During this Farm Safety Week, the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) is intending to strengthen its engagement with the older farmers within our farming community.
The Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) published its fifth Farm Safety Action Plan in 2024 with a key aim of engaging with groups who tend to be at higher risk of fatality or injury such as older farmers. An objective of the plan is to engage with older farmers to promote small changes which will reduce injuries and fatalities within the 65 plus age group.
The FSP alongside the FSP Affiliate organisations held an older farmers health and safety awareness day on Wednesday 19 March 2025 at the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) new Learning and Development College, Cookstown. The overall aim of the day was to reinforce the FSP plan message that by taking small steps, farmers can save their own or other’s lives.
Robert Kidd, Chief Executive of HSENI, said: “It is important that we liaise and engage with our older farmers, as health and safety is an ever-increasing issue in the farming community with new equipment, machinery and methods of farming evolving all the time. Equally with older equipment, it is crucial to ensure it is well maintained and in safe working condition.
“The day we spent with the older farmers in Cookstown, gave us an opportunity to highlight the increased risks with age in farming, as we urged older farmers to recognise their limitations, and prioritise safety measures on their own farms. The event was a remarkable success, with excellent feedback from the attendees, so much so that we are organising another older farmer’s day.”
The event saw 60 farmers from Rural Support’s Plough on Groups visit five different stations where they heard from industry professionals steps they could take at home on their own farm to improve safety standards.
Topics covered on the day were:
1. Occupational health with a focus on dust and lung health.
2. Work at height
3. Vehicles and vehicle maintenance with a focus on tractor maintenance, ATV quad bike, UTV vehicles and telehandler use, maintenance, training, and thorough examination.
4. Slurry / animal Rescue – dangers of mixing slurry, slurry gases and NIFRS large animal rescue when livestock fall into slurry tanks.
5. Animal handling – appropriate facilities for calving cows, managing bulls and handling cattle on the farm.
HSENI is acknowledging the working partnership between Rural Support for their help and support in organising and attending the event, the FSP Affiliate organisations for hosting the stations and very kindly donating items for safety goody bags which each farmer received and for the NIFRS for hosting the event at their new state-of-the-art premises.
