FARM SAFETY CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 7

FARM SAFETY CAMPAIGN

Plans For February MANY AVENUES TO BE USED Towards the end of next month—from February 20 to 25—a safety week will be held in Christchurch under the auspices of the Canterbury Safety Association. Before and during that week opportunity will be taken to emphasise the need for safety on the farm. Plans of a farm safety sub-com-mittee, which has the support of most farm machinery firms. Federated Farmers and the Young Farmers’ Club movement, were explained this week by the committee’s organiser, Mr C. J. Crosbie, who is farm machinery instructor of the Department of Agriculture in Christchurch.

The committee hopes to interest farm children, who will make up at least a significant part of the farming community of the future, in farm safety through a series of competitions. Farm children of the primary school age group are invited to enter a sketch in lead pencil, ink or colour of either a safe or unsafe practice on a farm. They may for instance, sketch some one falling from a trailer drawn by a tractor or on the other hand they may show a careful farmer or farm worker placing sides on a trailer to prevent this very accident. For this competition there will be prizes of £5, £3 and £1 and two consolation prizes of 10s each Another competition will be held for children attending secondary schools whose homes are on a farm even if they should happen to be boarding intown at the time. They may submit a design in colour for a farm safety poster. Similar prizes given by the sub-committee will be awarded in this case. Entries in both these competitions must be posted to reach the Department of Agriculture, Private Bag, Christchurch, by February 15. Identifying Faults Still another competition has been organised for those between 14 and 30 years of age who work on a farm Between February 13 and February 17 entrants in this competition are required to indentify the unsafe features of a “deliberately doctored” tractor and mower in the showroom of the Internatiehal Harvester Company in Christchurch and in photographs in the same premises and in the windows of a number of other farm machinery and implement firms in the city. A farm safety slogan is also required from the entrant in this section for which £2O in prizes has been given by the United Kingdom and United States tractor importers’ associations.

The winners in all these competitions will receive their awards at a special function held in the Civic Theatre on the evening of February 20 to mark the opening of the safety week. Along with safety on the roads, in the mountains and in the factory, farm safety will also come into a cartoon which will be published during the safety week. Twenty-five pounds in prize money is being offered for this competition, which is open to all. Entrants will have to locate the unsafe features incorporated in the cartoon. Other avenues are also being used to develop the theme of safety on the farm. A poster with the theme, “Make your farm safe for children,” will be distributed through farm implement firms shortly before the week and will be displayed in their showrooms all over the province. A twopage pamphlet on tractor safety, which has been reprinted from “Farm Safety Review,” an American publication, will also be distributed by tractor firms to their clients toward the end of the month. Most of the tractor and farm machinery firms will also have safety displays in their windows and will have floats in the safety procession which will be held on February 25. The radio and newspaper will also be used in the campaign to make all those who work or live on a farm more conscious of their responsibility to promote safe practices. HANDLING OF STOCK An inspection of lamb carcases rejected for export at an Auckland freezing works recently showed that a large proportion had been spoiled by bruising and dog bites. In most cases, the bruising ’was about the shoulder and hindquarters. Quite obviously, the lambs had been picked up by the scruff of the neck and the rump and thrown into the trucks. There were also obvious signs of bruising along the back owing to “backing” dogs. Such losses on otherwise top quality export meat are largely avoidable if a little more time and care were taken in the handling and loading of stock for slaughter.

Return of the Skylark .— Mention has been made in this page of the increasing numbers of skylarks seen in Canterbury. It has been suggested that the big snow of 1945 and the use of poisoned pollard in the Mackenzie Country may have been responsible for an earlier reduction in their numbers. A Darfield farmer has now named the magpie as enemy and destroyer of the skylark. Country cricketers in the course of their leisurely matches on country grounds are said to have observed nests torn from the ground and ravaged. Investigations indicate that magpies eat the eggs in the nests and attack the young birds.