The National Farm Medicine Center has been up to a lot as they are always working to help farmers learn farm safety practices to help bridge the gap between safety and farm life.
Melissa Ploeckelman, the National Farm Medicine Center Outreach Specialist, says the trend of roadway fatalities is on the upward climb. The National Farm Medicine offers great tools to help mitigate those risks.
“As we’re going into these winter months, what a lot of people don’t realize is that bigger cultural injury surveillance is not funded by the government and so there’s nowhere that says how many accidents or fatalities are happening on farms,” explains Ploeckelman. “Luckily, we’ve been doing a Wisconsin Farm Fatality Report in partnership with UW-Extension to have better data of farm accidents.”
This data has shown that in 2019, roadway death accounted for fifteen percent of all farm fatalities in Wisconsin. That number increased to eighteen percent in 2020 and shows that the trend of roadway fatalities is on the upward climb and that’s not good for farmers.
After analyzing the data, the National Farm Medicine Center partnered with Rural Mutual to hand out slow-moving vehicle sign emblems to help protect farmers. While equipment may not be on the roads as much during the winter as they were during harvest, now is an important time to think about the signs you have and see how they are holding up.
Ploeckelman suggests taking a look at how old the signs are, if the paint is starting to peel, and putting new ones on now before you get busy in the Spring.
“We want to also remind parents, especially young parents, that you’re a parent first and a farmer second,” explains Ploeckelman. “You might be raising crops, cattle, or other livestock, but you’re also raising children and they’re the future of agriculture.”
Some of the things you can do to keep your kids safe on the farm is not letting them ride on tractors with you and waiting to let them operate machinery until they are old enough to do so safely. With the winter weather, be sure your children are appropriately dressed to withstand the cold for long durations during chores.
With winter also comes an increased use of potential UTVs, snowmobiles and other items for recreational use versus farm use.
Ploeckelman adds, “Another trend that we’re seeing is that there are a lot more traumatic ATV incidents happening. A lot more children are coming into hospitals with traumatic injuries from driving an ATV, four-wheeler, or UTV and now coming up it’s going to be snowmobiles.”
While these are great ways to enjoy the snow, it is important to make sure that your children have proper training on how to handle the machinery. There are many safety courses in Wisconsin that are available. Another key safety measure is ensuring your child is riding the right size machine. For example, full-size ATVs are created specifically for people sixteen years and older.
Ploeckelman concludes, “We’re always looking for new ways to keep farmers safe and new resources to offer them. One project that we’re doing right now is on youth mental health. What we’re seeing is that children who grew up on a farm with stressed out parents are going to be more stressed themselves.”
Farmers are stressed but it is important to help educate parents on how they can help their children understand the feelings that they’re having when a teenager starts to feel depressed or stressed out. This is a project that the National Farm Medicine Center hopes to work on going into 2023 and beyond.
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