Maintaining Safety During Harvest Season

While the ending of summer may simultaneously represent the beginning of work for schoolchildren, nowhere else is it more prevalent than to agricultural communities and the beginning of the harvest season. It is undoubtedly true that crop cultivation is far more than just the collection, there are a number of ways to ensure that harvestime runs both smoothly, efficiently and safely. 

Personal Safety:
Perhaps two of the most important components of safety include an operator and an operator’s familiarity with their equipment. Below are a few tips to ensure personal safety in the field. 

• Take breaks. While those in our agricultural communities truly invented long days and working into the dark hours of the night, the prevalence of fatigue, illness, or exhaustion have historically led to a number of mishaps and safety hazards. Being able to recognize one’s own limits is a true sign of responsibility. 
  
  • Taking periodic breaks throughout the day, for example to eat lunch or to stretch one’s legs, is also important to keep focused as well as to break up the monotony of operating machinery. 
    
• Dress for the part. Those operating equipment must truly understand the importance of clothing and dressing appropriately. There are any number of horrendous accidents which occur from something as seemingly innocuous as a loose sleeve, long hair, or an untied shoelace. Make sure to use protective footwear, close-fitting clothing and tied back hair when working around heavy machinery. 
  
  • Personal protective equipment and other safety gear should always be utilized when near loud noise, heavy dust or other such hazardous materials. Never take your safety for granted.  
    
• Avoid drugs, including alcohol. The use of drugs including alcohol while operating machinery is not only illegal, it is extremely unsafe. Do not rely on stimulants to push through the day or depressants like alcohol to steady your nerves. An operator must have an acute awareness of their senses and surroundings, which is nearly impossible while under the influence. 
  

Machinery Safety:

• Know your machinery. All equipment operators should have read manuals for their respective machinery. These manuals include important information for both the novice and experienced operators on a number of different topics, including safety, proper usage and repairs. 
  
• Give yourself enough time. Equipment does not instantaneously become ready for harvest, so it is best to prepare either in the off-season or a few weeks in advance. Planning ahead and allocating enough time is vital to ensure a safe and efficient operation. It also allows for possible replacement parts to be bought, ordered and delivered with enough time to continue on schedule. 
  
• Ensure the equipment is complete. Equipment and machinery come with a number of guards, shields and other protective safeguards to provide security against and reduce the possibility of individuals being caught in the machinery. 
  
• Shut down power before leaving the driver’s seat. This is an important safety alert operators will make into a habit. While it not only saves fuel, it ensures a certain level of safety when dealing with plugged equipment. Never attempt to clear a plug of crop material by hand while the power is engaged. 
  
• Guarantee a fire extinguisher on board. A fire hazard is always possible in the field for a number of different reasons. While some crops, particularly cereal grain, are especially susceptible to fire, it is important to carry a fire extinguisher regardless of the specific crop. 
  
• Always keep your slow-moving-emblem visible. Agricultural equipment must occasionally travel on public roads and streets. By ensuring a slow-moving emblem is visible is incredibly important for both the safety of the machine operator and other motorists. The emblem is visible when it is clean and properly mounted. It is against the law to not have a slow-moving-emblem visible on public roads. 
  
• Children should not be near machinery. There are any number of accidents which may happen as a result of a child being on or around agricultural equipment. The view from the cabin of machinery is not complete and there are any number of blind spots for a child to disappear. 
  

For machinery specific precautions and other safety measures, please visit the National Agriculture Safety Database (NASD) at nasdonline.org.