Almost 30 million children visit farms and ranches each year. Add the parents and other adults to that number, and that is a lot of people visiting who are unfamiliar with the agricultural environment – and the hazards found there… a lot of people who are easily distracted by the activity and people around them... and a lot of people who are looking for fun and not thinking about “watching the kids” or staying safe. That means that as the owners or operators of agritourism operations, we need to think about the safety and health of our visitors… and keeping our visitors from harm also helps keep the “bottom line” of our operations healthy. Studies show that every dollar spent on safety and prevention saves seven dollars in accident and liability costs to the farm operator.

In this interactive session, we will discuss real life injury incidents. We will also talk about the most common causes of injury and death on the farm and discuss strategies that can be used to help avoid these incidents. We will then introduce some simple measures that can be taken to spot safety hazards on your farm, including the use of checklists. You will get to practice using these checklists while “on tour” at the farm – and then take them home and use them on your operation to identify safety issues. We’ll also show you where you can find free resources and tools to address any safety issues you find.