Opinion: Why are young children still dying on our farms?

It distresses me, as a farmer’s daughter, to hear that as well as too many adult deaths, an average of two young children are being killed on UK farms each year, usually in cases involving moving vehicles.

This trend has remained the same for some years and is not improving. Why?

A key factor in this is lifestyle and culture – and it’s a culture we somehow need to change.

See also: Worrying surge in farm fatalities, HSE data reveals

I know this culture well, as I was brought up on a small farm in Norfolk, where the whole family was involved around the farm. I fed the animals with my Dad and played in the fields at harvest time.

I hate to think now of the potential consequences, but I remember as a child climbing high on the top of grain silos.

I also remember one incident when my three-year-old brother was sitting on a tractor seat, where my grandad had left him, and he pushed the start button.

The tractor, left in gear, started and moved forward through a wall, together with a trailer that I, then aged 11, was sitting on with one of the farmworkers.

My brother was knocked from the seat and fell towards the tractor wheel.

If it was not for the quick thinking of the farmworker, who grabbed my brother and stopped the tractor, he would have been under the wheel and not be with us today.

Workplaces

Farms, then and now, are often homes as well as workplaces, and as with any other workplace, have their inherent dangers.

They are not playgrounds. We don’t have children on construction sites, so we shouldn’t have them unsupervised on farms during working hours.

It’s great to have children involved in feeding the animals and experiencing country life, but let’s do it when it’s safe, when there’s no machinery moving around, and let’s not take our eyes off them.

There can be several reasons why small children are allowed onto the farm during work times. Often Mum and Dad work together, and therefore it’s Mum’s workplace too, so who babysits?

It’s often easier to have the children with you. Sometimes, because of the cost of living, Mum goes out to work. Then Dad has the children on his own, but still needs to work.

Sometimes it seems easier to have them sitting in the cab, but remember this is the instructor’s seat and is not meant for children.

Pressure

Farmers have so much to think about, with weather, maximising daylight hours, financial pressures, animal husbandry, and working the land at all hours, rushing to get crops in at harvest while it’s dry. Having a child around adds to the pressure.

We also see TV programmes where children often play a part on a farm from pre-school age. They’re filmed feeding animals, being near machinery, driving tractors and riding on quad bikes, often without helmets.

This gives the misconception that farms are fun places, suitable for children. It does not highlight the dangers.

So I continue to urge safety practitioners working in the agriculture sector to do their best to educate and change the mindset.

We need to ensure children are included in risk assessments, and that we all do our best to save the life of a child.