A national competition to improve farm safety awareness among young farmers has been won by members of Pembrokeshire County Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs for the 10th time since the competition started in 2002.
The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs’ (NFYFC) Farm Machinery Skills competition, sponsored by KRAMP, was held a week before Farm Safety Week (17-21 July).
The competition challenges young farmers to demonstrate their knowledge of farm machinery and its safe operation. It also tests first aid skills by creating a realistic farm accident that team members must respond to during the competition.
The winning Pembrokeshire team fought off six other county teams in the final to win a KRAMP toolkit each and a JCB VIP hospitality tour round the world headquarters in Staffordshire, along with the much-coveted trophy.
The team, made up of Caryl Bevan, Berwyn Warlow, Rhys Bevan and William Lewis, are all from Llys Y Fran YFC and due to their involvement in farming prioritise this competition above others.
“We do take it seriously. As well as the first aid, we all have an interest in farm machinery and it’s the only health and safety competition that we [YFC] have that could save your life.”
Teammate Caryl Bevan is in her final year of YFC and has been part of the winning team on six previous occasions at the national final. Former members support the team and she said that would continue as new people joined to try to hold on to Pembrokeshire’s winning title.
Caryl said: “Highlighting farm safety is important for the club. Teaching new skills, first aid especially, and making sure we practice what we preach.”
Another member of the team Will Lewis also won an individual trophy for his ATV Handling Skills.
It is a really important competition as we know farms have a large number of accidents. As a paramedic I see those myself, so anything we can do to make sure people are supported is good.
We usually see a high standard of entrants but there are always some learning opportunities from the competition. It makes people think about how they would deal with the situation on the farm.
Some tips to take away would be to make sure they know what’s in their first aid kit and that they have it with them – as it’s not much use back in the shed somewhere!
People do learn from the competition as we do see improvements when the same team is back in the final. There has been a lot of new teams this year at the national final and I think they have learnt quite a lot from it.
Dave Johns
Arley Medical Services
Kramp is always looking for ways to support the next generation of farmers and we’re thrilled to have sponsored the Farm Machinery Skills competition for the last two years!
We’re constantly trying to champion safety at Kramp as we know how important it is, especially in the agricultural industry. We’re proud to be a part of the young farmers’ safety journey and hope we can continue to support them with their farming journey in the future.
Des Boyd
Commercial Director, Kramp
The competition comes at a critical time for the industry with figures from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) showing farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation in Great Britain.
It was also held on the eve of the Farm Safety Foundation’s 11th Farm Safety Week. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the impacts of farm accidents on the industry and community and to promote the importance of farming safely.
This competition, which is held just ahead of Farm Safety Week, is one of the most important in our national programme as it helps reinforce safety messages and could save lives.
NFYFC also has a Farm Safety training module that was developed in conjunction with The Farm Safety Foundation, and we encourage all our clubs to take part in this training too. As the next generation of farmers, we need to do all we can to improve agriculture’s safety record.
Rosie Bennett
NFYFC Chair
All members of a YFC can take part in NFYFC’s Farm Safety training, which focuses on raising awareness of farm safety, shows how to prevent accidents and what to do if there is one.
NFYFC’s Farm Machinery Skills competition final is held during NFYFC’s annual Competitions Day in Staffordshire. It is hosted alongside 13 other competitions where members showcase a range of skills from fence erecting to dancing.
CFMOTO UK, JCB, Rea Valley Tractors, RJ ATV all supported the Farm Machinery Skills competition by providing machinery.
If you would like to organise Farm Safety training in your club, please contact your County Office to make arrangements with your local YFC Trainer.
