It is the busiest time of the year for farmers and unfortunately there has been more loss of life on our farms over the past few weeks around the country. Even though farmers are very busy they need to be mindful to children who are around the farm for the school holidays. Farmers also need to be vigilant at all times despite the fact that they may be tired due to long hours of work every day. It is easy to make mistakes through tiredness so farmers should watch out for that especially when moving animals or operating machinery.
A lot of the accidents that we are seeing on farms are involving older or elderly farmers and that goes back to a point that I have been making on a constant basis that we are not doing enough to attract young people into farming. The Government need to do far more work on this issue. In the meantime I would urge all farmers to be extra careful in these busy times especially around animals and heavy machinery.