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Agriculture producers encouraged to focus on farm safety

This is Canadian Agricultural Safety Week.

This year's theme, "Safety is our Standard" is the first of a three-year farm safety campaign; Your Farm, Your Family, Your Success.

Agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations there is, with accidents occurring most often between seeding and harvest.

Stats from the Saskatchewan Farm Injury Surveillance Program at the University of Saskatchewan show that approximately 13 people are killed in farm related accidents in Saskatchewan each year.

The majority of those deaths occur in the farmyard and involve machinery and equipment.

Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister David Marit says, Agricultural Safety Week serves as an important reminder that safety in agriculture matters year-round, on and off the farm.

Farm Safety tips and responsibilities from Saskatchewan's Occupational Health and Safety Ministry can be found here. 

Alberta's Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development Minister Nate Horner released a statement in recognition of Canadian Agricultural Safety Week.

He notes that on average, 85 die each year in Canada due to farm-related incidents.

"A staggering 13 per cent of these deaths are children. These tragedies are preventable."

He says employers, workers and government all have a part to play to ensure the safety of agricultural workers and their families across the province.

"So this week, I encourage farmers, ranchers and food processors to renew their commitment to worker health and safety by taking a moment to identify hazards in the workplace and creating a plan to ensure Albertans can come home at the end of each shift. These small steps could help save a life."

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Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way



Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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