increase font size
WorkSafe will provide free kits designed to help farmers manage onfarm risks at the National Fieldays.
Farmers interested in learning to reduce the risk of accidents with machinery are encouraged to visit the WorkSafe team at Mystery Creek.
Many accidents with machinery can be simply avoided, says Al McCone, WorkSafe's programme manager for agriculture.
"WorkSafe will provide free kits designed to help farmers [manage] risks onfarm, including machinery-related hazards.
"Machinery accidents can be down to operator error, misjudgement, inexperience or inadequate maintenance."
Unguarded machinery parts present a serious risk of injury. "These include belts and pulleys on vacuum pumps, milk pumps and auger motors, generator flywheels and gear wheels. Take care around shafts and spindles on vacuum pumps and milk pumps, and also on the tractor power take-off when you're using a tractor as a power source.
"Dangerous machine parts include drawing-in points or nip points: these occur when a belt contacts a pulley. They grab at fingers, clothing or hair and draw the operator in, causing serious injuries."
Impact and crushing areas can also be dangerous, he says. "These points crush limbs or people, like rotary platform rollers (where people can be caught between fixed rails) and the moving stalls on rotary, hydraulic or pneumatic gates (like cow entrances and exits).
"Easily seen and used emergency stop equipment is vital in large machinery, and good design in machines like log-splitters will mean the operator is well away from the impact points.
"Problems can be there even before a machine gets through a farm gate. Manufacturers and retailers need to be aware of the safety and usability of the product they are designing or selling."
Farmer and former All Black Richard Loe will join the WorkSafe team at Mystery Creek.
Research lending to the production of dairy products that benefit the elderly and improves the overall wellbeing of all people is a key focus of Fonterra's Research and Development centre, based in Palmerston North.
OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is growing and making up a disproportionate share of nonnegative workplace drug test results.
Federated Farmers says the farming sector has been unable to effectively address quad bike safety.
The Government wants to make sure that rural communities get a level of service that people who live in cities often complacently expect.
WorkSafe New Zealand is calling on farmers to consider how vehicles move inside their barns and sheds, following a sentencing for a death at one of South Canterbury’s biggest agribusinesses.
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…
