If you run an agricultural business, there are a lot of potential dangers that you need to manage. You use a lot of heavy machinery and if you run a livestock farm, you have to consider the danger posed by large animals. If you run a small farm, you only have yourself to think about, but if you run a large agricultural business with lots of employees, it’s important that you stay on top of health and safety. If you don’t meet health and safety regulations, you could end up on the wrong side of the law and the risk of employee injury is much greater. So, if you run your own farming business, make sure to follow these health and safety tips. 

Keep Up With Equipment Maintenance 

The equipment that you use on your farm needs regular maintenance to make sure that it is in good working order. This maintenance will help to extend the lifespan of your equipment and save you money, but it’s also very important from a safety point of view. When machinery is not maintained properly, the safety features are far more likely to fail and cause an injury. 

At the end of each day, check over equipment and give it a good clean to reduce general wear and tear. You also need to perform routine maintenance and if you notice any problems, get them seen to right away before they get worse and potentially put somebody in danger. 

Use Wireless Control Systems 

Although machine maintenance improves safety, there are always risks when using heavy duty machinery. You can make things a lot safer if you use wireless control systems so you can keep your distance. There are some great remote control manufacturers that provide control systems so you can manage your machinery without being in the cab. This is particularly useful for dangerous jobs around the farm and it also means that you can control multiple machines at once, which increases productivity as well as improving safety. 

Give Animal Handling Training 

Heavy machinery isn’t the only danger on a farm, you need to consider the animals as well. If you run a livestock farm, it’s vital that you provide the right training to your employees so they know how to handle the animals correctly. When hiring new employees, always look for people with extensive experience so you can be sure that they are not distressing the animals and they are not putting themselves in dangerous situations. 

Invest In Communication Systems 

On a large farm, people are often working alone in dangerous areas. If they have an accident, it could be hours before anybody notices, and this can be fatal. That’s why it’s important that you have communication systems in place when people are working alone. These don’t need to be complex or expensive, you can even use some simple walkie-talkies to make sure that everybody is easy to reach at all times. 

The dangers on a farm are numerous, so make sure that health and safety is always a priority.