Executive Notes
by Geoff Horning, ABC Executive Director

Behavior Leads to Better Safety

Though it happened more than 25 years ago, I remember the day I impaled a hay hook into my shin as if it were yesterday. The focus of the family farm was – and still is – the grass seed operation, but my mostly retired grandpa kept busy with an assortment of cows, hogs and chickens.

My parents had moved to the coast shortly after I was born, so I was more of a weekend-warrior farmer. But, I loved being on the farm. This particular August day my cousins and I were helping prepare for winter by stuffing the hay loft with 60 pound bails of hay. As a bale approached the top of the hay elevator, I clutched the steel hay hook in my hand and gave it a mighty swing to ensure it dug deep into the bail. A split second later that hay hook went right through the edge of the bail and implanted into my shin. Not a glancing blow. It was firmly implanted.

In retrospect, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one should not swing something that can cause major bodily harm at oneself. Though I was only in junior high when my “accident” occurred, the fact of the matter is that most safety experts believe a high percentage of all work-related accidents can be directly correlated to behavioral practices of people. Depending on who you believe, I’ve seen that estimate as high as 95 percent.

According to the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, 12.1 percent of all work-related fatalities in Oregon between 2002 and 2006 occurred in agriculture. The SAIF Corporation prepared a report for ABC reflecting that same period of time which shows that 14,442 claims were made within agriculture that equaled 207,238 time-loss days. The total incurred loss equaled $79,714,381, or $5,520 per claim.

Those are big numbers. Big enough that the ABC Safety Committee decided it’s time to start engaging our members about some common safety principles that can go a long way in reducing the number of farm-related accidents. That’s not to say that a safe work environment is not already an important component of many farms and ranches. Most operations have safety programs and emphasize proper safety practices. The emphasis, though, tends to be on safety equipment and standards, and not on human behavior.

OR-OSHA agreed and awarded the ABC Safety Committee a $40,000 grant to develop a bilingual DVD designed to showcase the emotional and financial benefits when best safety behavior is implemented. The DVD will be distributed to every ABC member. A script is currently being penned, and the goal is to have the video distributed this September in conjunction with National Ag Safety Week.

Two of the more successful affinity programs offered to ABC members are our Health Insurance program with Health Net of Oregon and our supplemental workers’ compensation discount with SAIF. Though they cover different aspects of the insurance equation, helping to foster a safe and healthy agricultural work environment is important to the Agri-Business Council of Oregon. This DVD is just the beginning. Producing it makes common sense.