Seminars to discuss farm safety

Posted By Rob Brunel, KAP vice-president

Posted 28 days ago

It won’t happen to me. But if it does, I’m sure I’ll be able to get along okay. Those are some thoughts that may go through your mind when the topic of accidents on the farm comes up.

On Nov. 4 and 10, producers will have the opportunity to attend the 2009 Farm Safety and Health Seminars to hear the reality about disabling farm injuries and how they can affect us as individuals and our businesses.

Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives and Keystone Agricultural Producers are hosting the seminars. One session will highlight stories of farm accident survivors and take a look back on how their lives were forever changed. This is an issue every producer should pay attention to because the reality is these accidents continue to happen in this province and across the country.

In the past two months there were two farm accidents in Manitoba that were reported in the mainstream media—one involved a fatality.

We know that there are many, many other accidents that no one hears about and we also know that these accidents are preventable.

 The seminars will offer useful sessions that producers should take advantage of such as doing an electrical check-up for your farm, an emergency planning workshop, and an incident de-construction workshop. Attendees can also find out more about workers’ compensation and Workplace Safety and Health. A seminar will be held in Dauphin on Nov. 4 and in Morden on Nov. 10.

This is definitely one day you should take to spend indoors - for your health and safety, and to help protect the people who live and work on your farm.

 To register, call Glen Blahey, provincial farm safety coordinator, at 1-800-282-8069 ext. 2315 or email SafeFarms@gov.mb.ca.  

KAP is Manitoba’s largest general farm policy organization, representing over 7,000 farm families and 22 commodity groups throughout the province.