Farm safety essentials for calving and lambing season

It’s always important to plan for these busy times and have all the essential equipment at the ready to welcome new life onto the farm.

One of the essentials that can be overlooked in the preparations, is what is required to make sure all lambing and calving is completed safely for the farmer and staff. One of the greatest areas of potential risk on a farm arises from working with animals.

Large animals such as cattle need to be carefully handled to prevent injury to the handler. It’s important that the farm has safe handling facilities for calving cows. Secure calving gates with headlocks allow the cow to be inspected and calved in a safe manner. These gates also provide a secure way of getting the newborn calf to suckle, helping ensure they get a good start for life on the farm.

Even quiet cows can turn unpredictable at calving time. You must make sure that there is always a safe way to exit the pen when inspecting freshly calved cows and calves.

With smaller animals such as sheep, it’s always essential to think first before completing tasks to make sure that work is carried out safely. Ensuring that lambing pens are close to the main pens and trying to reduce the distance ewes need to be moved, helps to reduce back injury and other knocks and bruises.

At this time of year, extra assistance is needed on farms, and so it is essential that farmers have both Public and Employers’ Liability insurance in place to protect the farm business in the unfortunate event of someone getting injured. Reviewing your insurance policy is essential to make sure an adequate level of indemnity is provided.

Every farm is an extremely busy workplace, but considering farm safety as part of your essential preparation can minimise accidents, reduce time lost due to injury, and allow the farm to complete its tasks to get the new 2024 crop of lambs and calves off to a great start.

At AbbeyAutoline, we pride ourselves in understanding the business of farming. We use our insurance expertise to help our clients by arranging cover tailored to suit each individual farm business. Taking into consideration a wide range of risks including farm business combined, tractors, 4X4, private cars and quads.

If you have not reviewed your insurances recently and you feel you would like to discuss your current insurance arrangements with us, our dedicated Agricultural Team will be happy to speak with you.

For further information or advice please contact the specialist Farm Team at AbbeyAutoline, 08000 66 55 44 or visit https://www.abbeyautoline.co.uk/farm-insurance.