Livestock carriers are spending big dollars on safety features on their trucks and crates but Australian Trucking Association chair David Smith says many producers' on-farm loading and unloading facilities are decades old.
The Tumby Bay transport operator, who has more than 40 years experience in the industry, says there are some properties with good infrastructure but also some with no loading ramp at all.
He is hopeful the national ramp standards will be a catalyst to get more livestock producers upgrading their sheep and cattle ramps and yards for both worker safety and good animal welfare.
"We should be able to send blokes out to do a job without them having to push the stock up one at a time on a dilapidated ramp," he said.
"The job is hard enough already dealing with live animals and ensuring animal welfare without worrying they (the driver) may break an arm or break a leg and be out for many weeks, or even worse."
Mr Smith says when they have to lower the back door to act as a ramp it takes considerably longer to load and increases the risk of injury to drivers and animals.
"Four pick ups where there are three deck ramps you can load in half the time of four picks ups from the ground, so it is huge in terms of time," he said.
"If a driver has pushed a few hundred sheep up a ramp one by one they will be worn out before they even get started on their three or four-hour journey or however many hours they have to go."
Some of these things we are talking about the farmer could do for a few hundred dollars.
- David Smith
He says many upgrades could be inexpensive, such as installing a sliding gate to prevent stock backing up on a ramp and enclosing the sides of races.
"An operator is spending $800,000 on a new B-double crate and prime mover that includes internal ramps and a lot of other add-ons for safety, but some of these things we are talking about the farmer could do for a few hundred dollars," he said.
Mr Smith is also calling on livestock producers to make sure someone is at the yards when their stock are being picked up, with drivers too often left to load alone and no one to sound the alarm in the event of an accident.
'No excuses' on worker safety
When Marcollat producer Greg Fisher, Clover Ridge, was designing his Norton Livestock Handling Solutions cattle yards in 2017, he made safety a top priority.
"The economic climate with livestock prices has been pretty good so there are no excuses not to have safe equipment," he said.
"You have got to look after people who come onto your place to work."
Mr Fisher says the crush and loading ramp are the two areas in yards he considers it most likely people could be injured by stock, so ensured there was a sliding gate at the bottom of the ramp and a good forcing area behind this so the cattle would flow freely onto the truck.
Clover Ridge's yards have gained the approval of truck drivers but he considers it has also been money well-spent reducing bruising in his cattle bound for slaughter.
"All loading of stock is done from the outside from a ratchet force gate to sliding gates along the loading race and ramp so there is no danger of getting hurt," he said.
Start the day with all the big news in agriculture. Sign up here to receive our daily Stock Journal newsletter.
