Health & Safety Update | July 2019
The quarterly Health & Safety Update is to assist you in ensuring that you are thinking about topical health and safety matters on your farm or estate. Health and safety is a vital part of any business operation.
Unlike last year, harvest looks to be back towards ‘normal’ timing. Nevertheless, we are heading towards the period when this year’s crops will be harvested and next year’s will be drilled. This intense, busy time of year frequently pushes employees to their limits in terms of hours worked. Farms become busier not only in terms of workload but also machinery movements and numbers of employees – including temporary harvest staff – operating together. Pre-harvest health and safety briefings are strongly recommended in order to meet your obligations for providing information, instruction, training and supervision. Machinery servicing and maintenance should be carried out with SAFE STOP in place, and should be recorded. Grain processing and storage facilities should be prepared but with regard for controlling the risks of dust, noise and work at height. Access to grain bins or silos should be planned including points of access and egress, using safety harnesses and fall arrest equipment, and with an emergency plan communicated in advance. Only those in good health and adequately trained and experienced in working in confined spaces should work inside grain bins or silos. The locations of first aid kits should be noted, and contents checked and restocked where resources have been used or are out of date.
In this edition, we also cover:
- Machinery Considerations
- First Aid
- Carriage & Storage of Fuels
- Noise
- Moving Vehicles
- Temporary Harvest Employees
- CDM
