Old habits die hard, safety survey says

Old habits die hard. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a recent Farm Credit Canada farm safety survey.

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in Canada and there are always things farmers can do differently to keep themselves and others safe on the farm. So, what’s keeping them from doing it?

Sixty per cent of 1,239 farmers who responded to the survey said old habits were keeping them from consistently implementing safe practices. Another 27 per cent said they didn’t implement safer practices because it would take too much time. Twenty per cent said safer practices would be too costly and only 18 per cent of producers said that nothing was keeping them from consistently doing things a safer way.

Almost 75 per cent of producer said they were highly or extremely motivated to improve safety on the farm. But, as FCC pointed out, that doesn’t always translate into action. Thirty per cent of farmers said they’d accessed safety information or training in the last year.