Farm safety initiatives

At this one day tractor safety training session held on January 26, 2017, participants rotated among several learning stations for sessions relating to prevention of tractor roll overs, run overs and safety consideration for extracting stuck equipment.

Partners: Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, Farm Credit Canada and Manitoba Canola Growers’ Association.

The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Farm Safety Training project was developed to train trainers using the "Canada FarmSafe Plan" from the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) with support from Farm Credit Canada (FCC). In the fall of 2012, eleven trainers attended the five day training sessions. A short course for agricultural producers as well as a topics course in Farm Safety for Agricultural Diploma students was offered in 2013. Several Farm Safety Workshops for farm workers and supervisors were held at the Glenlea Research Farm the following summer.

Partners: Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, Farm Credit Canada

The Farm Safety Curriculum Development and Pilot Course Delivery project, completed September 2015, was designed to provide agricultural diploma students and existing producers with access to timely and relevant information on farm safety.

Introduction to Farm Safety had been taught to agricultural diploma students since 2013 and for this initiative, the course was re-developed to be taught in a blended learning delivery format, that is, a mixture of in person and online segments.

The learning objectives of this course include increasing awareness of farm safety legislation and improving the adoption of safer work practices on farms as an important component of farm business management. The top priority of the course was to influence students to translate the course materials into personal action and safe on-farm behaviour.

The School and its partners developed and hosted three community-based workshops on farm safety awareness for producers in Winnipeg, Brandon and Dauphin. In addition to providing participants with an introduction to farm safety, these workshops initiated a dialogue between producers and the School of Agriculture to help identify barriers to safety adoption, and determine where Manitoba producers currently reside in terms of on-farm safety practices. The intended outcome for the workshops was to provide producers with an awareness of farm safety regulations and the resources to start developing farm safety systems for their own farms.

This project resulted in the development of AGRI 2500 Managing Farm Safety, a degree course than can be applied to diploma program The learning objectives for the course include understanding how the Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act applies to farm workplaces and developing a Farm Safety System for an individual farm workplace (with support).

This project was possible with funding provided by Research and Innovation Program of Worker's Compensation Board of Manitoba.

Preventing injuries in agricultural work settings is challenging due to the unique nature of the agricultural work environment. Often, farms are homes as well as worksites, so children and elderly folks are also victims of agricultural injuries. Finding ways to increase safety awareness and safety practices on farms is important to improve the safety culture in agriculture.

This project had two main outcomes. First and foremost, was to develop and implement safe work procedures for the entire Glenlea Research Station and for all related research activities that occur at The TK Cheung Centre for Animal Research and Poultry Research Barns. The effort was undertaken in recognition that beyond helping keep our people safe at work, the work procedures and the general approach to safety taken needs to be reasonable and realistic, align with general university safety policies, and fit together to be on University Farm Safety plan.

The second outcome for this project was to extend information gathered, tools developed, and lessons learned from this work to the agriculture community in Manitoba.

This project was possible with funding provided by Research and Innovation Program of Worker's Compensation Board of Manitoba.