The days are getting brighter, and spring is just around the corner. This time of the year provides a great opportunity to get organised, tick-off those pre-summer jobs and get your farm machinery ready for the go ahead before the rush of summer and harvest time begins.
Your ‘spring clean’ might include:
- Having a general tidy up around the farmyard
- Collecting contractor paperwork
- Completing machinery maintenance and servicing
- Reviewing employee medical questionnaires and policies
Firstly, it is always good to improve general housekeeping by having a tidy up around the yard. This might include removing and disposing of rubbish and scrap around the farm and placing items into storage that are not used every day. This can help to improve efficiency, reduce the number of slip, trip and fall hazards, and will mitigate your fire risk by limiting the amount of combustible materials on the site. Improved housekeeping, cleanliness and organisation is also beneficial for your mental health and can help to boost your outlook towards the farm.
The summer is a busy time for contractors. If you are employing contractors to work on your site, it is your responsibility to provide and communicate the risks and hazards. We would also recommend that you collect proof of their competency through training records (where relevant), and copies of their public liability insurance. These can be requested before the work starts, and it makes sense to get organised and do this before the busy period begins. As part of your duties to communicate hazards on your farm, annotated field maps which display overhead power line and footpath locations should be shared with contractors – this can be done quickly and easily via email.
Farm machinery should be regularly serviced and maintained to fulfil your duties under the Provision of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). Ensuring your farm machinery has been fully serviced and is ready to go will reduce the likelihood of preventable breakdowns and down time. Running your machinery through the workshop and ensuring repairs and servicing are completed by a competent person will tick another job off your list.
You might also use these spring months to annually review your employee medical questionnaires to confirm the information is correct and up to date. Similarly, it may be a good time to review farm policies and ensure staff have signed that they have read and understood.
Effective time management and organisation in the spring will help to ensure future jobs run smoothly and efficiently, whilst also relieving pressure when the days do get busier.
