Farmers are being urged to assess the risk involved in of everyday farming tasks which continue to cause high levels of injuries and deaths.

NFU Mutual and the Farm Safety Foundation are encouraging farmers to challenge engrained behaviour to reduce the risk of accidents to them, family members and employees.

Stephanie Berkeley, who heads the Farm Safety Foundations said: “The facts are shocking: 27 farm workers lost their lives in the workplace in 2016/17 and many more life changing injuries. While UK farmers are among the best in the world, farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation – the industry accounts for 1.5% of all workers, but 15-20% of all worker fatalities according to the latest Health and Safety Executive figures."

Ian Jewitt, managing director of NFU mutual risk management services said: “By creating awareness of the importance of farm safety when carrying out regular tasks such as bringing down bales from a stack, working near PTO shafts, and using all terrain vehicles, we want to improve the safety of farms across the UK,”

“Unfortunately, today’s farmers are under huge pressure to get work done, often alone, and familiarity does breed contempt when we do the same tasks day in day out - and eventually luck runs out and the result is horrific injuries and fatalities."