Protecting Children on the Farm: The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT)1
Ask yourself this question: If there was a simple way to make your child's life significantly safer, would you take a look at it? When the question is put like that, of course the answer is yes. This fact sheet is about simple ways to make your child safer.
How Many Children Are Injured on Farms?
An estimated 33,000 children incur farm-related injuries each year in the U.S. Over 100 of these children die as a result of their injuries. Most of these injuries result from the direct involvement of children in farm work, and the saddest part is — as most of us know — many of these injuries and deaths could have been prevented.
Children on farms often become involved in farm work based on factors such as their physical size, the sheer need for additional labor, what the parents did when they were children, or the insistence of the child. As a result, many children are injured because they are not physically, intellectually, or emotionally ready for specific tasks. Age is no guarantee; the majority of children injured on the farm are older adolescents, who, because of their rapidly changing bodies can be much clumsier at 15 than at 12. Also, teenagers may feel they are more capable and less vulnerable, and therefore take more inappropriate risks. Armed with simple information such as this, parents can make better decisions about when and where children can work.
How Can We Make Farm Work Safer for Children?
Never underestimate the value of better information. Information is what makes farming practices in general more efficient and successful, and helps maximize farm earnings. Few farmers would give up the new varieties or cultural practices developed through research. Now researchers are giving insights to safer ways of working.
Greater safety means greater efficiency. That's not always obvious, but childhood death and injury on the farm is costing someone 3 billion dollars a year. (1) These costs are incurred mostly by smaller farms and family farmers, where most farm work by children is done. Economic costs are no match for the suffering caused by the loss of a child, but it is one more reason to adopt safer practices before an incident happens.
About the Guidelines
The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks were developed to provide parents and employers with better information. Unlike many other industries, there have never been safety standards for agricultural work. The Guidelines resulted from requests by farm parents and a 1996 initiative from the National Committee for Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention.
Asking (or allowing) children to do work they are not ready for means work that is not properly done at the least and an injured, permanently disabled, or dead child at the worst. The Guidelines answer such questions as:
How old should a child be to perform a particular task?
How much and what kind of training are most helpful to children of a particular age?
When can I leave a child alone to complete a task?
What are the dangers to a child for a specific task?
The Guidelines look at agricultural tasks in terms of six factors: hazards, injury/disease concerns, recommended procedures, approximate age, level of adult supervision, and training required. Each Guideline is presented in the form of an attractive poster which parents and children can use to learn how to work more safely. The posters give information about:
Adult responsibilities,
Main hazards of the task,
Proper safety equipment, and
Evaluating the abilities, training needs and supervision level for the child.
Children enjoy having more information about their activities. These colorful materials are an excellent way to teach them that safety is an essential part of every job, and to train them how to build safety practices into their work.
Currently, guidelines are available in seven categories of farm work: Animal Care, General Activities, Haying Operations, Implement Operations, Manual Labor, Specialty Production, and Tractor Fundamentals. For a complete list, visit the NAGCAT Web site: <www.nagcat.org>.
The Guidelines include:
Animal Care
Catching and holding a pig for treatment
Cleaning service alley
Feeding milk to calves
Feeding of haylage/corn silage/high moisture corn
Feeding square bales of hay to cows
Feeding square bales of hay to horses
Leading/grooming animals (dairy or beef)
Milking with a pipeline
Poultry housing and handling facilities
Working with large animals
General Activities
Using ATV for farm work
Cleaning calf hutches and pens
Cleaning grain bins
Composting operations
Irrigation -- installation, operation
Operating a skid steer loader
Operating farmstead equipment
Repairing fence
Running pressure washer
Using a tractor-mounted front-end loader
Haying Operations
Baling hay
Cutting hay with a pull-type mower/conditioner
Loading square bales onto the wagon
Moving round bales with a three-point hitch bale mover
Raking hay
Unloading hay/hauling load of hay from field
Implement Operations
Fieldwork with three-point implement
Fieldwork with PTO-implements
Fieldwork with remote hydraulics
Fieldwork with self-propelled equipment
Fieldwork with trailing implement
Planting small grains
Spreading solid manure
Unloading grain
Unloading silage into an upright silo
Using an auger wagon
Manual Labor
Bending
Climbing
Detasseling corn
Hand harvesting vegetables
Hand weeding
Harvesting strawberries
Harvesting tree fruit
Lifting
Picking rock
Pruning trees and vines
Specialty Production
Harvesting ginseng berries
Harvesting ginseng roots
Trimming Christmas trees
Riding setter to plant tobacco in field
Topping tobacco
Stripping tobacco
Harvesting tobacco
Working tobacco in the shed/house
Fieldwork with horses and trailed implements
Hitching/unhitching trailed implement to horses
Tractor Fundamentals
Tractor operation chart
Driving a tractor
Hitching/unhitching trailed equipment
Hitching/unhitching three-point implement
Connecting/disconnecting hydraulics
Connecting/disconnecting PTO
Sample Guidelines Content
The following information is presented in the Guideline "Hand-harvesting vegetables":
Adult Responsibilities
Adults need to make sure:
Child has safe transport to field
Re-entry standards are followed
Work area has no hazards
Child has no insect allergies
Child wears long sleeve shirt, long pants, wide brim hat and sunglasses
Break areas are provided away from work with with bathrooms and water for drinking and washing hands
Child has at least one ten-minute break every hour
Child drinks a quart of fluids every hour
Main Hazards
Sun can cause heat exhaustion
Contact with chemicals can cause illness, now or later
Repetitive motion can strain muscles and injure back and joints
Remember! (Recommended Safety Equipment)
Non-skid shoes
Good handwashing
Gloves (may be leather or moisture resistant)
Can your child do this job?
Ability:
Does the child have at least a 10-15 minute attention span? For example, can the child play a board game for 20 minutes?
Yes.
No. STOP! Children who work beyond their attention span are easily distracted and more likely to be injured.
[Several other questions follow in the Ability section.]
Training:
Has the child been trained to use cutting tools?
Yes.
No. STOP! Tools must be used safely to prevent injury.
[Several other question follow in the Training section.]
Supervision:
Can an adult supervise as recommended?
Yes.
No. STOP! The right level of supervision is key to preventing injuries.
Supervision: What's the right amount?
Here are suggestions—but remember, it depends on the individual child.
Age 7-9:
LIMIT job to 15 minutes
NO cutting tools
WATCH constantly
Age 10-11:
LIMIT job to 20 minutes
NO cutting tools
WATCH nearly constantly
Age 12-13:
WATCH constantly at first if the child uses cutting tools. When child shows he or she can do the job, CHECK every few minutes
Age 14-15:
CHECK every few minutes. When the child shows he or she can do the job, LEAVE him or her for 15 to 30 minutes.
Additional Resources
Check with your county Extension office for the location of a Farm Safety Day Camp being held in your area.
For more information about children and farm safety, contact the following organizations:
Florida AgSafe
Web: http://www.flagsafe.ufl.edu
Telephone: 352-392-1864, ext. 223
North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks
National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety
1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449
Telephone: 800-662-6900
Fax: 715-389-4999
Web: http://research.marshfieldclinic.org/children/
Farm Safety 4 Just Kids
P.O. Box 458
Earlham, Iowa 50072
Telephone: (515) 758-2827 or (800) 423-5437
Web: http://www.fs4jk.org
References
(1) Childhood Agricultural Injury Fact Sheet, Rural Injury Prevention Resource Center, Dec. 1995, National Farm Medicine Center, 1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449-5790.
Footnotes
This document is ABE296 (formerly AE296), one of a series of the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published May 2000. Minor revision: August 2006. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
Carol J. Lehtola, Associate Professor and Extension Agricultural Safety Specialist; Charles M. Brown, Coordinator Information/Publication Services; Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal
Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational
information and other services only to individuals and institutions
that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed,
color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital
status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations.
For more information on obtaining other extension publications,
contact your county Cooperative Extension service.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service,
University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative
Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer, Interim Dean.
