Ontario Grain Farmer - September 2021

THE MAIN REASON to practice farm safety closely parallels the incentive to get vaccinated against COVID-19… basically, the alternative to either can be deadly. Yet some people’s belief that the cure is worse than the condition has slowed the acceptance of both. But despite initial reluctance, public health policy officials saw a big change this year in vaccine uptake. In the U.S., for example, 23 per cent of people said they wouldn’t get vaccinated — but as the year went on, about one-quarter of them changed their minds. Persuasive approaches such as social marketing and contemporary social media tools, such as TikTok, are being credited for this turnaround. Can the same techniques be used to amplify farm safety messages and decrease farm injuries and fatalities? Dr. Aaron Yoder, a farm safety expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, says changing basic behaviour is where change begins. He notes how social marketing campaigns helped sway the court of public opinion in the past, such as stop smoking and wear seatbelts. He says for farm safety, behavioural change may actually start with those at arm’s length, such as farm families, rather than farmers themselves. “We see it with children receiving messages at school and elsewhere about problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, and bringing it home to parents,” he says. “The kids talk about the perils to their parents and help promote a change in their basic behaviour.” Showing how families are affected by poor farm safety behaviour should be easy. DEADLY STATISTICS In the U.S., about 27 out of 100,000 farmers die every year on the job. Farmers are eight times more likely to have an occupational fatality than the average American worker. In any state with an agricultural economy, 20 to 30 deaths can be expected each year. Most farm deaths are tractor related. In Canada, of the top 10 mechanical-related farm deaths, the top three are tractor related: rollovers, runovers, and being pinned by equipment. The same goes for the U.S.. There, tractor side and back rollovers account for almost 100 deaths a year. One in seven farmers who survive a tractor rollover will be disabled. Statistics there also show that seven out of 10 farms will go out of business within five years of a tractor overturn fatality. “Just look at the financial side of a farm injury,” says Yoder. “There’s the romantic notion of neighbours chipping in at harvest to help get a crop off when a producer is injured, but it doesn’t go on forever.” ROLLOVERS Harvest season is when farm safety advocates on both sides of the border step up farm safety messaging. Farmers are particularly susceptible to harm from rollovers — often caused by underpowered machines towing loads beyond their capacity and tipping front to back — when they are spending so much time on their machinery. But harvest is only part of the picture. In Canada, 85 per cent of rollovers are sideways rollovers, caused by working on a steep grade or hitting a bump. Both Yoder and Rob Gobeil, agricultural health and safety specialist with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, have the ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER 13 SEPTEMBER 2021 Industry News Creative persuasion THE NEXT APPROACH FOR PROMOTING FARM SAFETY Owen Roberts continued on page 14 same advice for farmers: that is, think before engaging with machinery. For example, Gobeil urges knowing the tipping point and centre of gravity to discourage front to back tip overs. Avoid unsafe hitching practices, he says. Keep the load as low as possible…and use the right machine for the job. “Just looking at some of the older tractors, especially the ones with close set front wheels, you can tell they’re tippy,” he says. And it’s unlikely they are outfitted or retrofitted with modern safety equipment, such as seat belts, seat sensors, safety switches, and rollbars. The National Tractor Safety Coalition says that rollover TRACTOR AFTER A ROLLOVER. PHOTO COURTESY OF @FARMERLEX.