A national surveillance project of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR) is reporting that 624 agriculture-related fatalities occurred in Canada from 2011 to 2020. Other statistics show an average of 62 people died each year with 54 per cent of those fatalities being related to machinery, 58 per cent being farm owners/operators and 11 per cent being children.

There is no doubt that farm accidents can have devastating and far-reaching consequences and as we enter the busy spring and summer seasons it is a good time to remind ourselves about safety on the farm. Victoria Hutt, the mental health and farm safety coordinator for New Brunswick’s mental health and safety program, Farm Talk Care, offers the following farm safety tips:

Take breaks. “The importance of taking breaks and socializing is so important to stress, for safety and mental health, and it greatly helps productivity overall,” she says.

• Create designated safe play areas on farms. This was recently an area of focus shared as part of CASA’s first annual Kid’s FarmSafe Week, which took place May 13 to 19 this year with the theme Nurturing the Future of Agriculture. Check out resources on the website casa-acsa.ca/en/farmsafe-kids/resources, including colouring sheets, Toolbox Talks for kids, a farm safety contract for kids and parents and a Creating Safe Play Areas publication.

• Plan for working alone. “Working alone on a farm is a major cause of injuries leading to fatalities that can be mitigated by developing and using a plan for working in isolation,” says Hutt pointing to a good tips list from Workplace Safety & Prevention Services about working alone safely: https://www.wsps.ca/resource-hub/agriculture/working-alone-on-the-farm-here-are-6-tips-to-do-it-safely.

• Focus on good mental health.Hutt says mental health and safety are extremely connected in both directions, with poor mental health impacting physical safety and injury negatively impacting mental health for all involved, not just the person injured. “Poor mental health impacts decision making, ability to focus, communication, family and co-worker relationships, quality of sleep, etc. that all impact capacity to work safely.”

Farm safety resources

Having farm safety resources can help keep farms safe for everyone to live, work, and visit. The following websites offer lots of resources to do just that.

The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) offers an array of farm safety resources on their website (www.casa-acsa.ca) on their trainings, programs and resources pages, including downloadable forms, such as farm risk assessments, standard operating practices and contractor safety responsibilities.

A great resource is a downloadable FarmSafe Plan (www.casa-acsa.ca/en/resources/canada-farmsafe-plan) with sample forms. Developing  a safety plan for your farm may have some initial costs, but you’ll see a return on investment in efficiency and less time and productivity lost due to preventable injuries.

Producers can access mental health and wellness training, tools and resources on the Farm Talk Care website www.farmtalkcare.ca. The material provided supports the agricultural community to take the first steps in maintaining mental fitness; recognizing when it may be time to reach out and talk to someone and learning how to care for yourself, your family, your workers on the farm and anyone in the farming community.

The Do More Agriculture Foundation is a charity organization that focuses on mental health in agriculture across Canada. It has a great catalog of mental health and wellness tips on its website www.domore.ag/wellness-tips and frequently shares information on their social media platforms including Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube.

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) website (cmhanb.ca) provides invaluable mental health resources, offers interactive tools including a mental health metre, a stress index and a work-life balance quiz to help farmers identify areas they may need to focus on. The CMHA, New Brunswick office, also offers several free online webinars at cmhanb.ca/category/webinars. Topics address anxiety, maintaining healthy connections, mindfulness, stress management, self-care and self-compassion.

Also in New Brunswick, the Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries’ (NBDAAF) Mitigation, Prevention, Occupational Health and Safety Program offers farm safety support to those in the agriculture sector. This program provides funding assistance for approved activities, including those intended to enhance the health and occupational safety on farms. Information on this program is available on the Government of New Brunswick website at www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/services/services_renderer.201323.Assurance_Systems_Program.html

WorkSafeNB (www.worksafenb.ca/safety-topics/farming) has also developed a number of resources to help farmers and farm workers stay healthy and safe. These include safety checklists, a farm safety guide, guidelines and hazard alerts.

The Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick wishes you a safe and healthy farming season!