This document discusses safety guidelines for children and youth working on farms and ranches. It notes that agriculture is a dangerous industry, with about 38 children injured daily and one child dying every three days from agriculture-related incidents. It provides tips for determining when a child is ready for specific tasks based on their physical and mental maturity, and recommends close supervision and gradually increasing responsibilities. Formal safety training is encouraged to teach safe practices and address potential hazards. Adults are advised to lead by example and prioritize safety to prevent injuries and protect the next generation.

1. Every year we hear of a new
incident, or see a new statistic, but
we don’t entirely comprehend just
how dangerous our livelihoods can
be until someone is injured or even
worse – killed.
According to the National
Children’s Center for Rural and
Agricultural Health and Safety,
about 38 children are injured in
an agriculture-related incident
every day. And about every three
days, a child dies from one of those
incidents. If you’re like most farmers
and ranchers in this country, you
have probably attended at least one
of those funerals in your lifetime.
So, before you send your
child, grandchild, niece, nephew
Safety is the best policy when using young labor
Progressive Cattleman writer Cassidy Woolsey
or neighbor to tackle your “to do”
list this summer, you may want to
consider some safety advice from the
professionals.
Overestimating your child’s
ability
Shari Burgus, education director
for the non-profit organization
Farm Safety For Just Kids, says
it is important to keep in mind
that not all children are the
same – mentally, physically and
emotionally. Determining when
the child is ready for a specific task
takes a lot of careful consideration
and supervision. Just because a child
is physically big doesn’t necessarily
mean they are capable of doing the
job safely, she says.
“Oftentimes, parents or
grandparents will see one 10-year-
old doing a job and think that their
12-year-old can do it too. That is not
always the case for various reasons,”
Burgus says. “As a parent you really
have to do a lot of analyzing to make
sure your kid is ready for certain
tasks instead of comparing him
or her to older siblings or kids in
general.”
Burgus recommends first
assigning the child a similar task
but on a smaller scale. There are
other things you can have the child
do with machinery, with livestock
or other ranch-related tasks that
can gradually get them ready for
the tougher jobs, she says. The
child needs to prove he or she can
handle the situation, and then you
can gradually increase the child’s
responsibility and slowly decrease
the amount of supervision.
It’s good to teach them to work,
but do it safely
Because many beef operations
are family businesses, youth play
an integral role in the business’s
success and provide a prime way to
foster hard work and responsibility.
However, as an adult, it is important
you don’t get caught up in your
never-ending list of chores and
forget to teach your child the correct
and safe way to get the job done.
“As an organization, we believe it
is OK for kids to work on the farm,”
she says. “We also believe the work
setting should be as safe as possible
for working youth. For example, if
you are working in the yard, there is
nothing wrong with kids picking up
rocks or raking leaves and gradually
working up to using the lawnmower.
We want to keep the children on the
farm. We want them to enjoy what
they are doing, but we want them to
become adults too.”
So how can you determine when
your child is ready to load up the
hay wagon? What age can they move
the cows to the next paddock or
drive the ATV to check the fence?
Lucky for you, the Marshfield Clinic
Research Foundation has laid out
some guidelines to help determine if
your child is ready for the job. Here
are a few:
Operating a tractor
•Has the child been trained to
operate the tractor?
• Does the child have good
peripheral vision?
•Is your child responsible? Do you
trust your child to do what’s expected
without anyone checking?
•Can the child understand and repeat
from memory a 10-step process?
• Has an adult demonstrated driving
a tractor on-site?
• Can the child react quickly?
• Can the child recognize a hazard
and solve the problem without
getting upset?
• Has the child shown he or she can
do the job safely four or five times
under close supervision?
• Is the child strong enough to fully
operate the controls without using
both feet or straining?
Working with cattle and horses
• Is the child comfortable around
large animals?
• Has an adult demonstrated
working with large animals on-site?
• Has the child been trained on
animal behavior?
• If feeding the animals, does the
feed weigh less than 10 to 15 percent
of the child’s bodyweight? (Children
should lift no more than 15 percent
of their bodyweight.)
• Does the child know an escape
route when working with cattle and
horses?
Driving ATVs
• Can the child reach and operate all
controls while comfortably seated?
• Is the child strong enough to
operate the controls without
straining?
• Does the child have an approved
helmet with eye protection?
• Does the child do things that seem
dangerous for the thrill of it?
Make safety a part
of the procedure
The leading cause of youth
fatalities in agriculture is machinery,
followed by motor vehicles and
drowning. It is easy to say, “I did it
when I was a kid” or “That is the way
Grandpa taught me.” But you have to
realize there is a lot more machinery
and substantially bigger tractors
today than there were 40 or 50 years
ago, Burgus says.
As an adult, you have the
responsibility to make sure the child
is ready and equipped for the job.
Ask yourself: Are all safety features
in place? Are potential hazards
removed from the work area? Is
the child wearing the appropriate
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30 Progressive CattlemanJuly 2015

2. and most easily prevented reasons
for injury or death is simply that the
child wasn’t ready for the task, she
says.
Sharry Nielsen, an extension
educator for the University of
Nebraska, recommends forming safe
habits right from the beginning. For
example, when teaching the child
to drive an ATV, the first step you
should teach them is to put on their
helmet, she explains. By encouraging
and teaching them safe practices
early on, safety can become a natural
part of the procedure.
“It may mean taking more time,
adding a step to the job, or doing
some advanced planning, but it also
may mean preventing an injury or
fatality,” she says.
Nielsen also recommends
supervising the child until he or she
is comfortable and confident in the
job. There isn’t a blanket approach
to how much supervision or when
to stop supervising, she says. It all
depends on the age and maturity
level of the child.
You set the example
Children learn a lot just by
emulating your behavior, says Dennis
Murphy, a farm safety specialist at
Penn State University. However, if
something unusual happens, like
a bump in the road or a piece of
machinery malfunctions, the child
doesn’t know how to react to it because
they haven’t been properly trained.
Adults should keep kids out of hazardous situations. Don’t use ranch-
related chores or machinery as a baby sitter or activity center for
young kids. Photo by Cassidy Woolsey.
“It’s often a continuous cycle,”
Murphy explains. “Parents and
grandparents usually exhibit
dangerous behavior because that is
the way they were taught. That is why
it is important that youth working
on a farm or beef operation attend
some type of formal training if at all
possible.”
Murphy believes formal training,
rather than simply job shadowing,
is a great way to teach the child
properly. He says oftentimes parents
or grandparents use the excuse that
there wasn’t enough time to train the
child. So sending the child to a formal
training can be a huge time-saver and
a way to get an outside opinion on
different safety procedures.
Many universities offer outreach
programs that teach youth the
necessary safety precautions when
operating equipment and machinery,
working with livestock and more.
If a formal training program is not
available in your state, it is important
that you are cautious and really take
the time to explain things to the child,
he says.
Just remember we want to protect
the kids that are growing up to be
the next generation of agriculture.
Granted, sometimes accidents
happen. But let’s work toward
preventing the accidents that can be
avoided through safe practices.
Cassidy Woolsey is a freelance writer
based in Utah.
Photo by Mike Dixon. Photo by Mike Dixon.
For those of you who are looking
to hire youth over the summer,
Nielsen has laid out a few things
for you to consider:
• Make sure the youth you are
hiring are at least 14 years old
if working with any of the jobs
deemed hazardous by the U.S.
Department of Labor.
• If they will be working with
machinery, insist they take a basic
Looking to hire youth? tractor safety course as offered by
agriculture education instructors
and cooperative extension.
• Train them on your machines
and in doing the jobs you do. Don’t
expect them to know all about your
farm or ranch, even if they grew up
on a farm or ranch or have been
working for someone else in the
industry.
• Supervise until the youth is
comfortable and confident in the
jobs you expect him or her to do.
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