Video: Farmers urged to rethink safety and stop taking risks

A new video that aims to encourage farmers to think ahead and take practical steps to reduce the risk of serious injury has been viewed many thousands of times on social media.

The Farm Safety Foundation (FSP)/Yellow Wellies 2021 hero film highlights the concept of risk assessments, making them real and relatable – something people do naturally every day, often without thinking, like not crossing the road when a bus is coming.

Filmed by director Luc Edwards at Airy Hill Farm, in Filey, North Yorkshire, the film features a farmer thinking ahead before he takes on a number of tasks.

See also: Farmers urged to rethink risk to prevent deaths this harvest

It starts with the moment he takes a sip of tea in the farmhouse after waking up and realises the hot drink could burn his lips. The first thing on the farmer’s mind, as he thinks about the day ahead is “risk assessment”.

The film then features a number of other situations during the day when the farmer is at risk of serious injury – and it shows him planning ahead.

He goes out in the yard to jump on his quad bike, but then realises he has left his helmet indoors and goes back to fetch it.

Later that morning, the farmer sees machinery moving around the yard and decides to put on a fluorescent bib to ensure others are better able to see him.

But in a stark warning to farmers, the video ends with him taking a spanner to make repairs to a farm shed window opening. However, after he fails to make a proper risk assessment, the farmer climbs a wobbly old wooden ladder and falls to the floor.

Lying prostrate

The clip ends with the farmer lying prostrate on the concrete floor.

Yellow Wellies said in a statement: “Farmers think they know their farm and the risks involved in going about their daily tasks.

“However, those risks change day to day and this film aims to encourage people in the industry to rethink risk and to carry out risk assessments and recognise the changing hazards and risks on any busy farm.”

Provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that from 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2021, 41 people were killed in agriculture-related activities. 

“In a year where the number of people killed on farms in Great Britain has almost doubled compared with the previous year, we need to take a more serious approach to a more serious issue,” said Yellow Wellies in its statement.

“Why are farmers continuing to ignore the issue of safety? Why are twice as many over-60s having life-ending incidents on farms compared with the rest of the industry? And what are we going to do about it?”

This year’s 2021 Mind Your Head video “The Living Years” had 614,000 views on social media and the 2020 Farm Safety Week video “Out of The Mouths Of Babes” had 750,000 views across the FSP’s social media channels.

Yellow Wellies is urging all farmers to take 90 seconds to watch the video, and follow share it on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook @yellowwelliesUK using the hashtag #FarmSafetyWeek.