Agricultural Safety Awareness Week is March 6-12

Across the United States, county and state Farm Bureaus are making safety a priority through the Agricultural Safety Awareness Program. As part of ASAP,March 6-12 has been designated Agricultural Safety Awareness Week. This year’s theme is “Caution—Safety is No Accident.”

A different safety focus will be highlighted each day of the week: Monday will focus on all-terrain vehicle safety; Tuesday will highlight youth safety on the farm; Wednesday’s topic will be tractor safety; Thursday is roadway safety; and Friday will focus on grain bin safety.

During that week and throughout the year, Farm Bureau will encourage farmers to make safety a priority.

“Promoting safety and health in our agricultural communities can save both lives and resources by preventing incidents, injuries and lost time,” said Virginia Farm Bureau Federation President Wayne Pryor. “Safety is really among farmers’ best investments.”

It’s also important to remember safety off the farm, particularly when moving farm equipment on roadways. And motorists should be cautious when sharing the road with tractors and other large and slow-moving equipment.

Virginia law requires all tractors and other equipment traveling no faster than 25 mph to display a triangular slow-moving vehicle emblem when on public roads.

Stafford County farmer Glenn Dye lives and farms near heavily-populated Fredericksburg. He keeps an SMV emblem on his equipment when he moves it on public roads, and he turns on his flashing lights. He also uses an escort vehicle when traveling with wider equipment, and that vehicle also has flashing lights and signage.

Dye said he travels on the road with equipment as little as possible. “Farms and fields in our area are smaller and broken up by housing developments that were at one time farms. I farm multiple properties. I do try to avoid the morning rush when folks are headed to work, and the late afternoon when they are headed home.”

Dye said he wants to make sure everyone is safe on the roadways. That’s why it is important to him that he and other farmers display SMV emblems to ensure they are visible to other drivers.

“I don’t want to see anyone injured, and if drivers are not being cautious around farm equipment and hit a large piece of equipment, it can do a lot of harm to everyone involved.”

The Agricultural Safety Awareness Program is part of the Farm Bureau Health and Safety Network of professionals who share an interest in identifying and decreasing safety and health risks.