March 14 to March 20 is the 2021 farm safety week. With less than two per cent of Canada’s workforce involved in farming, you may wonder why everyone should be aware of Canada’s farm safety week. The first reason is that farming continues to be one of Canada’s most dangerous occupations, just as dangerous as forestry work, mining and commercial fishing.
Every year one of our local farm neighbours gets seriously injured or even killed in a farm accident. The fact is that most farms . . .
run a seven day week and work long hours. During seeding and harvest the mentality of the farmer is to get the job done while the weather allows and while the window for planting is right. Every day after the correct time to plant is delayed past the planting window means another drop in yield next fall. That’s why you see farmers working day and night on nice spring days. Sometimes these days may extend to 16 or 20 hours without a rest.
As profit margins become more uncertain and slimmer each year this only adds more stress to get everything done at the correct time. The same added pressure is on the farmer throughout harvest to get the crop off at peak time because crop quality and yield will plummet if a rain or muddy fields delay harvest work.
Just as all the babies born in the hospital don’t arrive in the middle of the day, animals can require assistance delivering their babies in the middle of the night too. Although many farms now have video cameras focused at pens where pregnant mothers await delivery, the calving pen has to be watched 24-7 whether the farmer is tired or not.
This is the time of the year when farmers are getting equipment ready for cropping, haying (only two months away) and transporting crops to the farm or elevator. Just as we may be delayed getting some foods or other goods needed at home during this COVID-19 time, farmers have discovered that some parts needed for equipment may also be delayed because some plants are running part time. More farm equipment is now manufactured in far away countries and many transportation companies, parts warehouses and machine dealers don’t work every day and never on holidays.
As profit margins get smaller, farms must produce more and farm more acres to survive. Some of this land may be several miles away from the home farm and requires using the back roads and even highways to get from one field to another. Today’s farm equipment may be five times as large as what grandpa used and the tractors to pull these mammoth machines may be 15 feet wide with dual or triple wheels on them. Some of these tractors can weigh more than 15 tons. I can remember an accident many years ago when a car rear-ended a hay wagon pulled by a small tractor. The farmer had two children on the tractor with him, (which is a no no) and both the tractor driver and the two children were killed.
During the past year there have been three occasions when a small car weighing less than a ton rear ended one of the big tractors that we now commonly see on our roads and needless to say, the distracted drivers of the little cars didn’t come out of those accidents as well as the tractor drivers.
Please be very careful while driving on the roads and watch for over wide machines and tractors. Those farmers would much rather be home with their families, relaxing or having a meal than working these crazy hours trying to git-er-done before the weather changes.
A word to our hard-working farmers that are working these crazy hours, please take that extra few seconds to think twice before getting in a dangerous situation. Of the fifty plus farm deaths that I can vividly remember, in almost every case, if the victim had only taken another second before putting himself in harm’s way he would still be alive today.
This COVID-19 thing has added to the mental stress of everyone. Please take a few seconds to observe people that you meet, talk to your friends and neighbours and force yourself to take a few minutes every day to relax.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
