'Farmers are under pressure and accidents take a second'
BBCIsolated locations, lone working, extreme weather, heavy machinery and large animals. What is being done - and what can be done - to reduce deaths and injuries on Britain's farms?
"Farming is such a difficult job and we all owe so much to the people who produce our food."
These were the words spoken by a coroner at the conclusion of an inquest into the death of a 26-year-old worker who was one of five farm fatalities in Cumbria alone in 2024.
Daniel David Sowerby died after a tractor with a faulty handbrake rolled back and crushed him against a barn wall at Newlands Farm in Wigton.
His inquest concluded this week, just a few days after that of fellow farmer David Charles Knipe, 65, from Tebay, who died of hypothermia in December 2024 having becoming trapped under his toppled quad bike.
Both deaths were deemed accidental. More poignantly, both inquests were heard as the UK marked Farm Safety Week.
Cumbria PoliceThe risks inherent in the industry are readily recognisable to Cumbria's National Farmers' Union (NFU) chairman Richard Pedley, who said: "Accidents can be avoided, but a lot of the trouble is farmers are under pressure, possibly short-staffed.
"It just takes less than a second to have an accident."
Pedley, a sheep and beef farmer from near Kirkby Lonsdale, said it was important farmers were aware of potential dangers, especially when working in remote areas where help may be harder to reach.
The NFU held an event on how to identify potential dangers, after which Pedley said: "It's a good eye opener, something we can all take home."
But when it comes to statistics which lay bare the heightened risk, he offered: "They don't scare me because it's one of them jobs, you just kind of get on with it."
Pedley acknowledged a safety role for technology, a point that emerged during Knipe's inquest last week.
The poultry farmer was found about 16 hours after his quad bike overturned, trapping him in sub-zero temperatures at Heart Wood which, though rural, is visible from the M6 motorway.
Knipe's wife Christine told the inquest newer quad bikes had a safety feature that alerts a third party when it topples.
"I think that's the part we found quite difficult," she told the inquest.
"I'd think that sort of technology may help others going forward. We're aware that farms are dangerous places."
Costas AndreouAgriculture, forestry and fishing have consistently recorded the highest work-related death rates in the last five years, figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show.
Workers in those three sectors were seven times more likely to be killed while at their job, according to the Farm Safety Foundation, with 22 such deaths recorded by HSE in the last financial year alone.
One of the foundation's initiatives involves 11-year-old Erin Thompson from Lamplugh who has compiled an illustrated book to educate children about risks on farms.
The Girl in the Yellow Wellies is inspired by warnings Erin receives when visiting her grandparents farm across the road from her house.
"Animals can charge at you and you can climb on bales and fall from heights, fall into the water, get run over by a tractor," Erin said, adding the book had been useful to her cousins when visiting the family farm.
"[My message] would be just to watch out when you're out and about so you don't get hurt."
Her mum Laura, whose family have farmed for generations, said there could be a bit of a "won't happen to me" attitude in the industry.
"It is getting the message out there as adults are reading the book to the children, so it's changing mindsets and culture across generations," she said.
Coroner Robert Cohen, who presided over Sowerby's inquest earlier this week, told the hearing farming was "by definition a dangerous and difficult task".
He said: "In what is now I'm told Farm Safety Week, it's appropriate to simply say I hope all those working in farming take care of themselves and look after themselves."
