An organization formed to equip Alberta farmers and ranchers with farm safety information and guidance is now in transition.
AgSafe Alberta is an agricultural industry-led group formed after the provincial government enacted the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, previously known as Bill 6, amid much controversy.
Using $500,000 from the federal-provincial Growing Forward 2 program, various commodity groups established an organization to develop materials and assist farmers and ranchers who wanted more guidance on farm safety.
They hired an extension co-ordinator, Donna Trottier, and three advisers who do on-farm safety assessments upon request. The organization has also developed written materials and resources for safety training, safety planning, hazard assessment and risk management.
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Funding for those efforts will run out in February.
“We have all this great material, and a brand built and we don’t want to drop the ball on farm and ranch safety so we’re going to pass that on to the (newly formed AgSafe Society),” said Brian Kennedy of the Alberta Wheat Commission and a member of the AgSafe working group.
“When our funding expires, what we’ve built is being passed on to the society and hopefully there will be no gap between the end of the AgSafe working group and the newly formed society.”
The AgSafe Society, officially formed in November, has elected Irma-area farmer Kent Erickson as chair and Erna Ference of Okotoks as vice-chair.
“We want to build on the education and awareness and the tools for farmers” that AgSafe has developed, Erickson said.
The society is in the process of setting up its bylaws and administration, and Erickson said it will likely meet again in January to work further on a plan for the future of AgSafe Alberta.
“One thing we do know for sure is that the program has been very well received by the farmers who have done it,” said Erickson.
“We very much like the AgSafe program as it sits right now.”
Trottier said the transition is being handled by a committee of agricultural commodity groups that are involved in forming the society and planning the program’s future.
AgSafe Alberta has given presentations at various agricultural meetings this fall and they have been well received, she added.
Sherri Marthaller, AgSafe adviser, said at a recent meeting that the group’s approach of breaking farm safety aspects into smaller components has proven popular.
She has been working with feedlot and livestock operations that have requested help to improve farm safety.
“We certainly aren’t trying to audit,” said Marthaller. “We are there just to be a source of information for different people in agriculture if they’ve got questions or if they want information or some ideas.”
Erickson said the society may try to access grants, government funds or commodity group money to finance itself in the short term. In the long term, however, he believes industry funding will be more palatable to farmers and ranchers.
“We would really like it to be producer funded because we obviously want to be in control of it.”
