Looking out for Hazards

One of the first things to do when assessing the risks around your farm is to identify the hazards 1.

You can do this in a couple of ways:

  • Awareness of Hazards – Keep an eye out for hazards as you go about your work, and/or
  • Hazards in the task – Look at the tasks or jobs you need to do, including the infrequent ones. Consider each stage of the work involved with that task with a view to identifying the hazards that present themselves.

Awareness of Hazards

As you move around your farm, your fields, buildings, implements and machinery try and get in to the habit of noticing things that might prove to be a hazard.

  • Those gates leaning against the wall – could they fall if someone tried to climb them?
  • The old steps up to the granary – would a handrail be a good idea?
  • If a tractor comes around that corner would it be able to see anyone (a pedestrian, delivery driver…) and stop in time?

Some of these hazards can be addressed easily and it’s best to do those straight away (tie up the gates, for example). It’s a busy game, farming, and it can be very easy to put it off. If the hazard can’t be tackled there and then you’d best make a note of it (how likely are you to remember it when you get 5 minutes?). Again, if you’re busy it can be a pain but maintaining a safe working environment is a legal responsibility.

By making a note of these potential hazards you are taking the first steps to having a plan to manage the health and safety on your farm.

This could simply be a few words jotted in a notebook that, later on, you add to a list somewhere that you can refer to later. A spreadsheet for those who are comfortable with a computer or a notepad specifically for your Health and Safety ‘stuff’.

In the beginning you may have a long(ish) list of things that might need to be tackled. But, as time goes on, and some of the hazards are dealt with, you should, hopefully, spot fewer and fewer potential accidents2 waiting to happen.

Until circumstances on your farm change, that is!

Next, we’ll look at hazards from a ‘task’ viewpoint.

  1. Anything that may cause harm
  2. An unexpected, unplanned event resulting in physical harm, damage to plant, property etc