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Agriculture

Precautions
The Law
Code of Practice
Strategic Alliances
Training
Videos
Fatal Accidents
For Further Information

See the second series of Survivor Stories videos and the Older Farmer videos

Precautions

There's an electronic Risk Assessment available to use as part of the Code of Practice
Prepare and implement a Safety Statement
If 3 or less people work on the farm, the Code of Practice meets the Safety Statement requirement
Plan work to make sure it can be done safely
Check machinery and equipment before use
Communicate with family, workers and contractors to make sure that tasks and safeguards are understood
Train persons to operate tractors and machinery and complete jobs safely
Assess and control risks to children and persons with slower reaction times. Do not allow children unsupervised access to the farmyard

The Law

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 requires all farmers to prepare and implement a Safety Statement
Farmers with three or fewer employees may instead follow the Code of Practice
Use the Farm Safety Online Risk Assessment Tool
See the guidance on the Farm Safety Online Risk Assessment Tool
See the wide range of information and guidance available in the Agriculture and Forestry Publications section

The 2005 Act requires

a safe place of work which includes the farmyard and buildings
safe working practices and procedures
safe equipment and machinery
a safe way in and out of the farmyard and other places of work, including farm buildings
information and training for workers
personal protective equipment where necessary
a safe system for the storage, handling and use of articles and substances
adequate toilet and washing facilities

Self-employed farmers have similar duties to employers. Farmers must conduct their operations in such a manner so as not to put persons at risk (e.g. visitors, especially children and contractors)

Farmers must notify any work accident which prevents anyone carrying out their normal duties for more than three calendar days. Specified dangerous occurrences such as fires, explosions and chemical spillages must also be notified

Farm workers must

take care of themselves and others
co-operate with their employers
use any personal protective equipment provided
not misuse or interfere with anything provided for their safety
report any hazards they become aware of
consult with their employer on matters of safety and health
take account of any training and instruction which they have been given

Back to "The Law"

Relevant Legislation

The safety, health and welfare of farmers and their workers are secured by the following legislation

Back to "The Law"

Safety statement requirements

A farmer is required by law to prepare a Safety Statement in writing and consult employees on its contents. He/she must specify how these risks are to be controlled. A farmer's Safety Statement must set out the arrangements and resources provided
The 2005 Act allows certain employers (including farmers) with three or less employees to comply with the terms of a Code of Practice as an alternative to preparing a Safety Statement
The Safety Statement must be made available to all employees on the farm
The Safety Statement contents of the must be brought to the attention of any people who may be at risk
Staff responsible for safety tasks must be named in the Safety Statement

An Inspector from the Health and Safety Authority may examine your Safety Statement. If it is inadequate, the Inspector can direct you to revise it within 30 days.

Back to "The Law"

Enforcement

A specialist group of Inspectors exist for inspection of the Agriculture sector. Inspection campaigns over recent years have found that levels of compliance in the sector are slowly increasing. However, the sector continues to experience a disproportionately high level of fatal accidents.

In 2011 the HSA carried out 3,000 farm inspections. During those inspections Notices were issued.

An Improvement Notice is a legal directive from an Inspector requiring that certain improvements be carried out in a specified time-frame
A Prohibition Notice is a legal instruction directing that a specified work activity be stopped due to the level of danger

Inspectors of the Authority have power to enter any place of work at any reasonable time. Further details of what to expect are available on our website.

Code of Practice

The 2005 Act allows employers (including most farmers) with three or less employees to comply with the terms of a Code of Practice as an alternative to preparing a written Safety Statement
The Code of Practice for Agriculture includes a Risk Assessment Document and a Safe System of Work Plan (SWWP)
It provides practical user-friendly guidance with respect to farmers, family members, employees, service providers, advisers, trainers and persons with a role related to safety and health
It sets out clearly the major risks in farming and provides a simple approach through the risk assessment document to managing safety at farm level

Back to "Code of Practice"

Online Risk Assessment

See the Online Risk Assessment Tool Video Guide

If you have 3 or less people working on your farm you can use the Farm Safety Code of Practice to comply with your legal requirement to have a Safety Statement.

This electronic version of the Risk Assessment document allows you to fill in and save the risk assessment electronically. It will store your risk assessment which you can look at and update at any time by logging onto www.farmsafely.com. If you have to log out before you complete the risk assessment your work will be saved and it will bring you back to the same stage when you log back in. When complete and you set out what you need to take action on you can print out your farm safety action plan.

This electronic risk Assessment Tool will not be used by the Authority to plan inspections.

The online risk assessment contains an Introduction, Nine sections and an Action list. Each section contains some information about hazards and risks on the farm and statistics on farming accidents. You should read the information at the start of each section before attempting the risk assessment. Following this you will find a risk assessment in the form of a list of questions on that hazard on your farm and some initial safety controls you should put in place. Consider each control and see if it is applicable to the hazard. Finally, you should add any additional controls that you see as appropriate on your farm

This electronic risk assessment has several advantages

You can find your Code of Practice Risk Assessment easily
It maintains a record of when you did your risk assessments
You can plan and print out your safety action list
You will get e-mails reminding you of actions you need to take and when you need to do your annual risk assessment review
You can get safety alerts

Strategic Alliances

The Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee was established to involve all industry stakeholders in improving occupational safety and health in Agriculture. This Committee supports and coordinates the majority of research and promotional activities in relation to farm safety. The work of the Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee is set out in the Farm Safety Action Plan 2009-2012. The goals of the Farm Safety Action Plan are

To raise national awareness of occupational safety and health in agriculture
To increase the uptake of training on farm safety and occupational health
To achieve a reduction in the incidence of fatal accidents to elderly farmers
To achieve a reduction in the incidence of fatal accidents to children
To achieve a reduction in the incidence of accidents involving livestock
To achieve a reduction in the incidence of accidents involving tractors and machinery
To achieve improvements in the level of occupational ill health among farmers

Teagasc and the Authority have established a Joint Prevention Initiative to

Develop, implement and evaluate the Agriculture Code of Practice
Establish and deliver half day training courses for farmers on completing the Agriculture Code of Practice
Organise National seminars/conferences on Farm Safety and Health
Organise joint Research projects on aspects of Farm Safety and Health

The Authority and ESB Networks work together on workplace safety issues.

Training

Training is an essential part of ensuring that all farm and forestry workers are competent to perform their work. See a complete list of Health and Safety Training courses for the sector.

FRS Training have a course for 14- to 16-year-olds on tractor driving and also provide training in the safe handling of livestock and chainsaws
Teagasc has integrated safety and health training into its national training programmes.
Teagasc and agricultural consultants who are members of the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) provide a training course on the Code of Practice
Coillte Teoranta-The Irish Forestry Board provide training for many of the forestry activities, such as chainsaw operation and chemical handling.

Additional information on tree surgery and arboriculture can be obtained from the UK Health & Safety Executive’s website
RBAI provides a 1 day Health and Safety Training course for the Veterinary and Veterinary nursing professions

Videos

Older Farmers Videos

In recent years someone has died every two weeks in an accident on an Irish farm. Accidents involving farmers over 55 years of age often account for 70% of farm deaths. In an effort to reverse this trend, and focus attention on age as a risk factor, the HSA and the IFA have jointly produced videos entitled “Older, Wiser, Safer – A Practical Guide to Safety for Older Farmers.”

Part 1	In recent years someone has died every two weeks in an accident on an Irish farm (2 minutes, 42 seconds)
Part 2	Consider your health status as a risk factor (4 minutes, 3 seconds)
Part 3	Consider how to manage Tractor & Machinery safety (3 minutes, 12 seconds)
Part 4	Livestock are unpredictable, consider how to protect yourself (2 minutes, 54 seconds)
Part 5	Consider your limitations before working at height or with slurry (1 minutes, 56 seconds)
Part 6	Older farmers can work into later years safely, learn how to protect yourself (2 minutes, 10 seconds)

Survivor Story Videos

Six farmers share their farm accident stories, from PTO shaft entanglement to livestock attack.

Their hope is that you can learn from their experiences and take the simple steps that will make your farm safer. Viewer discretion is advised.

James' story	James talks about the loss of his father to a bull attack (5 minutes, 47 seconds)
Peter's story	Peter talks about and shows his injuries from an unguarded PTO shaft (5 minutes)
Sean's story	Sean talks about and shows the injuries received when a combine harvester fell on him (5 minutes, 10 seconds)
Sean's story	Sean talks about the suffering and injuries he received when a bale of hay fell on him (4 minutes, 50 seconds)
David's story	David talks about how the tractor he was driving ran over him leaving him in a wheelchair (5 minutes, 16 seconds)
Dominic's story	Dominic talks about the impact on him and his family following a cow attack (5 minutes, 17 seconds)

Survivor Stories Series 2 Videos

Liam’s Story	Liam talks about how he was attacked by a bull on his farm (5 minutes, 24 seconds)
Aaron's Story	Aaron talks about the injuries he received in a tractor accident (4 minutes, 11 seconds)
Anthony’s Story	Anthony talks about how he lost his leg when was entangled in a grain auger (5 minutes, 5 seconds)
Eoin’s Story	Eoin talks about how he was overcome by slurry gas when he was agitating slurry on his farm (5 minutes, 3 seconds)
Pat’s Story	Pat talks about his back injury and the effects of this injury on his farming life (4 minutes, 16 seconds)

Safe Handling of Cattle Videos

Guidance on the Safe Handling of Cattle on Farms (Videos) will help you consider and develop your skill levels in cattle handling. Good practice in these videos and a greater understanding of cattle behaviour will help reduce accidents and risk of injury.

Farm Safe Videos

The following videos provide advice on various topics as shown.

VideoTitle	Content
Introduction	Legal advice, viewer discretion advisory and acknowledgements (47 Second video)
Behaviour	Victims describe their accidents and insurance is discussed.(5 Minute 6 Second video)
Buildings	Topics include buildings, building work and maintenance, including work at height. (4 Minute 55 second video)
Bull Testimonial	Farmer Sean Treacy remembers the bull attack that left him seriously injured.(1 Minute 55 Second video)
Chainsaws	Topics include operators, chainsaws, PPE, environment, kickback precautions.(5 Minutes 36 Second video)
Chemicals	Topics include Safety Data Sheets, storage, packaging and labels, spraying. (7 minutes 27 Second video).NOTE: For the latest labelling information, visit http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Chemicals/.
Child Testimonial	Brian and Patrick Phelan discuss Brian's PTO accident and his injuries. (2 Minutes 35 Second video)
Children	Topics include fatal accident analysis, Code of Practice, risk assessment, machinery, danger areas.(8 Minute video)
Electricity	Topics include works by unqualified persons, equipment, tools, RCD, electric fences, power lines, vehicles. (11 Minutes 10 Second video)
Health	Topics include farmer's lung, asbestos, noise, diseases, environment. (7 Minutes 5 Second video)
Legislation	Topics include legal approach, the Act and Regulations, responsibilities, Safety Statement, Risk Assessment Document. (5 Minutes 26 Second video)
Livestock	Topics include handling facilities, driving animals, the bull. (6 Minutes 49 Second video)
Machinery	Topics include trap and pinch points, crush points, pull in points, shear and cutting points, burn points, stored energy, thrown objects, guards and signs, safe operators. (10 Minutes 32 Second video)
Manual Handling	Topics include how the back works, manual handling technique, manual handling guide. (3 Minutes 48 Second video)
PTO Testimonial	Farmer John Goff recalls how he lost his arm in a PTO shaft accident.(1 Minute 53 Second video)
Roof Testimonial	Agricultural contractor Stanley Scanlan remembers how he was seriously injured when he fell just 9 feet through a skylight. (1 Minute 59 Second video)
Slurry	Topics include drowning, gassing, agitating, grants.(4 Minute 15 Second video)
Tractors	Topics include tractor operations, driving, hitching, machine operations, overturning, maintenance, ATV's.(8 Minutes 43 Second video)
Traffic	Topics include brakes, lighting, weights, length and width, supplier obligations, Roads Act 1993, driver's license, insurance. (6 Minutes 38 Second video)
Workshop	Topics include construction, signs, fire safety, electricity, PPE, burn points, power tools, lifting equipment, welding, compressed air/tyres. (11 Minutes video)

Fatal Accidents

Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Irish economy.

The fatality rate in agriculture is far higher than any other economic sector. A large proportion of all fatal workplace accidents occur in agriculture, even though a small proportion of the workforce is employed in farming. The level of farm accidents is not decreasing. Similar accidents occur each year. Research indicates that, in general, farmers’ attitudes to safety only change after serious injury occurs.

The age profile of those killed is of serious concern. The old and the young are exceptionally vulnerable to death and injury on Irish farms. In this video, James talks about the loss of his father in a bull attack (5 minutes, 47 seconds).

Check Fatal and non-fatal accident statistics in the sector.

See “Over Half of Workplace Deaths in 2010 Occurred on Farms”