Farmers, students, and farm safety supporters gathered recently at the University of Guelph to take part in FarmSafe Forum, a farm safety workshop held in conjunction with Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (March 10 to 16).
Over 50 people took part in the event on March 11, which included an on-farm safety inspection workshop as well as speakers and a Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (CASW) launch event.
Glen Blahey, agricultural health and safety specialist with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) engaged attendees in a discussion on how to identify hazards on the farm.
“I’m very pleased with the turn out and enthusiastic participation. We had a really good representation of people involved in the farming industry. And that’s important because we all have to work together to make farming safer,” Blahey said.
CASW is an annual public education campaign focusing on the importance of practicing safe agriculture. The theme for CASW 2013 is “Get with the Plan!” which encourages farmers to develop written health and safety plans.
This year, FarmSafe Forum events were held in Guelph and Truro, Nova Scotia. Over 100 people were involved in both events.
In Guelph, speakers included Tracey Cross-Childs, who lost a young child in a farming incident and advocates against taking extra riders on farm equipment, and Jamie Beaumont, operator of J.P.C. Farms and farm safety advocate who strongly advises farmers to develop their own written health and safety plans.
Attendees also heard from Lyndon Stewart, chief operating officer, Advancement, at the University of Guelph and long-time agricultural supporter, and Kevin McNab, operations manager for Grey County Emergency Medial Services, who spoke about the severity of some farm injuries and the need to act promptly when calling for emergency services.
Elizabeth Mills, president and CEO of Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, Elizabeth Witmer, chair of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and Mark Wales, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), spoke at the launch of CASW.
The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and exclusive corporate sponsor Farm Credit Canada (FCC) deliver CASW in partnership with and the Government of Canada through Growing Forward, a federal, provincial, territorial initiative. This year, CASA, CFA, and FCC also partnered with Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS), the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), and the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) at the University of Guelph, to deliver the Guelph event.
More information can be found at www.agsafetyweek.ca or on Twitter.com by following the hashtag #CASW.
