Farm Safety Practices: Protecting Yourself, Your Workers and Your Family

Agriculture is one of Australia’s most dangerous industries. The risks are well known: quad bikes and tractors, augers and power take-offs, livestock, chemicals, heat and long hours working alone. What makes the difference is doing the basics consistently: checking machinery, planning for emergencies and keeping people informed. This guide covers the main farm hazards, practical controls, daily and seasonal checks, and how digital tools can make safety easier on a busy property.

What WHS law expects on farms

Farms are workplaces under WHS laws, so farm owners and managers must manage risks to workers, contractors, visitors and family members so far as is reasonably practicable. Safe Work Australia notes that you must have an emergency plan even if you’re the only person in your workplace. Some farm activities, such as operating certain plant, handling agricultural chemicals and working with livestock, have extra requirements. Check with your state regulator for local rules.

Main farm hazards and controls

Quad bikes, side-by-sides and tractors

Safe Work Australia notes that vehicles, including tractors, quad bikes and aircraft, cause over 75% of workplace deaths in agriculture. Controls include:

• Choose the right vehicle for the task and terrain, and consider a side-by-side with rollover protection instead of a quad bike
• Fit operator protective devices and rollover protection where suitable
• Wear a helmet, avoid steep slopes and don’t overload or carry passengers on quad bikes
• Never let children ride adult-sized quad bikes
• Keep tractors fitted with rollover protection, seatbelts and safe access platforms

Machinery

• Guards on power take-offs, augers, belts and chains
• Shut down and isolate before clearing blockages or doing maintenance
• Pre-start checks before use

Livestock

• Well-maintained yards, races and crushes
• Safe handling techniques and escape routes
• Vaccination for zoonotic diseases such as Q fever where recommended

Chemicals

• Store chemicals securely and labelled, with safety data sheets
• Follow label directions, and use the right PPE and application equipment
• Keep chemical records as required

Working alone, heat and fatigue

• Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back
• Carry a reliable way to call for help, such as a satellite device in poor-coverage areas
• Plan heavy work for cooler parts of the day, drink water and take breaks. See our guide to fatigue management.

Children on farms

• A fenced, safe play area away from vehicles, machinery, dams and animals
• Clear rules about no-go areas and supervision

Building a farm safety system

1. Walk the property. List the hazards on your farm, including vehicles, machinery, animals, chemicals, water, sheds and remote areas.
2. Talk to everyone. Involve workers, contractors and family in identifying hazards and agreeing controls.
3. Set up controls. Start with the biggest risks, usually vehicles and machinery, and work down the hierarchy of controls.
4. Write simple procedures. Cover high-risk tasks, inductions for new workers and contractors, and your emergency plan.
5. Check regularly. Use pre-starts for machinery and vehicles, and regular property checks for sheds, chemicals and yards.
6. Review and improve. Look at incidents, near misses and check results, and fix recurring problems.

Daily and seasonal checks

See our guides to daily plant equipment safety checks and biological hazards.

Digital tools for farm safety

Paper checklists get left in the ute, damaged in the shed or never make it back to the office. With DIGI CLIP, farm workers complete machinery pre-starts, property checks and incident reports on a phone, even without coverage, and the check is submitted once they’re back online. Each form is location- and time-stamped. Failed items create actions in the Action Log, so repairs are assigned and closed out with evidence, and recurring checks send reminders when they’re due.

Illustrative scenario: a quad bike pre-start

Before heading out to check stock, a farmhand completes a quad bike pre-start in DIGI CLIP and finds the rear brake isn’t holding. He fails the item with a photo, which creates an action for the farm manager, and takes the side-by-side instead. The brake is repaired that afternoon and the action is closed out with a photo and note.

This scenario is illustrative. It shows how a farm could use DIGI CLIP and is not an account of a specific customer.

For livestock and crop protection, see our pest monitoring and biosecurity forms.