Just this time!
A true story, Graham is one of our growers who has been grazing bulls and heifers for NZ Grazing for over 12 years now.
Just this time, was what Graham was thinking, right before he rolled his quad over on top of himself. This could have been fatal. Graham woke up on a Monday morning a few weeks ago knowing it was going to be a busy day on his 400HA farm. One of two farms he has run with his brother and sister-in-law over the past 12 years.
This was the third big day in a row, cows calving and needed to be checked before getting all the NZG Jersey yearling and two-year-old bulls in for drafting, weighing, drenching and trucking the next day to go out for service and straight after that getting in steers to be weighed and selected to go to the works the following day too. Already mentally and physically fatigued from the logistics of getting this all set up over the past couple of days so it ran smoothly, Graham headed on his 30 minute drive from his home to the farm to start his day.
After checking the cows and calves Graham went to get in the first mob of Jersey bulls.
The bulls were in 5 mobs and had to come into the yards one at a time so we could draft them up. Graham had spent the last two days getting them closer to the yards so it didn’t take as long running them in and out ready for the truck the next day. As you all know two-year-old bulls never do as they are told and are very opinionated at the best of times, and they know when it’s time to go mating so we all had to be on alert. That job took around 5 hours and went smoothly. As I drove out of the gate to leave Graham to get his steers in, I remember thinking “it’s a much longer day for him!”
When he got to the paddock to bring in the steers, 3 had jumped into their previous paddock with their mates next door. That was not a drama as they all headed in the correct direction up to the gates. The dogs were starting to get tired. Not noticing that one had stayed behind Graham continued up to the yards to get the next job done.
On taking the steers back Graham noticed the one on his own and thought he would put him back with the others. He headed down thinking “he will go through the gate no drama!” Graham had not taken the dogs with him as they were pretty tired at this time of the day and it was going to be easy just returning the animals to the paddock.
The steer was not heading in the right direction, so graham tried to get around him on the bike, concentrating on where the steer was heading not the bike, his speed started to increase. They were both starting to drift down hill, going a bit too fast and the contour of the ground not even. TOO LATE! He hit the brakes, the bike bounced in a rut and over they went.
I was sitting at the computer and received a phone call from Graham to say he thought he had broken his pelvis from rolling his bike.
Help was on the way. Typical Graham, he was worrying about the bull trucking tomorrow!
A night in hospital and with one very bruised body Graham was extremely lucky to live the tale of “Just this time!”
How many times have you had a big day like Graham, where his only relaxing breaks were following the animals on the bike down the race? 99 times out of 100 you are fine. But the 1% is too many!!!!
Graham keeps his bike in low ratio and 4 wheel drive all the time and has the best tires, he doesn’t even go that fast as has the dogs on the back most of the time. He has been farming all his life and ridden quads on steeper country for years. Graham was one of the lucky ones.
Sitting down with Graham talking about his accident, the one thing he has taken from his close call is, even once is too much of a risk.
“Don’t risk it even the once, things go wrong and quickly! Stop and think about the safest option. Are you too fatigued? Does it matter if that job is done tomorrow?”
These are some statistics from WorkSafe Data on the Agriculture Industry over the last 10 years.
When someone dies from a farm accident there is almost always a vehicle involved
WorkSafe have found that 50% of accidents on farm happen after 3pm.
8-20 people die on New Zealand farms every year
Don’t be a statistic! Work SAFER not FASTER or TOO TIRED.
Ruth Kitchen
Northland Service Manager
