Summer is a prime time for youth of all ages to be around and involved with the farm. While this provides an exceptional opportunity for children to learn job skills, responsibility, and more, parents, guardians, and employers must also take care to make the farm a safe working environment.
Avoiding safety hazards should be a priority for every person working on the farm, but it is especially crucial for young people who have varying levels of physical, intellectual, and emotional abilities. The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety cites that 33 children are injured in an agricultural-related incident every day.
It has often been found that many agricultural injuries occur because a young person was tasked with a job that they were not completely prepared to perform. Being prepared to do a job includes physical abilities such as height, strength, and dexterity, but it also covers critical thinking skills, communication ability, and problem-solving skills if the situation changes. Agriculture is one of the most dangerous fields for adults to work in because of large machinery, unpredictable animals, and environments that can become unsafe in an instant. If a child is to perform a job, they should not only be equipped to do the task as it would go in a perfect world, but they should also be aware and capable of adapting if necessary.
An outline of age-appropriate farm chores has been developed by Cultivate Safety and is available here. Remember that each child’s abilities develop differently and adjust accordingly.
Insurance agent Florence Becot and Linda Fetzer from Penn State Extension remind that it’s also a good idea to conduct a “safety audit” of your farm to check for hazards that could cause harm to young people. This can include ensuring all materials, including things like power tools and chemicals, are stored appropriately and out of reach. Use appropriate warning signage on manure storage, silos, and grain bins and teach youth what these mean. It is also a good idea to fence off or create other barriers to these types of hazards to avoid dangers like silo or manure gases, falls, and drownings.
It may also be useful to be aware of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) if you are employing young people who are not your own children on your farm. The FLSA allows youth of any age to perform any task if the farm is owned by their parents, but employing other youth is more complex. It allows that youth over 16 may do any farm job at any time, and 14- and 15-year-olds may work on the farm outside of school hours in jobs not declared hazardous. Twelve and 13-year-olds can work on a farm in nonhazardous jobs outside of school hours on farms that also employ one of their parents if the parent provides written consent; this also applies to youth under age 12 only if the farm has no employees subject to FLSA’s minimum wage requirements.
You can find out more about what is considered a “hazardous job” on the U.S. Department of Labor website. The Pennsylvania Center for Dairy Excellence notes that if your milk or the products made from it is shipped across state lines, your farm is subject to the FLSA. Remember that violating the FLSA can lead to civil money penalties or fines.
Even if a young person is not working on a farm, they can be at risk of injury because of exposure to large machinery, traffic, animals, waterways, and more. Childcare on a farm is not often a simple task, but Cultivate Safety recommends keeping work areas and play areas separate. Resources and a roadmap for considerations in developing childcare are available at this page.
Finally, remember to practice what you preach. Set a good example for the young people — and all team members — around your farm to do jobs the correct and safe way. Teach them that a shortcut is never more important than their life.
