Lessons from near misses on farms

Farmers in Tasmania are being encouraged to reflect on near misses on their properties or in the workplace as part of an agricultural safety campaign.

“Second Chances – Who Knows How Many You’ll Get?” is the slogan for this year’s National Farm Safety Week.

In 2023 there was a historic low of 32 agricultural-related deaths nationally, according to a report by FarmSafe Australia.

Last year that number rose to 72, the highest annual figure in more than two decades.

At a state level over a ten-year period there has been 17 deaths across the agriculture sector, four of which have occurred from 2020 onwards.

Stuart Beams from Safe Farming Tasmania said the national safety awareness week aimed to cultivate positive discussions and conversations around farm safety, highlighting the hazards and risks on farms.

“I think this year’s theme of near misses is a fantastic initiative to focus on,” Mr Beams said.

As a former marine farmer and commercial diver, Mr Beams said he was involved in a near-miss incident that could have cost him his life.

“If we can all share learnings from near misses going forward, we might prevent an injury or save someone else’s life by doing so.”

Safe Farming Tasmania is a state government-funded initiative launched in 2015 in response to rising rates of agricultural fatalities and injuries.

The program was the first of its kind in the nation and since its inception other states have implemented similar models.

Mr Beams said that since that the inception of the program some ten years ago the number of serious farming work-related injuries within the state had declined while the amount of workers employed across the agriculture sector has increased significantly.

“However, the fatality rate in Tasmania is sitting about the same it was 10 years ago.

“The most common type of serious injury across the agriculture sector is musculoskeletal type injuries.

“Those injuries are associated with manual handling and include pushing, pulling, lifting, and twisting.”

Mr Beams said some of our shearers are exposed to extended backward drags across the boards to the shearing stand and account for a percentage of these types of injuries.

“We know our shearers are subject to a lot of musculoskeletal injuries over their lifetime.”

Mr Beams said serious injures associated with trips, slips and falls were also prevalent on farms and in agricultural workplaces, while being hit by moving objects such as farm machinery and livestock were also common.

Mr Beams said the very nature of farm work means it can be high risk at times as the hours are long and the job is demanding.

“Our message is don’t run the risk of cutting corners to save yourself a few seconds, take that little bit of extra time to complete the job safely.

“The consequences of rushing or cutting corners to save a few seconds could be catastrophic, and not everyone gets a second chance.”