Injury Profile

All too often we read or see a report of someone being killed or injured in a farm accident. On average, there are 150 deaths from non-intentional injury on farms each year.¹ In Victoria, there have been 61 deaths on farms during the past five years (2000-04) ² and farms account for more than a third of the State's work place accident fatalities.

In the 4½ years to the end of 2004, there were 21 deaths on Australian dairy farms³ - 13 of them were in Victoria. Four of the 13 were in and around dairies

Agriculture has a high percentage of workplace deaths, and the death - and injury - rates depend a lot on the type of farm and the type of work being done.

Being on a dairy farm is a high-risk activity. The injury statistics are perhaps the most relevant to the issue of managing safety in dairies. See Farmsafe Australia figures

For each 100 farms, 27 people suffer from chronic back injury.

The Victorian Injury Surveillance and Applied Research System (VISAR) provides injury surveillance of Emergency Department presentations at 28 Victorian hospitals.
A search for data between July 1999 and June 2004 on injuries requiring emergency treatment that were sustained while working in the cowshed provided 102 cases.⁴
Two thirds of the cases were males, one-third females.

Although injuries were spread over all age groups there appears to be an over representation in the 15-19 age groups The major causes were falls (14%), scalds and burns (17%), being struck by objects (20%), and cow related (20%) causing open wounds, fractures, eye injuries, burns or corrosion and sprains and strains.
The available statistics indicate that injuries in and around the dairy are mainly due to contact with cattle, moving machinery, hot water and chemical burns, slips, trips and falls and manual handling. They cause a range of injuries, particularly to the hands and fingers, eyes, legs and back.

Although specific data on injuries to children in the dairy are not readily available, anecdotal evidence is that injuries do occur as a result of contact with cattle, hot water, chemicals, unguarded machinery, and slips, trips and falls.

National injury data for compensation-based statistics (1994-2000) ⁵ in the dairy industry show:

The 1,600 injuries/diseases that were eligible for compensation.

The main sites of injury

The causes of injuries to people making claims for workers compensation

The mechanisms of injury

While industry-wide statistics provide a big-picture perspective on the dairy industry in Australia, they are no substitute for identifying potential injuries to yourself your family and your workers. Poor safety standards lead to higher workers compensation costs, lost work time, reduced productivity and unnecessary personal trauma. In April-May 2004,⁶ the National Milk Harvesting Centre surveyed 301 dairy farms in Australia (246 of them in Victoria). Forty farmers reported an injury in the previous 12 months to themselves or their staff - 22 injuries were significant enough to miss milking and 17 led to up to one week or more off work.

The information in the Gardiner Foundation Dairy Safety website is provided to help you ensure that you meet your legal OH&S obligations, maintain a safe and healthy dairy and avoid you, your family or your workers adding to the statistics.