Farm safety is and always has been an issue, many farmers have learned from practical experience and "know the dangers" animals are unpredictable, farm equipment can get caught up in undesirable situations. Maintenance and pre use checks may not always happen when they should. Also many farmers are now on average older and we are engaged in more distractions (Mobile phones for example) With a focus on safety TechniPharm aims to provide some solutions and suggestions to minimise the dangers, we invite you to talk to us and help you where we can add value. for starters a simple 3 point check
1) always check equipment before use, yes that includes animal handling equipment, check the head bail is locking properly , check gate latches are locking, grease where need be and make sure trip hazards are removed or identified.
2) have a look at how you do things, are there better ways of doing it? are staff properly equipped? do you have designated safe area's (we recommend that cattle and people are kept separated when possible, so a handler or headbail open to a pen with stock is not safe)
3) what else can you do? have you considered an upgrade to more relevant up to date design? remember equipment designed in the past is based on what the past determined was "safe" Design and materials may have changed.
Some product and recommendations which may help
1) A Pacifier can help a great deal in keeping stock relaxed so you can do what ever you need to do with stock
2) Headbails with secondary safety locks may just be that extra safety you after, our Rotating yoke Headbail is the only headsail on the market with this feature.
Alternatively large stock units may consider full Hydraulic "hands off" equipped units
Technipharm provides a range of handling systems for Beef, Sheep and Dairy animal handling, we have been in business nearly 30 years and have an experienced team
3) Yard and Handlers with lots of gates and safe access points, properly designed access to headbails and stock treatment area's are critical design "hot" spots
We happy to help you with a handling facilities assessment and provide some recommendations for what needs doing.
Call us 0800 80 90 98
also see saferfarms.org.nz for general farm safety information and tools