Dairy farming continues to be a high hazard occupation. According to the 2004 National Occupational Injury Surveillance of Production Agriculture, an estimated 80,300 (9.2 injuries per hour) work-related injuries occurred to adults on farms. Every day across the nation, approximately 243 agricultural workers suffer a lost-work time injury, with five percent of these injuries resulting in permanent impairment. Based on this data and other state data, this past year the Wisconsin office for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiated a local enforcement program (LEP) to ensure the safety of dairy farm workers with a focus on dairy operations with 11 or more employees. Included in this effort were unannounced safety inspections of 12 randomly picked dairy farms across Wisconsin. This has resulted in the need for resources for dairy producers to help them develop an on-farm OSHA compliant safety and health program for their operation.
This past month UW-Extension Fond du Lac County piloted a “Dairy Farm Safety Short Course” developed by UW-River Falls and UW-Extension through an OSHA Susan A. Hardwood Grant to assist, train and provide resources to dairy producers as they develop an on-farm OSHA compliant safety and health program for their operation. The goal of the short course was to help producers by:
Teaching them their role and responsibilities regarding OSHA
- Providing materials, guidance and training for dairy producers to meet on-farm OSHA requirements
- Teaching how to recognize and prevent on-farm safety and health hazards within the workplace
- Providing resources to ensure on-farm all safety training is completed correctly
- Creating and maintaining required documentation regarding safety and health, and
- Helping producers create a safe working environment on the farm
Nine producers representing five farms and approximately 75 employees participated in a UW-Extension “Dairy Farm Safety Short Course.” Producers completed the comprehensive ten-hour training provided in two classes taught by Fond du Lac County Dairy Agent Tina Kohlman, Brown County Agriculture Agent Mark Hagedorn and UW-Extension Farm Safety Specialist Cheryl Skjoolas.
Additional programming related to farm safety will include farm safety walk-throughs on local operations to help dairy producers develop a “plan-of-attack” as they develop an on-farm safety program and the continuation of dairy workers’ training which will include safety protocols and resources for employees.
