Farmers: Let’s Talk about Safety!

Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, which is March 9-15, 2014, is intended to raise awareness of health and safety issues in this industry. This year’s theme is Let’s Talk About It! Organizers want to inspire farmers to engage in conversations about safety through a combination of farmer testimonials, producer resources and videos.

One obstacle to talking about safety can be language barriers, especially if you hire seasonal migrant workers for your farm. But you can overcome language and cultural barriers through a combination of patience, accommodation and good humour. For example:

• Learn key phrases in the language of your workers
• Make ample use of pictures and videos
• Hire someone who can speak their language.

In addition, the federal government recently announced a five-year investment of up to $3.4 million to the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association toward their goal of developing and promoting farm safety standards.

Here are some farm safety resources on OHS Insider:

• The OHS laws and farms
• A checklist you can use to assess any safety hazards on your farm, identify the corrective actions needed to be taken to address those hazards and document the completion of those actions
• A video to learn about the importance of rollover protective structures and seatbelts when operating tractors.