Young farmers join NFU at vital farm safety event in Cheshire

More than 200 farmers and farm workers learned potentially life-saving lessons at an NFU Cheshire and Young Farmers Club safety event in Cheshire.

Hosted by the Hodgson family who farm at Tarporley, Cheshire it featured interactive briefings on mental health, cattle handling, fire safety, essential first aid, transport and vehicle legislation, working at height and keeping the public, including children, safe on farms.

The event was held as part of Yellow Wellies Farm Safety Week (22-26 July) to help raise awareness of the attitudes and behaviours to risk-taking and poor mental health in the next generation of farmers (under 40yrs).

Sixteen percent of all workplace deaths are on farms. Twenty-three farm workers and four members of the public lost their lives on a UK farm in the past year.

Phil Hodgson who hosted the event said:

“Health and safety is really important, so it was great to host this event on our farm with the NFU and Cheshire Young Farmers and it was superb to see so many people here.

“It’s so important to host events like these to try and help prevent accidents before they can happen and also hopefully will save a life.”

The 2024 campaign is a special one as it marks 10 years of the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies), a charity set up by leading rural insurer NFU Mutual to raise awareness of, and challenge attitudes to farm safety and poor mental health in the industry.

The NFU its encouraging members to get involved and share their stories on social media, highlighting the ways they stay safe on farm.

Over the week we are promoting the #Take5StayAlive campaign, sharing videos explaining how we stay safe on farm.

NFU Cheshire County Chair Alistair Dobson joined one of the groups that toured the various presentations.

He said:

“It’s so encouraging to see so many young farmers attend this event.  It was great to share experiences and learn from each other.

“I hope everyone will pick up some vital health and safety advice to take back with them to their farms.”

NFU Deputy President David Exwood said the NFU is proud to support Farm Safety Week.

“We’ve now had 40 years where the fatality numbers have hardly changed – this must be a reset moment for improving safety in our sector,” he said.

“Fatigue, familiarity with procedures or hectic schedules are not excuses. We have to stop the culture of risk-taking and make farm safety our number one priority. Because ultimately, everyone deserves to come home alive and well at the end of each day.”

16% of all workplace deaths data from HSE Fatal Injuries in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Report in GB 2023/2024

NFU Farm Safety – NFUonline

Yellow Wellies is an independent registered charity working throughout the UK to address the attitudes and behaviours to risk-taking and poor mental health in the next generation of farmers (under 40yrs): 

Farm Safety Foundation / Yellow Wellies - YellowWellies.org