This is a week to reflect on how lucky we were in the past year because you missed being killed by that big bale that fell off the front end loader when you were piling them in the hay shed. Maybe you were lucky when you leaned over that unprotected power take-off shaft and it grabbed your old raggedy pants and tore them from your body, leaving you embarrassed, standing in the yard with only your underwear on.

Maybe you were upset last cropping season when the draw pin that attached the disc popped out of the drawbar. You quickly found out that those four hydraulic hoses which went from the tractor to the disc to let you control depth of cut and angle, were not strong enough to tow the disc. After spending a day, doing $300 to $400 worth of repairs to the broken hydraulic hoses and broken remote connectors before returning to work cropping, you were just glad that the hitch pin hadn’t popped out going down that big hill on the road home. That’s because the disc might have moved ahead enough to hit the big rear tires of the tractor, throwing it on top of you and the tractor. Even though you had put a safety pin in the draw pin to keep it from popping out, a stiff corn stalk or a small tree branch at the edge of the field must have knocked out the safety pin.

Then there was that night about 2 a.m. when you checked the beef herd and found a cow having difficulty calving. You were so busy and alone, that you didn’t notice that cross old cow sneak up behind you. If you hadn’t heard her snort, you might not have gotten out of the yard in time to save yourself from getting gored by that cross cow.

We all know of a friend who is missing a finger, foot, leg, arm, eye, or some other appendage because of a farm accident. Farming and forestry have been and still are two of the most dangerous professions in Canada.

Then we remember some of those neighbours who were not so lucky. I can name 40 farming neighbours who died in tragic farm accidents.

While Canadian farmers strive to produce the safest and best foods in the world, they are constantly trying to compete with foods produced in far away countries with much lower or no safety standards for food production and much lower wages. Strict environment, food quality, and animal welfare laws in Canada must always be adhered to.

Sometimes, in an attempt to reduce food costs our farmers take short cuts when it comes to farm safety. Farmers must be constantly aware of things that change which you have no control over, like a tile drain bubbling up and leaving a hole in the field deep enough and big enough to break the wheel off a tractor or even upset one.

A building may be engineered for the weight of snow that we never encounter here but putting a lean-to on one side of a building or erecting a silo beside it can affect the way the snow blows around and onto part of the building. Some mornings a farmer might wake up with six feet of snow on one part of a roof when that roof was only engineered for three feet of snow.

In an attempt to win a construction contract some shady contractors have sold a building engineered to withstand a lighter snow load. Some morning, after a large snow and strong wind, a farmer might enter a building that has stood for 40 years and have it collapse with the weight of the snow, killing animals and maybe him too.

Some very large farm machines are still being manufactured today that can stall or run out of fuel going up or down a long steep hill. When the motor on some of these machines stops, both the steering and brakes also stop working. This leaves the driver sitting helplessly in the seat with absolutely no control of the machine. Lucky that farmer’s brains work faster and more thoroughly than the computers in the machines that they drive!

Yes, farm safety is a 24-7-365 job. Take time to teach your family about dangers on the farm and make sure dad takes a break when you think he might be getting tired.

Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com

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