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Here's The Truth About Livestock Equipment

Owning and working on a farm with animals is an occupation that usually involves many safety hazards. Working with animals and livestock generally involves being subject to bruises, scratches or bites, but can also be downright dangerous. Not only do the animals themselves pose a risk to employee safety, but the work environment itself can be very dangerous. Take a good look around your facilities, if you’ve been conscientious about safety, you’ve got good, solid fences, strong doors and your buildings are well maintained. Your livestock equipment should be set away properly, and nothing should be kicking around.

Most farm owners tend to think of safety only with machinery and wouldn’t consider smaller livestock equipment as being a safety risk, but unfortunately, accidents can happen because of things not being in their proper place. Having livestock equipment such as brooms, rakes and pitchforks leaning against the wall instead of in a rack is an example of a safety risk. Loose tools and livestock equipment can be trip hazards, and sometimes a fall can be just as dangerous as getting kicked by an animal.

There are all sorts of gadgets to help clean up your shed or barn, but even small, creative ways can get tools and accessories out of the working path. For example, if you own a stable, you’ll know that many people just leave their lunge whips leaning against a wall. People can trip on the long accessory, or worse, the whip could fall over near a nervous horse, and noise can be dangerous. Clean up these pieces of livestock equipment. Attach a section of PVC pipe to a wall, and you’ve got a handy holder for those lunge whips.

Find homes for other loose items as well. Use buckets and pails to store smaller items, and build or buy racks for larger things. Go for a walk on your own facilities and sweep your eyes around to try to spot everything that’s on the ground. Chances are, the item could find a better, safer home on a shelf or in a cabinet. Livestock equipment that can tangle, such as halters, chains, ropes or leather straps, should be sorted and hung on hooks. Anything with a blade, tine or sharp edge definitely needs to be secured on a wall or put away on a shelf.

Minimizing risks in an already accident prone occupation is a good way to make sure that when accidents on your farm happen, they didn’t occur because someone was careless or because something wasn’t put away. There’s no reason for livestock equipment to be the cause of someone receiving a bad cut or getting bumped on the head. Once you’ve cleaned up the livestock equipment kicking around, your facility won’t only be safer, it will look better as well and everyone working there will want to help pitch in to keep that tidy look all the time.