Farm safety messages reinforced during competition

Next week is the week in the agricultural calendar - it’s show week! Some of you have already been busy with county shows and are now gearing up for the big one. Whilst we’re not taking livestock to the show ourselves, we are busy putting the finishing touches on our event plan for what promises to be another excellent week.

A national competition to improve farm safety awareness among young farmers has been won by members of Pembrokeshire County Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs for the 10th time since the competition started in 2002.

The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs’ (NFYFC) Farm Machinery Skills competition, sponsored by KRAMP, was held a week before Farm Safety Week (17-21 July).

The competition challenges young farmers to demonstrate their knowledge of farm machinery and its safe operation. It also tests first aid skills by creating a realistic farm accident that team members must respond to during the competition.

The winning Pembrokeshire team fought off six other county teams in the final to win a KRAMP toolkit each and a JCB VIP hospitality tour round the world headquarters in Staffordshire, along with the much-coveted trophy. The team, made up of Caryl Bevan, Berwyn Warlow, Rhys Bevan and William Lewis, are all from Llys Y Fran YFC and due to their involvement in farming prioritise this competition above others.

Rhys Bevan, who has been on the winning team five times, said: “We do take it seriously. As well as the first aid, we all have an interest in farm machinery and it’s the only health and safety competition that we [YFC] have that could save your life.”

Teammate Caryl Bevan is in her final year of YFC and has been part of the winning team on six previous occasions at the national final. Former members support the team and she said that would continue as new people joined to try to hold on to Pembrokeshire’s winning title.

Caryl said: “Highlighting farm safety is important for the club. Teaching new skills, first aid especially, and making sure we practice what we preach.”

Another member of the team Will Lewis also won an individual trophy for his ATV Handling Skills.

Dave Johns from Arley Medical Services creates the realistic farm accidents, which are based on real-life examples, using actors from the Casualties Union.

Dave said: “It is a really important competition as we know farms have a large number of accidents. As a paramedic I see those myself, so anything we can do to make sure people are supported is good.

“We usually see a high standard of entrants but there are always some learning opportunities from the competition. It makes people think about how they would deal with the situation on the farm.

“Some tips to take away would be to make sure they know what’s in their first aid kit and that they have it with them –as it’s not much use back in the shed somewhere!

“People do learn from the competition as we do see improvements when the same team is back in the final. There has been a lot of new teams this year at the national final and I think they have learnt quite a lot from it.”

Competition Sponsors Kramp recognise the importance of teaching young people farm safety skills.

Des Boyd, Kramp’s Commercial Director, said: “Kramp is always looking for ways to support the next generation of farmers and we’re thrilled to have sponsored the Farm Machinery Skills competition for the last two years!

“We’re constantly trying to champion safety at Kramp as we know how important it is, especially in the agricultural industry. We’re proud to be a part of the young farmers’ safety journey and hope we can continue to support them with their farming journey in the future.”

The competition comes at a critical time for the industry with figures from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) showing farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation in Great Britain.

It was also held on the eve of the Farm Safety Foundation’s 11th

Farm Safety Week. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the impacts of farm accidents on the industry and community and to promote the importance of farming safely.

NFYFC Chair Rosie Bennett said:

“This competition, which is held just ahead of Farm Safety Week, is one of the most important in our national programme as it helps reinforce safety messages and could save lives.

“NFYFC also has a Farm Safety training module that was developed in conjunction with The Farm Safety Foundation, and we encourage all our clubs to take part in this training too. As the next generation of farmers, we need to do all we can to improve agriculture’s safety record.”

All members of a YFC can take part in NFYFC’s Farm Safety training, which focuses on raising awareness of farm safety, shows how to prevent accidents and what to do if there is one.

NFYFC’s Farm Machinery Skills competition final is held during NFYFC’s annual Competitions Day in Staffordshire. It is hosted alongside 13 other competitions where members showcase a range of skills from fence erecting to dancing.

CFMOTO UK, JCB, Rea Valley Tractors, RJ ATV all supported the Farm Machinery Skills competition by providing machinery.

The week in general will be an opportunity for the FUW group to highlight to members, the public visiting the show and politicians why farming matters more than ever and what must be achieved if there are to be thriving, sustainable, family farms in Wales.

Those coming to our pavilion can look forward to a full programme of seminars and entertainment - members and nonmembers are welcome to join these seminars.

There will be a variety of topical discussions in our seminars. Those issues, if not addressed, are going to affect the viability and sustainability of our family farms here in Wales and we will be lobbying and shining a light on those issues throughout the week.

To start the week, we will be focussing on the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) ‘NVZ’ Regulations and discuss the impact they’re having on all farmers across Wales; then we’ll look at how we ensure that barriers are removed and incentives restored in order to boost agriculture’s contribution to future renewable energy targets without undermining our food production capacity.

Minister Julie James MS will be joining us for this discussion.

Tuesday sees us hosting the launch of the Wales WI ‘Not in my Name’ campaign and in the afternoon we are joined by the DPJ Foundation and the

Football Association Wales to discuss mental health and how we can bridge the gap between young men in farming and football clubs across Wales; Wednesday our attention turns to livestock worrying and how best to prevent dog attacks on livestock following the unexpected u-turn on the UK Kept Aminals Bill. In particular we will be examining the role of DNA evidence to identify dogs where there have been no witnesses to the crime. On Wednesday afternoon we will be looking at how we can ensure private and public finance for ‘natural capital’ works for our family farms and food production in Wales, and what the options are.

Finishing the week on a high we look forward to welcoming the Hiraeth podcast which will discuss Brexit and farming.

Alongside those events, we look forward to once again welcoming Members of the Senedd and Members of Parliament, as well as industry stakeholders to the pavilion to discuss the many farming matters that have a profound impact on the agricultural industry.

With a family friendly approach, we are selling milkshakes in the Lle Llaeth and are looking forward to see children and families visit the family marquee for an opportunity to see the revamped life- sized model of the FUW’s cow, who has been redesigned with a take on the infamous public art exhibition, CowParade; A new peep-board is also guaranteed to provide many fun photo opportunities.

We wish all those showing at the Royal Welsh Show a successful event and the very best of luck.

If you are around, do come to see us at the pavilion next to the main ring - a warm welcome awaits all.

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