While the winter months provide good opportunities to complete seasonal jobs, it can pose additional risks to farmers and farm workers. It is during this time of year that accidents can easily happen, and we should all take extra care when completing jobs. The shorter days can often mean that work is taking place during hours of darkness, which in itself is a challenge. If possible, try to complete any essential tasks during daylight hours, or ensure there is sufficient artificial light to allow the work to take place safely.

It might also help to compile a checklist of emergency contacts, key holders, neighbours, vets, plumbers, contractors etc. and pinning it up where anyone can access it. It would also be helpful to know the What3Words location for key points on the farm, and have a list of these pinned up where people can access them in an emergency.

Keeping vehicles, machinery and equipment well maintained is one of the best ways of helping to keep you and others on farm safe all year round, but especially during the colder months. This can apply to any piece of equipment you run, for instance tractors, trailers, ATVs, towed appliances, farm vehicles, hand-held machines, etc. Incidents with transport and machinery are consistently the highest cause of fatal injury within agriculture. By wearing a helmet when using quad bikes and ATVs you are protecting the most vulnerable part of your body should an incident occur.

It is always good to have a look at your farm security when the nights are darker as farms can be easy targets to thieves. Keeping high-value goods out of sight and making sure all your kit is security marked is a good start. An up-to-date list of all your valuables will help if you do become a victim of crime, and photos of expensive ATVs will help police to find them.

Dawn-to-dusk security lights are a good idea along with CCTV and decent locks on outbuildings and fuel stores. Make sure field gates have capping hinges so they cannot be easily removed and lock cattle grids out of position when they are not being used. Thieves target electric fences as they can be sold easily as second hand or for scrap, so disguise them with branches, mark it in several places to make it less attractive and secure the energiser to a fixed point. Some police recommend securing boundary fences so that there is only one single, gated access onto the farm, and they recommend locking posts to obstruct large entrances to yards.

NFU Cymru continues to work closely with the Wales Farm Safety Partnership as well as Yellow Wellies and urges everyone to think about what they are doing and make sure they come home safe.