While no one wants an accident to happen on the farm, dairies are busy and accidents happen. Working around large animals, operating and working around heavy equipment, and other hazards can put employees in a situation where injuries can occur. It is important to have protocols in place to prevent injury and to know how to handle an injury once it happens.
Be proactive to improve safety
Prevention starts with being aware of situations on the farm where injuries can happen. Here are five quick and easy steps you can take today to increase safety awareness on your farm.
- Post safety signs to increase employee awareness of common exposures and requirements related to confined spaces, manure lagoons, high voltage and personal protective equipment requirements. Postings should also include the OSHA poster, available for free on the OSHA website.
- Inspect all PTO shafts on your equipment to verify all PTO shields are in place and in good condition.
- Inspect all electrical service panels for missing breakers or exposed electrical wiring. Circuits should be labeled for easy identification and isolation for service needs.
- Conduct safety training sessions to go through and reinforce protocols. Review safety protocols associated with using large equipment, working around large animals and other critical safety areas. Document training sessions, which can be as simple as recording topics covered, by who and the employees in attendance on a single sheet of paper. If you need ideas, check out the Centers for U.S. Agricultural Safety and Health YouTube channel.
- Train all employees on how and who to report all accidents, injuries and near misses. Have workers’ compensation insurance in place and know your carriers’ claim-reporting procedures and contact information.
Leading by example and conducting safety audits can help you create a positive safety culture on your farm. This is essential for protecting workers, improving productivity and ensuring compliance with regulations. Even from an insurance perspective, carriers would rather you avoid claims – so a prevention and safety mindset should go hand in hand.
Be ready when injuries happen
Even with safety avoidance protocols in place, accidents can still happen. Insurance coverage, safety protocols and incident-reporting plans all work together to help you minimize risk and protect your employees.
Having an incident and filing a workers’ compensation claim seems overwhelming. It is important to be prepared by understanding the various levels of injuries and how to address injuries once they happen. Here are five things you need to consider.
1. Understand the injury and the root cause
Worker safety is a top priority, and you should encourage workers to look out for one another and speak up when they see unsafe practices.
These are the three main categories of workplace injuries:
- Those causing employees to miss work (lost time)
- Those requiring medical care without missing work (medical only)
- Minor injuries needing only basic first aid (record only)
Understanding the root cause helps prevent future incidents – was it equipment failure, human error, weather-related or something else? Depending on the root cause, you may need to implement additional training or inspect equipment. If you have workers’ compensation insurance, your loss control consultant can help you track metrics and review and update any safety policies based on feedback and new risks.
2. Establish a notification process
All employees should be encouraged to and feel comfortable reporting an incident when it happens. Your operation needs to establish a process or chain of command for when an injury happens. This ensures employees and managers are aware of what is going on and action can be taken.
- Employee and witness should inform the farm supervisor.
- Farm supervisor will secure the area.
- Farm supervisor will report incident to human resources or directly report the claim.
You will need to gather basic information – date and time of incident, location on farm and weather conditions. You will need the names and contact information of the people involved and relationship to the farm – what their role is.
Witness information and photos of the scene, maintenance logs and safety inspections records are helpful to gather.
3. Timely reporting and submitting claims
It is important to record incident-only claims, even if they don’t go beyond basic first aid. Keeping a record or paper trail provides claim data in situations where the injury escalates into something more serious. Most farm insurance policies include clauses that require you to report any incident that could lead to a claim. Failing to do so could result in: denied claims, cancellations of your policy or difficulty defending yourself if someone else files a claim against you later.
4. What happens when a case gets reported?
When a case gets reported, it gets sent to the third-party administrator. They assign the case to one of their adjusters depending on how the injury was categorized and who started the investigation. The adjuster contacts the employer to verify what happened and gather details about the claim. The adjuster also contacts the injured worker to verify the claim and the provider to get an objective medical diagnosis. All of this verifies the claim for accuracy before processing.
Claims can be reported online, which is the preferred method. A toll-free number can be used as well to report an incident.
5. Connect with your agent and loss control consultant
There are many companies that carry workers’ compensation insurance. But dairy farming is a unique business, and not all carriers understand the ins and outs of what happens every day on a dairy farm. They also may not understand the steps that need to be taken to avoid injury risks. It is important to have a carrier and agent who understand what happens on a dairy.
Your insurance agent can help you understand your coverage, guide you through the claims process and ensure all necessary documentation is submitted. Your loss control consultant can conduct safety inspections, develop an ongoing employee training program, assist with OSHA compliance activities and review policies and procedures.
Regardless of the size of the operation, injuries can happen on farms at any time. While there are significant risks dairy farmers take every day, employee health and safety should not be one of them. Injury prevention is important, but being prepared to take care of the employee when an injury happens is paramount. Keep your farm safe – and your team healthy – so you can focus on what you do best: making milk and keeping those cows happy.
