Farming

HSE to visit farms as part of national inspection campaign

Published

11 months ago

October 26, 2023

FARMERS are being reminded they must change their attitude towards safety as Britain’s workplace regulator readies itself for a wave of inspections in the coming months.

Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will visit farms across England, Scotland and Wales as part of a push to change the culture in the industry and check for compliance with long standing legal requirements.

People on farms are 21 times more likely to be killed in a workplace accident than other sectors.

In total, there have been 161 deaths on Britain’s farms over the last five years – an average of 26 people each year. This includes members of the public and children.

The visits, from this week to next April, will focus on the main causes of death in farming, including working with cattle, operating and maintaining vehicles and falls from height.

They will also look at risks to members of the public, which often means the management of cattle around public rights of way, as well as child safety on the farm.

HSE plans to carry out 440 visits during the campaign.

One of the HSE inspectors helping organise and support the visits is Kathy Gostick, who offered the following advice to farmers:

“We will not only be checking farmers’ knowledge of risk but also making sure they understand their responsibility to themselves and others. We will look at actions they have taken to control these risks and comply with the law.”

Although, the number of deaths in the agricultural sector has fallen by around half since the early 1980s, the rate of fatalities, which is based on the number of people at work in the sector, has remained stubbornly high, much higher than comparable industries.

In a bid to reduce that number, Kathy Gostick has called for farmers to stop and think differently about their own and other peoples’ safety.

“There are simply too many tragedies in farming and it is time for that to change.

“We are committed to making workplaces safer and healthier and that includes agriculture – we will do this by highlighting the risks, providing advice and guidance, and by holding employers to account for their actions.

“This means changing attitudes towards safety – it is the only way we will reduce the numbers of people being injured or killed.

“These upcoming inspections will help drive home the message that the only way we can bring down the numbers being injured or killed is if we change behaviour.”

Alongside inspections, HSE regularly gives advice on safe practice to key industry stakeholders, including at agricultural shows. The regulator is a key member of the Farm Safety Partnership.

There are many simple actions farmers can take to reduce the key risks:

When using and maintaining vehicles consider ‘Safe Farm, Safe Driver, Safe Vehicle’ and follow ‘Safe Stop’ and use adequate props during maintenance.
When handling cattle ensure good handling facilities are in place and used and that you have considered protection of members of the public when cattle are kept in field with public access. See Handling and housing cattle AIS35 – HSE and Cattle and public access – HSE
When considering working at height; avoid doing the work yourself – use a professional contractor instead. Don’t ever be tempted to use the wrong equipment – being lifted on the forks or bucket of a telehandler or fork lift truck is illegal. As is walking or working on fragile roof materials.
When considering children on farms, try and avoid them being there in the first place and if not then full and complete supervision is required. See Preventing accidents to children on farms INDG472(rev4) (hse.gov.uk)
Earlier this year HSE launched ‘Your Farm – Your Future’ – a campaign focused on the number one cause of fatalities in agriculture – moving vehicles. The campaign website bringing together lots of great advice on controlling the key risks.

Farming

Collaboration at the heart of new funding scheme for farmers

Published

3 days ago

September 9, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE development phase of the new Integrated Natural Resources Scheme (INRS) is open for applications until 27 September.

The INRS will enable farmers and others to work together to improve our natural resources and deliver benefits to farm and rural businesses.

A webinar has been arranged by Farming Connect on 11 September to give farmers the chance to learn more about the scheme and ask questions.

Although the scheme is separate from the Sustainable Farming Scheme it will be used to inform the collaborative element of the scheme during this interim period.

This scheme forms part of a preparatory phase of activities which may lead to collaborative projects ready to participate in the Collaboration Layer of the Sustainable Farming Scheme when it is introduced.

The scheme will provide funding for implementing nature-based solutions at the appropriate scale, targeting action and interventions to enhance and sustainably manage our natural resources.

Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, said: “The scheme has been developed to focus on collaborative action – enabling farmers and land managers to do something they do very well – which is working together to deliver innovative solutions. These projects will improve our natural resources in a way which delivers benefits to farm and rural businesses, rural communities, and wider societal benefits.

“We are committed to supporting farmers to produce food in a sustainable way, whilst taking action to respond to the climate emergency and to help reverse the decline in biodiversity.”

This could include projects which enhance our carbon-rich soils such as peatlands, creating and managing woodland, implementing natural flood risk management, enhancing access and public engagement, protecting landscape and historic features. Or, deliver actions to enhance priority and semi natural habitats, improving the connectivity, scale, adaptability, or diversity of semi natural habitats and our natural features, ensuring ecosystem resilience. Projects could also strengthen the resilience of Wales’ network of protected sites by working at a landscape scale to improve connectivity and condition.

Further information is available here www.gov.wales/integrated-natural-resources-scheme-rules-booklet-html

Farming

Royal Welsh Winter Fair livestock competitions schedule now available

Published

3 days ago

September 9, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE livestock competitions schedule for the 2024 Royal Welsh Winter Fair is now available online.

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society is inviting farmers, breeders and exhibitors to visit the official website – https://rwas.wales/winter-fair/competitions/ – to view the full competition details, entry requirements and key dates.

This year’s winter fair, scheduled for November 25 and 26, promises to showcase the best livestock from across the country in a festive celebration.

Pictured above: The supreme cattle champion at last year’s winter fair.

Farming

Funded Farming Connect services lightens financial burden for family farm

Published

3 days ago

September 9, 2024

Tom Sinclair

INVESTING in skills training and business advice can be expensive for a family farm, but securing subsided and fully-funded Farming Connect courses and services has lightened the financial burden for a third-generation Radnorshire poultry and livestock producer.

George Wozencraft is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Abraham, and father, Malcolm, at Glanalders, Nantmel.

Beef is produced from a 30-cow suckler herd and lamb from 250 Improved Welsh and Welsh Mule ewes.

In 2011, the Wozencrafts diversified into free range egg production with a 16,000-bird system, now producing eggs for Stonegate from Clarence Court hens.

To help put the business on a firm footing for the future, George has accessed a range of Farming Connect services.

As a member of its Radnorshire business discussion group, he has been encouraged to assess all aspects of his business, including scrutinising costs.

This exercise has proved invaluable in helping him to understand which enterprises are performing the best, to inform growth and investment going forward.

To build on this, George has also completed a Farming Connect e-learning course on understanding the fundamentals to a successful business and completed a book keeping course through the Farming Connect skills programme.

Under the Farming Connect Our Farms Network, he has embarked on a project helping him to improve efficiency and bird welfare in his poultry flock, while sharing that knowledge with other producers too.

The project has seen him replacing strip lights with LED lighting to become more
self-sufficient in energy while improving bird health and welfare and reducing the farms carbon footprint.

“We are looking at our electricity costs and the savings we are making, and any improvements to bird welfare from having low intensity lighting,’’ George explains.

The results of this on-farm project, which has included input from his packer, vet and genetics supplier, will be shared with other farmers later this Autumn in an open event.

To further improve efficiency, he is also targeting home-produced nutrients to where they are needed, informed by a Nutrient Management Plan funded by Farming Connect.

Twenty soil samples were taken and, based on these results, lime has been applied to improve pH levels and reduce reliance on synthetic fertiliser.

Farming Connect has not only helped to encourage that responsible approach to soil fertility but responsible and effective use of medicine too.

Through a Farming Connect clinic involving Ddole Road Vets George says he now better understands the importance of using antibiotics only when and where they are needed.

“The clinic concentrated my mind on the value of targeting treatments, not just the benefits of reducing those to prevent resistance but reducing our costs too because if we don’t need to use antibiotics then we are saving money.’’

Farm safety and first aid are at the forefront of George’s mind with recent deaths and accidents involving fellow farmers.

To ensure that he is better informed on how to react in an emergency situation he has undertaken an emergency first aid at work course, part-funded by Farming Connect, and completed a health and safety e-learning module.

George’s wife, Kate, is a nurse but should a medical emergency arise while she is off-farm, he knew he needed to be in a position to respond.

A new addition to the family, their son, Bertie, added further significance to that.

When George looks to the future, he also appreciates that there is much knowledge he can gain from farmers who have been in the industry for longer than him.

He therefore applied to the Farming Connect mentoring service and was matched to beef and sheep producer John Yeomans.

“We wanted to improve calving and our calf growth rates and knew that John was a good role model in how to produce cattle well, I am really looking forward to working through some of our issues with him,’’ says George.

After experiencing first-hand the benefits Farming Connect services have brought to him personally and to the farm business, he encourages other farmers to tap into these too.

“I had never been someone to make the most of what is out there until recently but I am so pleased that I now am,’’ he says.

“If we don’t use these services, it might be that one day they will no longer be available to us.

“So many of them are heavily subsidised or fully funded, it just doesn’t make sense to not make full use of what is on offer.’’

Completed activity is automatically recorded on Farming Connect’s secure online data storage tool ‘Storfa Sgiliau’ and can be easily accessed at any time.