Health and safety culture must change, says Matt Redman
Europe, what are you thinking? With increased food production clearly required, why throw so many hurdles in the way of proposed CAP reform? The problem is mostly likely to do with other EU countries having failed to do much for their environment, whereas in the UK we’ve done extra.
The last of the wheat was drilled on 31 October into what resembled crushed concrete in places, it has hardly rained since it was ploughed. The decision was taken to get it in the ground, so the opportunity wasn’t missed if it ever gets wet. The seed-bed was so dry at least it should not try and germinate until then.
The rest of the wheat is looking very patchy and in need of a good soaking – areas under trees or on heavier ground have yet to germinate, even though they were drilled towards the end of September.
Luckily it’s not all bad news as the oilseed rape is looking good, with plants in most places covering all of the ground leaving little space for any weeds to survive or pigeons to land.
There are many headlines that pop up in the news to do with farming, but poor health and safety figures really shouldn’t be among them. While there are always going to be dangers with working alone, long hours and with large machinery or animals, it’s time the mentality of attempting to save money by not replacing something that’s unsafe because it can still be used, or deciding to do some jobs ourselves – that professionals have a lot of training and special safety equipment for – is changed. How can we, as an industry, expect to encourage people to become farmers if they have a 1:10 chance of being killed? That’s probably worse than if you join the army these days.
