Keeping children safe on the farm

[llamedos]

A new thread as requested.

What do you do to keep your kids safe on the farm.
Do you have a way of getting home to them the dangers of machinery, slurry pits, livestock, grain sheds.

Do you have a particular film you show them, or are their educational books out there in story form.

Please be mindful, this thread has been brought about by the recent tragic loss of a childs life.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Mine are still so young that they're watched constantly when out (1 and 4) but I do worry about them when they're a bit more independent and I'm watching this thread with interest.
I've thought about putting up a "Slow... Children" sign but I strongly suspect that the worst offenders (eg postman) will take little notice.
I also keep thinking I must resin bond some eye hooks into walls to tie up heaps of spare gates leaning against walls; I remember ending up underneath some when I was young.

 

[Jameshenry]

Difficult subject to comment on after this sad news !
I'm probably wrong in my approach to it but my kids were brought up with a certain amount of risk , my daughter sat on the quad bike with me from a very early age , and drove my kawasaki mule at quite a young age, she has grown up to be a very cautious young lady now, with common sense way beyond her years , i believe if you keep children away from tractors/quads it just becomes all the more appealing to them ,

 

[Lofty1984]

The pile of gates is one that's probably overlooked so

 

[Grassman]

One of the worst things I see on some farms are tractor windows need a good clean!

 

[Grassman]

And some clean mirrors that are actually set up to do the job

 

[Grassman]

And get off the chuffing mobile phone!

 

[Yale]

Ours are not encouraged to go to the farmyard.

They will occasionally help out but mainly on jobs involving sheep.

Farmyards are not what they were 30 years ago.

You wouldn't let children wander around a factory.

 

[GenuineRisk]

Here it's a slightly different scenario - visiting small children are my grandsons, currently three and seven months old. The 3yo is lightening fast of course but, because of my dogs, the garden is very well fenced and quite large enough at the moment for him to use up some beanz ! He can drive his JD toy gator around and, when accompanied, drives it around the farm. Think it's actually giving him spatial awareness and also a basic understanding of how cars and machinery operate. As soon as machinery starts moving on farm, though, he's either removed or sits in a cab. At that age, they are fascinated by it all and the more you distance them, the more they want to get nearer, no?! In fact, the bigger danger here is livestock. We have super placid Blues, mainly peds but also xbreds. The youngsters are amazed when they see a small human being, because it's not in their comprehension pattern as yet. Young bulls can be particularly agitated. And it's not just kids - I am a couple of weeks post hip replacementment op and am trundling around very slowly with one stick. I feed our stock everyday. They know me, know my voice are totally unfazed. However, when I make my appearance now, moving oddly and with the stick, 10% are freaking out - they just can't compute. When I speak, it makes it better but they can't reconcile what they see.

Farms are well justified in being some of the most dangerous places for humans, especially children, we have to do the very best we can but, tragically, even then accidents happen. It's exactly what accident means. Parents will blame themselves for the rest of their lives, as will anyone else who, whether their fault or not, causes harm to a child because I guess we all wonder 'What if...' - it's only natural. For those above who were unwittingly involved in accidents, of course it's not your fault but that won't stop the memories and sympathies to you as well.

 

[milkloss]

Ours are not encouraged to go to the farmyard.

They will occasionally help out but mainly on jobs involving sheep.

Farmyards are not what they were 30 years ago.

You wouldn't let children wander around a factory.

Sadly it's this unless you're dog and stick farming and even then it's difficult. I think people like us that are farming now have seen farms become much less staffed and partly because of this, safe. The slow rate of this change has made us less aware about the dangers there are.

It's a great shame and my little one will be having less contact with the farm because of it.

 

[renewablejohn]

Golden rule with me is that only one child is allowed in the farmyard at a time and there with me all the time, I am fortunate that the passenger seat in my holder tractor is behind the drivers seat and the passenger cannot reach any tractor controls. Would find it difficult to justify with modern tractors controlled with so many inviting buttons to press. To be honest I have more difficulty with the wife who seems to have a death wish when it comes to farm machinery.

 

[Man_in_black]

Please be mindful, this thread has been brought about by the recent tragic loss of a childs life.

Sorry, what's happened??

 

[llamedos]

Sorry, what's happened??

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/little-boy-dies-on-farm-in-fife.158782/

 

[Dr. Alkathene]

Get that pile of old gates, some twine and make a pen with roof to shut kids in, I half jokingly threatened to do that on one farm I work on.

 

[llamedos]

Get that pile of old gates, some twine and make a pen with roof to shut kids in, I half jokingly threatened to do that on one farm I work on.

I think that would have been suitable for me as a kid, I did some really stupid things, mostly involving haytime.
Little things, but could have proved deadly.

Riding the bale elevator up to the hayloft, while no one was about, got caught and got a pasting.

Climbing the back of the hay trailer while it was going up a hill, as I got to the top, the bale I grabbed came off, pulling more with it, and they felled me onto the road, I got a pasting for that too.

Do we need to look at our farms through a childs eyes.
I assume a pasting these days could end up badly too.

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Give them an iPad, my boy would sit there with it all day if he wasn't restricted on it!

 

[Man_in_black]

It's amazing how parenthood changes you & makes you realise all the things your own parents tried to stop you doing were first your own safety. I was a right little toe rag and more told not to, the more I did it. Now I catch myself daily and think "Christ i sound like my dad!"

 

[FarmyStu]

I have an opinion on most things but children on farms is one where I struggle. I've spouted off about H & S on this website many a time and pointed out that the law is the law. The fact is that any H & S professional or even your own assessment would ban children from what is an industrial worksite. No ifs or buts. But.........

As an 8 year old I took an interest in the family run farm at the back of my house. I loved watching the tractors go up and down and watched for hours. By chance I got to get to know one of the family tractor drivers and soon ended up on the farm helping and watching whenever I wasn't at school, evenings included. So some people who didn't know me at all allowed me access to their farm at will and by the age of 11 I was driving tractors and shooting rats with their airgun. No H & S policy in existence would allow this. But it took me away from the scallywags I had as friends and who mostly are now in jail. It gave me opportunities I simply would not have had and set me on the path I'm still on now 35 years later. It's also the reason that any child asking for a ride in the machine I'm driving gets a thumbs up despite all my H & S training.

So should young children be kept away from farms? Of course they should. Would I keep them away from my farm or machinery? No.

 

[Welsh Farmer]

I hate to say it because I dislike gender stereotyping but I think men with children in the farmyard are perhaps more oblivious to the dangers of children than women are. Men takes more risks because they really don't believe accidents with children can happen quite as easily as they do, whereas I think most women are acutely aware of this. I also think that on times it's unfair for anyone to try to keep their mind on work whilst keeping their eyes on small children and what they are up to at the same time.

I'm not saying all men are idiots or don't care for their children's safety so please don't think that is what I'm even implying because I'm not.

I point blank refused to do any work on the farm if I had my small children with me on the yard because we had forklifts and vehicles about all the time plus loads of other things that held dangers for little ones ... it used to drive MrWF wild when I wouldn't do something that would only "take me a minute" The first time MrWF was left in charge of our then 2 year old son he lost him .... he was panic stricken because we have a river running alongside the farm and he really thought our son had fallen in and drowned. I wont go in to details again because I think I've already posted this story before, but safe to say after this experience MrWF never, ever asked me to do anything on the farm if I had the children with me. He learnt by his mistake and thankfully nothing dreadful happened but it could have all be soooo different.

 

[Selectamatic]

Some of my happiest childhood memories, most infact, are in a field with Dad, either on or near a Tractor, a Combine or so forth...

I can well remember as a kiddie that Dad and I understood each other, he knew where I was, I would not (for the most part) do something silly, mainly for fear of a smack bottom!

I'd walk miles in the furrow behind him as he ploughed, but knew to get well out of the way when he turned round on the headland, I'd sit for hours on the cab of the combine, or tractor, but I'd always wave him down to stop so I could jump on.

Sometimes i'd bugger off for a walk around the field, or to climb a tree, but I'd never leave the field.

I suppose I had an element of common sense, and Dad keeping his eye on me whenever I was there, I also knew breaking the rules would mean a bollocking and no more tractors for a while. I well remember my friends, more interested in football than tractors, not understanding my fascination with them, and what I enjoyed about them.

I suppose in some ways it's just luck, or bad luck of the worst possible kind when something goes wrong?