Govt to rethink farm health and safety rules with practical reforms
Farmers are welcoming new Government proposals to make farm health and safety rules more practical and grounded in real-world farming.
They must identify risks they or their employees are likely to encounter daily, so the launch of an online app called Onside will be of interest to many.
The app allows farmers to develop their own Health and Safety Plan by working through pre-populated lists of potential risks, overlaid on a satellite map of the property.
The system saves time and allows farm staff or visitors to be aware of risks and how to manage them, to reduce incidents and improve farm safety overall.
Contractors or visitors will need to be encouraged to sign-in on a smartphone as they cross a virtual 'geo-fence' -- typically farm boundaries -- and will then be advised of risks and asked to acknowledge them.
New risks can be updated by the farmer in real-time and visitors can report any new risks via their smartphones. All information is cloud-stored -- no paperwork -- and offline capability applies in areas of poor cellphone coverage.
The technology allows users to map boundaries of the enterprise, uses photos rather than written descriptions to show known risks, and allows users to access instructions for emergencies in real-time.
Farmers and industry experts in health and safety contributed to the development and technology partner Jade Software wrote the app. It has huge potential in a complex, but necessary part of a modern farm.
A free trial is offered for the month of April.
