Springtime is a very busy time for farmers with cows calving, fertiliser being spread and a lot of farm activity happening when the weather allows.
This is a time when we all can over do things and end up with back problems.
The key to avoiding these very painful problems lies in a few simple steps.
Take your time! Avoid jumping out of tractors and machinery as this puts huge stress on your skeletal load bearing muscles and can often lead to slips and falls.
Plan your jobs. Plan your jobs that may involve heavy lifting so that you can get a helping hand if possible. It may be that you have a neighbour that will be doing the same job as you in the next few days so ask for a hand! A problem shared is a job halved!
If you are getting pallets of fertiliser delivered ask the delivery man to leave the new pallet on bit of high ground or on top of a few pallets where you will not have to bend down too far to remove the last few bags. Use big bags and a loader if at all possible.
If you only have one tractor many farmers make a steel bracket to hang the 500kg bags from with the loader and then back the spreader underneath.
Clear the yard of obstacles such as pallets,old bags and old unused equipment to minimise the risk of tripping and falling.
