Adding value to the farm business through good health and safety
This profile is part of a seven-part series from WorkSafe sharing the health and safety approaches taken by the grand finalists of the 2019 FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition. During the next seven weeks we will be sharing a profile and short video about each of the finalists and how they incorporate health and safety into their work, from a dairy farm manager to a veterinarian. FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand finalist James Robertson gained first-hand experience of the impact an injury can have on a farm business when his father suffered an accident. “He was kicked by a cow and broke his thumb,” says James, who grew up on his family’s dairy farm near Mystery Creek. “I think I’d been a bit oblivious to health and safety as a young person but I really saw the implications an injury has on the business. He wasn’t able to work in the cattle shed for a few weeks. Having a key person not able to do that put a lot of pressure on everyone else.” James, who won the 2019 FMG Young Farmer Northern regional final, has a Bachelor of AgriCommerce from Massey University in Palmerston North. He was very active in the university’s Young Farmers organisation and says that helping organise health and safety for club events gave him a new perspective. “It wasn’t just if we were going on farm for a practical farming day, but also for things like social events. It made me very aware of the importance of identifying the risks and planning how to mitigate them,” he says. “That’s a huge thing. We were a big group, we did not want anyone to get hurt and there are implications for your organisation if someone does get hurt. There’s the human perspective and […]