Last year 14 people were killed in farm-related accidents and another 1,350 injured on Alberta farms. With those kinds of statistics, Alberta Agriculture farm safety co-ordinator Laurel Aitken will use any way possible to distribute her farm safety message.
Aitken hopes the launch of a new farm safety CD will be one more way farmers will listen and initiate a farm safety plan.
“We have to get the message out in as many ways as we can. It gives us another angle,” said Aitken.
Since the launch of Farm Safety It’s No Accident, Aitken has mailed more than 1,000 CDs.
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Every 4-H club in the province received one and students on the Green Certificate program, a type of agricultural apprenticeship, will be required to work through the CD as part of their program.
The Alberta Agriculture Summer Farm Employment Program is also using the CD to provide pre-employment safety training for new workers.
“We think it’s a good new resource,” said Aitken, who hopes the new format wouldn’t overwhelm farmers who sometimes struggle to implement a farm safety plan.
The program is divided into sections such as tractors, balers and child safety. In each section farmers can go through a checklist and plan a safety program in bite-sized pieces.
Often farmers get overwhelmed and don’t know how to start a safety plan on large, mixed production farms, she said.
