Farm Safety Week run by the Farm Safety Foundation – or Yellow Wellies as they’re more commonly known - is fast approaching. Starting on Monday 21st July to coincide with the beginning of the Royal Welsh Show, Farm Safety Week brings together five countries over five days with one simple goal - to encourage everyone in the industry to make our farms safer places to live and to work.

The aim of Farm Safety Week is to raise awareness of the importance of working safely in farming, promote good safety practices and share positive stories about the use of innovation and education to improve safety.

One of the unique features of agriculture is that farms are often family homes as well as workplaces, with children often present. With the school summer holidays looming, children are more likely to be on the farm during working time.

Farms can be wonderful places for children to grow up, where independence and responsibility are fostered and family relationships are strengthened. They are also a fantastic source of learning, where organised visits can inform and inspire children from all backgrounds to learn about where their food comes from and how the industry is vital to everyday life. However, children are sometimes put at great risk when playing, visiting or helping out around the farm.

No one wants to put children at risk and if there is any doubt as to whether an activity is safe it should be stopped, and advice obtained. Farms are not playgrounds. All children need is somewhere secure to play that is away from the workplace and if they do need to enter your place of work, adult supervision is essential. Such boundaries become even more important during the summer holidays when children are at home.

We have farm safety activity books for schools available, produced by the Wales Farm Safety Partnership (WFSP), a collaboration of some of the key rural stakeholder organisations in Wales, including NFU Cymru. These books are tailored for primary school age children to encourage them to learn about the importance of farm safety and the hazards that exist on a working farm.

NFU Cymru continues to work closely with the Wales Farm Safety Partnership as well as Yellow Wellies and urges everyone to think about what they are doing and make sure they’re safe.