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Farm Health and Safety Best Practice Training

James O'Connell and Jason Detzel

Summary

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in America. Each year an average of 33% of U.S. farmers will experience a nonfatal injury. Farm related non-fatal injuries are debilitating and common. These injuries include: injuries from livestock which are typically larger than their handlers and can easily overpower and abscond, farm equipment including tractors and chainsaws, zoonotic diseases shared between humans and animals, as well as repetitive motion injuries from activities such as fruit pruning and hay bucking. Many of these injuries can be prevented through a combination of education and equipment support and this project seeks to educate farmers and farmworkers on how to avoid such injuries.
For this project, James O’Connell, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster Sr. Agricultural Educator (Berries and Grapes) and Jason Detzel, Sr. Agricultural Educator (Livestock) organized a series of workshops to address these issues and offer training/education to growers and farmworkers. Thus far, O’Connell and Detzel have led four workshops (Spring/Fall Zoonotic Diseases, Yoga for Repetitive Motion, and Livestock BMP’s Repetitive Motion), reached 49 people directly through these online workshops, and had 272 views of related media posted to YouTube. Covid-19 has temporarily halted in-person programing. O’Connell and Detzel are hopeful that the remaining workshops, which include tractor and chainsaw safety, as well as safe animal handling, will be held in person in 2021 .

Details

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