The hills were certainly alive on Thursday 1 June 2023 as our customers from Murray Bridge and Riverton regions gathered for a special celebration — the Ramsey Bros and CASE IH Ladies’ Day! Lot 100 in Nairne provided the perfect backdrop for the festivities, filled with local produce, quality wines and exceptional company.
It was our honour to host these ladies, the backbones of our rural communities, with years of farming experience and supporting farms between them. And despite their different backgrounds, they share the daily worry of the safety and wellbeing of their spouses, partners, children and staff.
Our guest speaker for the day, Rural Health & Safety Advocate Alex Thomas, engaged the group in a dynamic discussion on work health and safety, with no box-ticking required! Apart from some very funny commentary around tracking husbands, the result was some golden practical safety tips that could just be the thing to save a life of a loved one.
The common concerns included working at heights, managing fatigue and long hours, working alone, and the hazards of working on silos. While some of the ideas to manage these risks seem obvious, that’s precisely the point. These simple, super practical ideas can be incorporated into the day-to-day running of a farm by ANYONE.
Here are the top tips from our Ramsey Bros ladies …
- Take stock regularly – A few minutes to regularly discuss health and safety in weekly meetings may be the difference between life and death. Taking time to ensure that everyone is on the same page and has a plan for how to prevent something from going wrong goes a long way towards setting clear expectations and making sure safety is at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
- Communication – New technology is full of ways to help you stay in touch with your loved ones during work hours. Smart watches and GPS trackers in phones mean you can track them easily and they have means of communication in an emergency.
- Lifesaving investments – A lot of modern farming equipment and machinery have in-built safety mechanisms that reduce the need for physical labour. Ladies, take control of the books to ensure new equipment is prioritised and you seize the opportunity to retire older and potentially more hazardous equipment.
- Regular check-ins – Get your workers to verify their scheduled timeline at the start of the day or week to give an idea of where they are at any one time.
- Grow your numbers – We’re a hard-working bunch but the reality is, no one can do it all! Long hours lead to fatigue, which is when mistakes happen — sometimes devastatingly so. Employing more people and sharing the load can have productivity benefits as much as boosting safety.
- Feed them up – Good food fuels the body, and eating well goes a long way in helping keep workers energised and focused.
- Decommissioning old silos – Old silos pose a myriad of risks, and they’re just not worth taking! Ideally, get a pro to decommission it, but at the very least, make sure it’s no longer used and is moved away from day-to-day operations or to the dump.
- Use water monitors – Using a camera or smartphone strapped to a pitch fork (or another apparatus) is a great way to check water levels without having to climb ladders and tanks.
Simple, right! These easy and effective ways to support each other on the farm — and when it comes to the safety of your loved ones, a few steps to ensure they come home each night is not too much to ask for.
We left our Ladies’ Day filled with pride in the community we’re surrounded by, and inspired to spread the word about how sharing practical tips with one another could save lives.
