Safety videos to reduce farm incidents

A new series of free, educational videos has been released for farmers, addressing safe operating procedures to help lower the risk of on-farm injury and death.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Making Our Farms Safer (MOFS) team has released a series of educational standard safe operating procedure videos on YouTube, aimed at ensuring every farmer makes it home for dinner safely.

VFF President Emma Germano said videos are designed to correctly display procedures and technologies available to help safeguard everyone on the farm.

“The videos include working with livestock, loading hay and using mix feeders, as working with livestock and machinery is sadly where we see the most serious injuries and fatalities on farms,” Ms Germano said.

“If anyone watching these videos can gain insight on a better or safer way to carry out a task, and that change in method saves their life, then the educational videos will be achieving all that we hope they can.”

According to the Safer Farms Report 2022, there were 46 farm deaths last year, on top of 126 incidents causing injuries.

Ms Germano said that was a statistic that all farmers had a role in reducing.

“We all have an obligation to make our farms safer, and we hope these videos start conversations that lead to behavioural change,” she said.

The video series is the latest tool developed as part of the VFF MOFS project, to assist Victorian farmers in adopting better farm safety and health practices.

The VFF MOFS project is part of the Victorian Government’s $20 million Victoria’s Smarter, Safer Farms program and Safer Farms election commitment, addressing skills and safety issues in the agriculture sector.

The project has a dedicated website that is a farm safety hub housing resources, news, and up to date information on farm safety, and where functions and farm visits can be booked.

You can view the videos series by heading to www.youtube.com and searching ‘VFF Making Our Farms Safer Project’.