Feasibility Study of Inspection of Farm Machinery Safety Features

ABSTRACT

Agriculture continues to be a very hazardous industry. One of the possible risk factors for injury may be the absence of safety features on farm machinery. A feasibility study was undertaken to assess the feasibility of obtaining information on deficiencies or absence of safety devices. Tractors and power take-off (PTO) driven machines on 36 dairy farms were inspected. The pilot study was well received by farmers. The absence of rollover protective structures (ROPS) and PTO shields appeared related to the age of the machine. Since the sample was a convenience sample consisting only of diary farms, no substantial inferences from such a pilot study should be drawn. It did appear, however, that such a project was readily accepted, and that older machinery more often possessed deficient or missing safety devices.