Safety data drives productivity and cost control

Using information gathered to improve safety and wellbeing to manage performance probably isn’t your first thought when you think about how to make a farm safe but here’s the thing: good safety practices often align closely with good management and exceptional performance.

Against a backdrop where we, as an industry, are wrestling with horrendous safety statistics and regular fatalities there is a bright spot and that is our ability to steadily gather data in a way that enables simple report generation, the identification of trends and therefore the allocation of resources to improve performance.

Apps such as the MeritAgCheck that have been designed and built for a farm environment are perfect for that.

Staff management

Starting with a simple daily vehicle check and defect notification through to management enables you to build a picture of servicing costs and downtime for an individual piece of equipment.

It allows you to monitor staff management of individual items and track expenditure on parts and labour – and that’s all available in the free version.

As margins come under increasing pressure it will become more and more challenging to maintain legal compliance and the costs associated with it, whilst delivering a profit. Using data derived from tools such as this will enable the efficient management of costs such as training.

Knowing when training was done, when it expires and a system that automatically gives you a nudge to warn you it is going to expire all enable better planning and organisation of training.

Being able to synchronise training days, share trainers and work with neighbours to reduce costs all help to maintain a safe working environment whilst at the same time avoiding the risk and cost of non compliance.

In an ever tightening labour market the ability to demonstrate to a team that their wellbeing and personal development is key to success sends out a powerful message.

Machinery maintenance

The same principle applies to recording machinery maintenance: if you are getting good quality information stored in an app that enables you, with a couple of clicks, to see patterns in breakdowns or expenditure on parts then you’re able to be proactive in management of replacement policies.

Many pieces of machinery require routine inspections, often this is a legal requirement. It’s not enough to say that a visual inspection has taken place. You need to be able to prove that machinery is safe.

A classic example is in the case of agricultural trailer brakes. It is vital that you’re able to prove that you have taken all reasonable measures to establish that the trailer brakes work and that you can prove the efficiency of braking system.

A test such as a rolling road enables that. If you’re going to do that try to do it on farm, using a mobile rig that is set up to test agricultural trailers.

You might be surprised by the results. But if you find a defect on an individual wheel then you’ll have confidence that the other wheels are operating safely, and you’ll only have that one wheel to repair and avoid the costs of doing all four or six wheels on that trailer.

You’ll also have data and a test certificate to prove your good management.

Being able to provide not only a full service history, but also evidence that daily checks and care have been taken of items of equipment enhances resale value and provides any potential purchaser with confidence.

Oliver Dale is an agricultural safety consultant working with a team supporting 1500 farmers across the UK.