Farm Safety

When I was younger we had to make these safety posters at school. I wanted mine to be about farming, of course, so I asked my dad for some help.

"Hey dad, what are you most afraid of happening on your farm?" 

Because my dad is a total farmer and his dad was a farmer and even his dad was a farmer, I expected answers like:

"$1.80 per bushel corn price"
or
"Hail storm in the middle of May"
or
"Irrigation wells going down"

You see, those three things are examples of situations that could cause us to struggle to make a living growing crops. Selling crops for too little of a profit, mother nature wreaking havoc close to harvest or means of irrigation depleting in the middle of a growing season are all examples of things I thought would really devastate my dad and his business.

While, those are pretty bad situations that I thought of, my dad responded to my question with something that would really help out on my safety poster,

"If one of my hired men or family members ever got injured."

He's right. We can get through a lot of challenges on the farm, but just like in any other line of work - people are simply irreplaceable and safety has to come first.

Farm and ranch families have several resources for responsible safety measures that need to be taken in the workplace. A few of my favorite can be found at:

Farm Safety For Just Kids

OSHA Farm Safety Facts

National Education Center for Agricultural Safety

Accidents are aptly named because they are simply that - an accident. But we can do things on our farm to prevent a lot of common accidents as well. Just like on a construction site, in a hospital or at a restaurant, farmers and ranchers must think about safety in the workplace. Here's to hoping my mom doesn't read this blog post and dig out my old safety poster to embarrass me on Facebook. 

Stay tuned,

Tera