an emergency — fire, flood, serious injury or injury in remote location, or chemical spill etc. The emergency plan is created so that if the worst does happen, you and other people on farm are prepared.

For each emergency scenario, identify the action that can be taken, the equipment needed, where the equipment is stored, which emergency services to call and the information to provide them etc. This information should be recorded in the emergency plan.

How do I use it?

The emergency plan is something that all new workers should be made aware of. The plan should be given to, and discussed periodically with, all the people on farm, including children. Store a copy of it in a place where everyone can find it.

View our emergency plan template (PDF 32 KB) [PDF, 26 KB]

Training register

What is a training register?

A training register lists the training that you and your staff have had that is relevant to the job. You can also list the skills your workers have and your observation of how they do their job. A training register is not compulsory.

Key information to record

The training register should list the person’s name, the equipment or task they have been trained on, the training date, the training provider, and the person’s signature to confirm that they had the training. If certificates have an expiry date, record it in the register so you can check to see if people are up-to-date.

Does informal training count and how do i know what new employees can do?

People often get experience and training by doing things on the job, rather than by completing formal training courses. This type of training is perfectly ok, but the person does not get a formal certificate. This makes it hard for employers to work out what experience new employees have. Whether they have a certificate or not, you should observe the new employees doing tasks with equipment so you can assess their ability. Think about what would demonstrate they are, or are not, safe. Get them to do some typical tasks to see if they do them correctly. For example, did they put the PTO shaft cover on, did they practise ‘active’ riding, did they lift the calf properly? You should make a note of these observations and of your assessment of the employees’ ability to undertake the tasks.

What does it look like?

The training register could be a record at the back of your farm diary of all the formal or informal training, but is more likely to be a simple list for each person on the farm. We have provided an example of a training register that you could use, or you can set up a form on your computer, or in a notebook. Alternatively, you could keep notes of the experience and training your staff receive in your diary.

View our staff training record template (PDF 55 KB) [PDF, 49 KB]

Maintenance record

What is a maintenance record?

A maintenance record contains the details of the maintenance of your farm vehicles, equipment and machinery. Again, it’s not compulsory to keep these records, but it’s a good way of keeping on top of maintenance.

Key information to record

If your work is carried out by an independent mechanic or service technician, then the invoices can be part of the record. If you do your own maintenance, then more details should be kept about what work was done, or what parts were replaced etc.

How should I record that i’m doing it?

Some farms with a lot of equipment might want to keep very formal registers of maintenance undertaken. However, for a lot of smaller farms, notes in a separate section of your diary will work as a maintenance record. This can be a summary page at the front of the diary, with more detailed notes of the work done on the actual date in the diary.

What else can I do?

Many farmers have lists of daily checks to be carried out — such as, bird’s nests in tractors, tyre pressures and so on. These lists encourage good practice.

View our Tractor maintenence checklists (PDF 81 KB) [PDF, 66 KB]

Contractor orientation checklist

What is a contractor orientation checklist?

This checklist includes things that should be discussed with contractors before they start working on your farm. The discussion should result in both parties understanding the risk each other brings to the workplace and agreement on how those risks will be managed.

It is also useful to give the contractor a copy of the farm rules, and a farm hazard map with the hazards specific to their work clearly noted on the map.

Key information to record

You don’t have to record anything. If you do want to record what you said when you orientate contractors on your farm, make a note in your diary. If the person conducting the farm orientation regularly changes, you can have a separate notebook that all workers can access to record that the orientation occurred. Put the checklist at the front of this notebook so nothing is missed.

Some farmers have a separate form where they sign people in and out, but it is more useful to record what you have told people than to have a signature.

View our contractor induction checklist (PDF 44 KB) [PDF, 48 KB]

Injury incident and near-miss report

What is an accident and near-miss report?

An accident and near miss report is a useful tool for recording incidents and near-misses. This means the farm has a record of things that have gone wrong and what actions were taken to prevent the accident from happening again in the future.

Key information to record

Record how the accident occurred and what remedial actions you took to prevent the incident occurring again.

How should I record that i’m doing it?

We have included a form that helps everyone report incidents, and also to help investigate them, to make sure you have the full story. Aside from the form, some farms also have a board which lists the latest accidents. This means everyone is aware of what has happened.

We’ve had an incident – What do we do?