Keeping youth farm experiences safe

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — Each year in September, farmers and farm-related groups use National Farm Safety and Health Week to draw attention to the importance of vigilance on the farm.

Andrea Swenson, PhD, director of the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, which functions as a part of the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, said observation of the week makes an ideal time to roll out updates to her organization’s national action plan, which is focused on safeguarding children in agriculture.

“We want our youth to be involved in agriculture; they’re the future for agriculture,” Swenson said. “One of our bedrock beliefs is that agriculture is a wonderful and needed thing. We want to work together towards common goals so youth can experience the awesomeness agriculture has to offer, while being safe and healthy.”

Swenson said her own life has been shaped by the experiences of growing up on her family’s dairy farm.

“Agriculture has been very influential in my life,” Swenson said. “I grew up in 4-H and FFA, and I wouldn’t be who I am without those experiences. We can work together to ensure youth have those positive developmental experiences, and keep them engaged in agriculture for the future.”

The national action plan was last updated in 2012, Swenson said. While keeping a similar blueprint, the plan needed to adapt to changes in agriculture over the past decade.

“We incorporated a lot of the changes and progress made in production practices,” Swenson said.

There is more information related to automation, technology, environmental exposure, extreme weather events and changing organizational and public policies, she said.

Farm safety concerns are not limited only to the children of farmers, Swenson said.

“This time of year, especially, we see agritourism gearing up,” she said. “Unfortunately, with that, we see more in the media about incidents that happen on agritourism visits — last year there was a wagon roll-over in the Eau Claire area. … Visitors to the farms are something that needs to be paid attention to, and that is reflected in the plan.”

Swenson and her colleagues hope to reach a large audience with their information.

“There is a wide range of individuals and organizations working with youth in agriculture, influential to the rural health and safety space,” Swenson said. “We have child farm safety organizations, agricultural businesses, farm organizations, educators, researchers, communicators, philanthropists, policymakers and agencies at the federal, state and local levels — so it’s an issue everyone can influence. We want to make this a collective effort for individuals to really come together to promote safety and health for youth.”

The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agriculture Health and Safety is working with the National Milk Producers Federation and Farmers Assuring Responsible Management’s Workforce Development arm to reach out specifically to those in the dairy industry.

“The work we are doing is part of their training,” Swenson said. “That’s becoming a great collaboration for outreach, to start those sometimes-hard conversations about workplace safety on the farm. We are a point of technical assistance and provide resources they can share during their on-farm visits.”

Swenson said sometimes the easiest way to start those conversations is to bring up smaller topics, like the importance of using hearing protection from a young age and building from there.

“It makes the conversation one that somebody can connect with,” Swenson said. “From there it is easier to keep the conversation going and move onto the harder parts of the topic. It’s 100% easier and needed to have these conversations now than after an incident occurs on the farm.”

The national action plan deals with both emerging threats and ongoing issues that involve machinery, Swenson said.

“We have a number of persistent issues with machinery, specifically tractors and skid steers,” Swenson said. “They are pieces of equipment we still see lots of incidents happening with. There have been some high-profile fatal incidents with skid steers involved recently in Wisconsin.”

Spreading a message of prevention is foundational to their work, Swenson said.

One project they have is a collaboration with the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center called “Telling the Story.” They do interviews with individuals, families and community members who have dealt with fatalities and near misses.

“The goal is to make people realize how quickly and easily things happen, (and) how vulnerable our children are,” Swenson said.

By sharing those stories while highlighting safety information, Swenson hopes her organization’s message will resonate with farmers.

“When these incidents happen — especially a fatality involving a child — it’s hard on everyone,” Swenson said. “It’s hard on the family, obviously, as well as the community and the emergency personnel who respond. These incidents affect everyone in the farming and agricultural community.”