Each story is heartbreaking, whether it’s a teenage farm worker dying in Devon after being trapped in a bale-wrapping machine, a Suffolk farmer asphyxiated when he fell into a grain silo, another perishing after falling off a ladder while trimming hedges, or a farmer crushed by a collapsing trailer. Every death is a tragic loss, but deepening the tragedy is the fact that so many of these fatalities could have been avoided.
The numbers are alarming. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 23 farm workers and four members of the public, including two children, died on farms in Great Britain last year. The two children were involved in quad bike accidents. Just 1% of the UK’s working population are employed directly in agriculture, yet the sector accounts for one in every five of all workplace deaths.
“It’s an awful accolade to have. Each figure is a real person. Every one of those fatal injuries affects a real farm. A family has been devastated and a grieving community left behind. One death is a death too many! Yet the numbers have changed little down the years,” explains Stephanie Berkeley, manager of the Farm Safety Foundation, a charity, also known as Yellow Wellies.
The use of quadbikes has pushed numbers higher in recent years, with seven deaths on farms last year due to these vehicles, which can rollover with fatal consequences. Others were struck by moving, or falling objects, some were killed due to contact with moving machinery, while four farm workers die every year falling from a height; these can be people working on fragile roofs.
Every day, farm workers make hundreds of decisions and on-the-spot risk assessments, any one of which could end in a fatality or life-changing injury. This is why there’s a continual need to address the underlying culture of risk-taking and complacency in farming – fatalities in this sector are 21 times higher than the UK industry-wide average. The ‘We’ve always done it this way’ mindset is a major cause of accidents, while a significant number of farm workers cite poor attitudes to safety.
Young farmers take issue more seriously
It is not just fatalities that are an issue – 8,000 workers sustained non-fatal injuries in agriculture, averaged over the last five-years, according to HSE figures. These can involve slips, trips or falls, injury by animals, contact with machinery, harm when lifting, or being struck by objects. Berkeley believes this number is severely underreported, since many farmers don’t register their injuries.
“One of our case studies is that of a farmer’s life changing injury where he lost the sight in one eye – well he didn’t even report that… how many more of these are there?” points out Berkeley.
She continues: “The issue is that most farmers are very resilient. In the past, it seems to have been a bit of a badge of honour to have had an accident, it meant you were a proper farmer. However, attitudes are changing. This is especially true for the next generation that are coming through. For them, considering health and safety is becoming the norm, not the exception.”
Last year, of the 23 farm workers who died, only three were under the age of 40, while just under half were over the age of 60. Luckily, there is a better attitude and knowledge of these issues among younger farmers. It could be due to the fact that over the past decade, more than 25,000 young farmers have received safety training from Yellow Wellies.
“We deliver training sessions to young farmers’ clubs throughout the UK, particularly peer-to-peer, because farmers trust other farmers. So young mentors deliver training to people of their own age, that way they’re receiving the message in the right voice and tone. It therefore becomes more real and relatable to them,” details Berkeley.
She adds: “We also deploy farm workers who’ve had near fatal experiences. They are living day-to-day with the consequences of their injuries and are best able to educate people – this hits so much harder.”
Training key to awareness
The Farm Safety Foundation was established by rural insurer NFU Mutual as an independent charity in 2014. It has been working ever since to spread the message on farm safety and wellbeing. It has even started deploying new tools to help workers to visualise hazards on the farm using virtual reality.
“Technology can make safety more relevant for a group of agricultural students who don’t think it is an important issue. I give them 60 seconds to look around a virtual farmyard and identify how many hazards they see. You would be surprised how many exist on farms. We’re talking 30 or more potentially. So it can be one of those lightbulb moments for young farmers,” says Berkeley.
She continues: “If you’re in charge of a farm and somebody gets hurt on your watch and you haven’t given them the right supervision, training or equipment, you could be prosecuted if there is a fatality or injury – and this has happened. There are not just moral responsibilities but legal and financial reasons for taking this issue very seriously. The whole process can be very costly.”
Other innovations in health and safety do exist, aside from training. For instance, in New Zealand they have a campaign to install crush protection devices on the back of quadbikes. These create a crucial survival space when the vehicle rolls over. Yet, the profile of the industry also makes it very hard to shift the dial on both fatalities and injuries, unlike say construction or the waste sector. Most farms involve only a few individuals. The only dedicated health and safety managers exist in very large agricultural businesses.
“Farmers are also working longer hours than anybody else. The average UK working week is 36.5 hours, while the average British farmer works more than 60 hours, not taking weekends off. This creates fatigue and this is when accidents are more likely to happen,” details the manager of the Farm Safety Foundation.
What is clear is that farmers’ mindsets need to shift from “this is how I’ve always done it,” to “How can I ensure I’m doing my job without putting myself or others at risk?” The more farmers who share their own experiences – and aren’t afraid to speak up and challenge the norms – the faster the industry will respond. And through education, conversation, and the ongoing work of Yellow Wellies, let’s hope the future of farming becomes much safer for all.
Learn more about the work of Yellow Wellies, and how to support, here.
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