From the editor: Moving the dial on safety

Growing up on a farm, the dangers that came with working in our sector were ingrained in us from a young age.

We all had near misses, even as children. It was almost a rite of passage. On quad bikes, driving the farm ute, working in the yards and discovering very quickly what happens when you get on the wrong side of a sheep.

Most of the time, they were just that. Near misses.

Sadly, some weren’t.

We lost young members of our community in farm accidents in relatively quick succession, in circumstances that could absolutely have been avoided. Those losses sent shockwaves of grief through our district, and I will never forget them.

Looking back, one of the biggest enemies of farm safety was an attitude many of us would recognise.

“She’ll be right.”

“It’ll only take a minute.”

Those few words can precede an astonishing number of bad decisions.

Farm safety has come a long way since then, and that deserves to be acknowledged.

ACC figures show new agriculture injury claims fell from 25,873 in 2020 to 17,322 in 2025, a reduction of around a third in five years.

Something is shifting.

That is why the work being done by organisations such as Safer Farms matters. The dial is moving because the conversation around safety is changing too.

It is rarely helpful for people with little understanding of what it is actually like to work the land to simply tell farmers what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

Farming is unpredictable. Animals are unpredictable. Weather changes. Machinery breaks. Jobs need doing in less than ideal conditions.

Advice that ignores that reality is easily dismissed.

But farmer to farmer is different.

Practical advice from someone who understands the job, and knows why a shortcut might be tempting, has a much greater chance of resonating.

There is still work to do.

A recent nationwide WorkSafe campaign involving 680 farm assessments found gaps around hazardous substances, PTO guarding and farm vehicles. WorkSafe has also reported that vehicles were involved in four out of five agricultural deaths notified to it between 2020 and 2025.

But perhaps one of the most important parts of the farm safety conversation is harder to put a guard around.

Wellbeing.

Farm safety and farmer wellbeing are intrinsically linked.

Stress, exhaustion and distraction can be every bit as dangerous as a muddy track in winter or an unguarded piece of machinery.

When you are tired after weeks of long days, worried about finances, distracted by something happening at home, or simply under pressure to get one more job finished before dark, judgement can change.

That is often when “it’ll only take a minute” starts sounding reasonable.

Safety therefore cannot just be about machinery, helmets, paperwork and compliance.

It is also about recognising when you are too tired to make a good decision. Asking someone for a hand. Taking another five minutes to do the job properly. Checking in on the person working alone. And sometimes accepting that a job can wait until tomorrow.

The fall in ACC claims suggests we are getting better at this.

But every farmer who has had a close call knows how little can separate a story you laugh about afterwards from one that changes a family and a community forever.

Perhaps that is the next step in shifting the dial.

Not more finger pointing.

Just continuing to challenge those old habits, farmer to farmer, job by job, whenever we hear ourselves say:

“It’ll only take a minute.”