Farm Safety - the limping farmer
January 22nd 2008 07:06
How do you tell if someone is a farmer by looking at him/her? Firstly, look at the hands - if there is some skin missing, the nails are still dirty despite a good scrub, there is black oil in any creases and there is a crooked finger (at best) or a missing finger or two, you can be fairly sure you have either a farmer or a mechanic. Then check out the tan - if it is uneven - white feet but brown legs - brown arms and white shoulders - you definitely have a farmer.
However, sunburn is the least of a farmer's troubles - unless it leads to melanomas and the typical male doesn't get to the doctor on time......
You can also usually tell a farmer by the other long term injuries that show themselves in later life. Doctors and Specialists can pick them a mile off. There's the ruined knees caused by continuous jumping on and off tractors , trucks and other machinery, kneeling on hard cement floors to fix things and bad tempered sheep which take great delight in charging into unsuspecting legs in sheep yards.
Then there are the shoulder and neck injuries - caused mainly from twisting around in the tractor seat to look at the machinery that is following.Do that all day everyday for one or two months a year and your shoulders would suffer too. Then backs get a fair thumping too when farmers decide that "that heavy ewe does need to come back to the yards and that hoist I saw at the last Show would be useful right now!" or "I used to be able to lift that motor onto the truck - I can still do it... I think....." If you get the picture.
Motor bikes give their fair share of injuries too. The four wheeler comes with a video on how to use it - which shows the manufacturers are aware of the dangers even if the user isn't.
Farmers are, on a whole very safety conscious. Some people from Farm Safety organisations probably wouldn't agree with that and more and more legislation - some well deserved and long overdue and some occasionally a bit "silly" - reflect their view. However when people work with machinery and stock there are bound to be accidents. Some are purely freaky, and they are the worse for there is no explanation or cautionary tale to learn from them. Some are carelessness and inexperience - like the first accident I ever heard of - a young farmer with long hair got it stuck in a post hole digger as it was spinning and nearly scalped himself. (He survived but he wasn't a pretty sight for a long time after that). Some are caused by hurrying, tiredness or stress - all usually coming together. For example: the farmer who forgot he'd shut the wire gate and then attempted to go through the gap on a motor bike, or the farmer who got under the header to remove the rubbish without telling his son who was the driver that he was there. Long weeks in hospital were the results.
There is a farmer's saying that "it is the quiet bull that kills". This means of course, that it is the thing you least expect to cause a problem which the one that may strike. All farmers know this, and try to ensure that as many "quiet bulls" are accounted for before beginning a job.
The average age of farmers in Australia is 58years old. Hopefully as they get older and wiser they become more safety conscious. Most of their current ailments are the result of earlier more physically challenging days. There are a lot of ways farmers can work "smarter" and more safely than in the past. However the nature of the job still required working with machinery and animals - both of which can be unpredictable.
So next time you hear a farmer having a whinge ... it could well be he/she is hurting like hell with sore knees, back, shoulders and skin off the most sensitive part of his finger. So give him a break and offer him/her a chair to rest the weary bones!
Uneven sunburn - a farmer's legs.
Then there are the shoulder and neck injuries - caused mainly from twisting around in the tractor seat to look at the machinery that is following.Do that all day everyday for one or two months a year and your shoulders would suffer too. Then backs get a fair thumping too when farmers decide that "that heavy ewe does need to come back to the yards and that hoist I saw at the last Show would be useful right now!" or "I used to be able to lift that motor onto the truck - I can still do it... I think....." If you get the picture.
Farmers are, on a whole very safety conscious. Some people from Farm Safety organisations probably wouldn't agree with that and more and more legislation - some well deserved and long overdue and some occasionally a bit "silly" - reflect their view. However when people work with machinery and stock there are bound to be accidents. Some are purely freaky, and they are the worse for there is no explanation or cautionary tale to learn from them. Some are carelessness and inexperience - like the first accident I ever heard of - a young farmer with long hair got it stuck in a post hole digger as it was spinning and nearly scalped himself. (He survived but he wasn't a pretty sight for a long time after that). Some are caused by hurrying, tiredness or stress - all usually coming together. For example: the farmer who forgot he'd shut the wire gate and then attempted to go through the gap on a motor bike, or the farmer who got under the header to remove the rubbish without telling his son who was the driver that he was there. Long weeks in hospital were the results.
Working with machinery - always safety first.
There is a farmer's saying that "it is the quiet bull that kills". This means of course, that it is the thing you least expect to cause a problem which the one that may strike. All farmers know this, and try to ensure that as many "quiet bulls" are accounted for before beginning a job.
The average age of farmers in Australia is 58years old. Hopefully as they get older and wiser they become more safety conscious. Most of their current ailments are the result of earlier more physically challenging days. There are a lot of ways farmers can work "smarter" and more safely than in the past. However the nature of the job still required working with machinery and animals - both of which can be unpredictable.
So next time you hear a farmer having a whinge ... it could well be he/she is hurting like hell with sore knees, back, shoulders and skin off the most sensitive part of his finger. So give him a break and offer him/her a chair to rest the weary bones!
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