On a farm the workplace is also the home, and the workforce changes with the seasons. That is what makes the two biggest dangers so constant: the confined space nobody ever enters — until the day somebody does — and the machine cleared with the engine running. Your operation must have a written OHS action plan.
Manure pits, silos, grain bins: the hydrogen sulphide in a pit can kill within a few breaths, and fermenting silage gives off irritant gases in the days after filling. A share of the deaths takes the relative who climbs down to help without equipment.
Rollover and entanglement in a drive shaft are the sector’s two deadliest mechanisms. Rollover protection is worthless without the seatbelt, and a shaft guard removed "just this once" never goes back on.
A cow that feels trapped pushes against the nearest obstacle; a breeding male changes behaviour without warning. Serious injuries happen mostly in handling chutes and during group moves.
A pesticide label sets the PPE, the dose and the re-entry interval — the most commonly skipped measure, because nothing about it is visible. Alongside it, mouldy hay and grain dust cause lung damage that builds slowly.
Alone in a field, out of earshot, with unreliable cell coverage. And a large share of the seasonal workforce does not work in French: an instruction that was signed but not understood protects no one.
A questionnaire tailored to agriculture — confined spaces, machinery, livestock, pesticides, lone work. Auto-generated plan, dated PDF export, ready to show an inspector.
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A family member who performs work can count as a worker, and the plan has to cover what they actually do. For young people the rule is tighter since the 2023 changes on child labour: family businesses get exceptions, but certain dangerous tasks stay off limits to the youngest. Check task by task with the CNESST rather than applying one blanket rule.
The obligations are the same, and coverage applies regardless of immigration status. What changes is how you meet them: training has to be delivered in a language the person genuinely understands, backed by pictograms and an on-site demonstration, with comprehension checked. A signature at the bottom of a French sheet proves nothing.
Yes, and that is exactly why. The day someone goes down it is an emergency, and nobody improvises a procedure during an emergency. A written procedure, a physical barrier, signage and a rescue plan that requires no one to enter unequipped: that is what prevents a second death.
Yes. Contract length changes nothing about the duty, and being new is precisely the riskiest moment: the person knows neither the site, nor the machines, nor the team’s habits. A walk-through, the instructions for the machines they will use, and what to do in an emergency — on day one.