Cattle handling guide released

Cattle handling can present significant risks to workers, from being crushed, gored, trampled, hit or bitten by cattle. 

Safe Work Australia acting CEO Amanda Grey said National Farm Safety Week was an important initiative that raises awareness of farm safety issues across Australia.

“Agriculture can be a rewarding industry to work in, but it can also be dangerous,” she said.

“The new guide promotes the use of natural cattle handling techniques to ensure safety of the worker and the welfare of the cattle.”

Working with animals, manual handling and falls from height are the leading causes of injury and single vehicle incidents are the leading cause of farm worker fatalities.

In the 10 years from 2005 to 2014, 36 per cent of injury claims in the agriculture industry were due to cattle handling and most of these injuries were caused by being hit by cattle.

While these rates have been declining, improvements can still be made to reduce the number of deaths and injury on farms.

To assist people working on farms, Safe Work Australia has also supported the National Farmers’ Federation to produce two farm safety videos on machinery guarding and stockyard handling.

The videos outline four simple steps to manage risks when working with machinery and around the stockyard, and are available on the Safe Work Australia YouTube channel.

More information including tips and links to guides on farm safety will be published on the Safe Work Australia website during Farm Safety Week, 18-22 July 2016.

The guide to managing risks in cattle handling is available on the Safe Work Australia website here.