A survey of farmers’ attitudes toward safety is leading to a new direction for the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.
CASA executive director Marcel Hacault presented results from the on-line survey at the group’s annual meeting Oct. 23, but said more details would be released later this year or early next year.
CASA chair Bruce Johnson said the board will study the survey to come up with ideas for farm safety programs.
“Typically CASA has been administrative. We’d get money from Agriculture Canada and we’d hand it out for research and projects,” Johnson said.
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“In our new plan, we want to become more of an enabler, a doer.”
Hacault said 83 percent of the 746 Canadian farmers surveyed thought safety was important. However, only 15 percent have a formal safety program for their farm.
About one-third said they would like to develop a safety plan and that they would be interested in training about first aid, keeping their children safe and understanding their legal liabilities.
Hacault said a safety program could be built into the environmental farm plans promoted by the federal government. He also said CASA would like to develop a certified safe farmer program, modeled after an American training course.
“The take-home message is that farmers think they are safe and their neighbours are not.”
Only one-third of farmers said they would refrain from working when tired. One-third said they would actively try to manage stress.
When farmers were asked what stops them from working safely, 35 percent blamed old habits while 31 percent said safe procedures took too much time.
Farmers listed three factors that would motivate them to work safely:
- Loss of productivity and profit, with one producer saying “if I’m hurt there’s no one to do the job.”
- A desire to protect family members, especially those learning to do chores.
- First hand experience with an accident.
Ron Gall of Farm Credit Canada told the group that the survey information rang true because “this is the grade farmers gave themselves, not the grade CASA gave them.”
