Strategies For Ensuring Livestock Safety
Anyone who manages livestock knows the importance of animal safety. But knowing how to achieve livestock safety is a different story.
We've gathered up the following tactics to reduce livestock accidents. If you have any questions or want to shop farm equipment for sale, talk to the friendly staff at Middletown Tractor Sales. We operate dealerships in Fairmont and Buckhannon, West Virginia, and Washington and Uniontown, Pennsylvania. We also proudly serve those in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Understand The Causes Of Accidents
Many livestock accidents can be traced back to human error. When you are aware of the common triggers, you can take proper steps to avoid them.
These include:
- A temporary lapse in judgement
- Inexperience with animal behavior
- Being in a hurry and overlooking key details in a situation
- Attempting to do a job alone that requires multiple people
- A lack of preparedness for the task at hand, which can include not properly maintaining or using farm equipment
Though it’s not as likely to happen, knowing the risk for chemical exposure from inside your tractor is also important when working around livestock. Using food-grade animal-safe products like RimGuard for tire ballast can protect your cattle and other animals from poisoning if a tire should burst or get punctured in the field. Calcium chloride and methanol tire ballast options are extremely toxic to animals and could cause death if ingested in the wake of an accident.
Understand Livestock Behavior
The more you can understand animal behavior, the better you can care for your livestock. Cattle in particular can have strong maternal instincts if you are using them for calving. Some can get more aggressive than others towards people, which can end in injury if farmers are getting between calves and their mothers. Knowing when to take a cow to market for behavioral issues can help protect workers and other animals.
When it comes to equipment and feeding livestock, it’s also important to remember to close glass cab doors on your farm tractor when exiting the cab to remove bale string from hay bales. Cattle can often get spooked and run into the doors, or they may end up trying to scratch their heads and sides on the open door, causing it to break under their weight.
Additionally, bedded calves are often in danger of being run over by farm tractors during feeding because they won’t move. When moving hay bales with the front loader on your tractor, make sure the bale is positioned so that you have a clear line of sight to avoid running over them.
Livestock Are Creatures Of Habit
Routines help animals feel secure and keep their stress levels lowered, making them less likely to get agitated and out of control.
Try to keep a consistent schedule with tasks such as feeding and milking times.
Livestock Are Social Creatures
Many animals prefer to be among other animals. Getting separated from the herd can trigger stress and agitation, which increases the risk of a safety situation occurring.
Try to keep animals together whenever possible. If you need to relocate the herd, try moving the leader. The rest should follow.
Livestock Are Prey Creatures
Horses, cattle, and other such animals are prey. They are hard-wired to be on guard against predators. You may know that they are safe from lions and wolves, but they do not.
Livestock have what's called a flight zone (in other words, their personal space). Certain actions near or inside their flight zone can trigger fight or flight response. This results in behaviors such as bolting (flight) or kicking (fight). Both of these can cause safety situations for the livestock and any nearby workers.
Be sure to avoid unnecessarily invading their flight zone. In most cases, you can get livestock to move without stepping into this area.
It's also wise to avoid stepping or operating farm equipment behind animals where they can't see you. Livestock may interpret the sounds as an incoming predator and enter fight or flight mode.
Design The Environment For Livestock
Set up the surroundings with safety in mind. Reducing environmental triggers can help reduce livestock accidents.
First, provide surfaces with enough traction.
Strategies can include:
- Concrete flooring with a rough finish
- Grooved concrete walkways in high traffic areas
- Proper drainage to prevent moisture buildup
- Routinely clear manure and excess feed from walkways
If you are feeding livestock inside a barn, a compact tractor with a front-attached free stall scraper can also help clear manure and liquids from travel corridors to keep the ground clear.
Second, reduce the chance of shadows. Shadows can easily spook livestock and lead to safety issues. Make sure areas are properly lit when livestock pass through.
Third, reduce the chance of injuries. Check areas for sharp objects and protruding materials (like pitch forks, bale spears, or other tools and implements), then remove or adjust them as soon as possible.
Ensure All Workers Use Safety Strategies
Anyone interacting with livestock needs to be properly trained in safe handling procedures.
It's also helpful to avoid any loud noises. This includes sudden noises from farm equipment. Keep farm equipment well-maintained to reduce the chances of sudden repair-related sounds. You can even invest in quietly-running farm equipment or aftermarket accessories designed to reduce noise pollution.
If you enter into a compact space with livestock, plan out a quick escape just in case. This can be an easy exit built into the pen, a gap in the fence that people (but not livestock) can fit through, and so on.
We hope you found this guide to livestock safety. If you need any farm equipment maintenance or want to shop farm equipment for sale, chat with your hometown experts at Middletown Tractor Sales. We can assist with anything you need and are happy to help. We run dealerships in Fairmont and Buckhannon, West Virginia, as well as Washington and Uniontown, Pennsylvania. We also proudly serve those in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Morgantown, West Virginia, and other surrounding areas.