Farmer Focus: Children’s safety on farm must be priority

I was interviewed recently by food and travel writer Clare Hargreaves. She was drafting a piece to appear on my Just Farmers media profile page.

Towards the end of the interview, she asked what topic I would most like to talk about. In true McGregor style, I replied with three: animal welfare, environmental issues and farm safety – especially the high fatality rate.

See also: Opinion: Children working on farms belongs in the past

Two might have been allowed, but three definitely not, so I had to make a quick decision and, you guessed it, safety got dropped.

The next day, I learned it was the start of Farm Safety Week and the press was full of troubling accident figures that showed minimal improvement.

Only days later, Joe Stanley described in his opinion piece for Farmers Weekly how he felt about the fatal accident rate in farming, with a focus on children losing their lives while assisting on farms.

I was beginning to think my quick decision was a wrong one.

This is an issue that needs to be dealt with sensibly.

I know only too well the devastation the loss of a young life in an accident causes to families and friends – my older brother, Alastair, died as a result of an accident while walking to school.

For a bereaved parent, there is no recovery; they just learn to carry on living, wounded by grief and guilt.

Looking after young people’s safety on farms needs to be prioritised.

Many of us benefited hugely from an early involvement in practical agriculture, and I would hate it not to continue for future generations.

It made us stronger in body, mature beyond our years, and prepared for the responsibilities of adult life.

We should now use these positive lessons to make sure we finally make some progress with improving farm accident statistics.

We know through data where the greatest dangers lie. ATVs top the list, tractors come second, followed by large livestock and moving machinery.

So, when you’re next deciding who checks round the sheep, hitches on a trailer or goes through the collecting yard to run an errand, don’t make a quick decision like I did when talking to Clare.

Take a moment to think what the risks are and who you are asking to take them.