Celebrate Farm Safety Week by Being Safe!

This week, September 19th to 25th, is National Farm Safety Week.  This annual event was initiated by the National Safety Council (NSC) in 1944 and proclaimed as such by each U.S. president since. 

Nationally the focus for 2010 is on ATV safety.  This year we’ve seen an unusually high number of ATV accidents that have caused severe injury and even death.  Gene Surber with the Montana Ag Safety Program spoke with Northern Ag Network a short while back about the devastation of ATV accidents locally.

While the main focus this year, ATVs are one of many dangerous aspects of daily life in production agriculture.

Gene tells us that this time of year, fall livestock gathering brings a strong emphasis to ATV and horse safety.

And, with weather putting a time crunch to harvest and fall planting, Gene tells us that we need to be safe while moving quickly.

Each year, 551 workers die while doing agricultural work in the U.S.  On top of that, approximately 88,000 suffer lost-time injuries.  The bottom line is that most agricultural accidents are preventable.  Use common sense in day-to-day activities and be cautious of letting yourself get too comfortable in a potentially dangerous situation.

© Northern Ag Network 2010

Russell Nemetz & Haylie Shipp