When working long hours, fatigue makes it easier to overlook a safety procedure or make a critical mistake. For farmers, however, safety cannot take a back seat. One wrong move can mean losing a limb or a life. During the gruelling days of harvest, increased work paces and extended hours make spotlighting agricultural safety more important than ever.
“Harvest time is a time of some significant stress on the part of farmers, in that you have the job to do and you’re constrained by the weather,” said Mark Reusser, director of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) for Zone 9 (Dufferin, Waterloo and Wellington counties).
During harvest, farmers race against Mother Nature to gather crops before seasonal weather damages their yields. This labour-intensive time of year exposes workers to heightened physical, mental, and environmental hazards.
