Farm Safety Week 2025: Every Near Miss on a Dairy Farm Is a Lesson – Let’s Not Miss It

The South Australian Dairyfarmers Association (SADA) is proud to support National Farm Safety Week 2025 (20–26 July), urging all South Australian dairy farmers to reflect on the close calls and "near misses" that too often happen on our farms.

This year’s campaign theme, “Second Chances – Who Knows How Many You’ll Get?”, encourages us to stop, share, and learn from these moments before they become something far worse.

SADA President Robert Brokenshire said the campaign is particularly important for the dairy sector, where long hours, heavy machinery, animal handling, and the juggling of family life create a complex web of safety risks.

“Dairy farmers are some of the hardest working people in agriculture. But the reality is, even for experienced operators, fatigue, pressure and familiarity can lead to near misses — or worse,” said Mr Brokenshire.

“This week is about reminding ourselves that no task is worth a life. Whether it’s a slippery dairy yard, a tired afternoon on the loader, or rushing to finish before school pick-up — every near miss is a chance to do things differently next time.”

The week features daily themes including fatigue, mental health, communication, and the unique risks of managing childcare and work on the same property — all highly relevant to dairy farm life.

SADA is encouraging dairy families to:

• Start conversations around the kitchen table or at morning milking about safety.
• Share a story of a near miss and what changed after it.
• Put in place one new safety check or procedure — no matter how small.

“Let’s turn the phrase ‘that was close’ into ‘here’s how we’re doing it better now.’ Because in our industry, second chances aren’t always guaranteed,” said Mr Brokenshire.

Developed by dairy farmers for dairy farmers, the Kit provides practical, easy to use resources to enable you to get your farm safety system started or improve the existing system.

Dairy Australia has created a suite of tools and resources to help farmers develop a comprehensive safety system on their farm and work toward the industry goal of zero fatalities on dairy farms.

Resources

Download the Farm Safety Starter kit or order your hard copy here. You can also download individual sections of the Kit, as you need them to use on your farm:

Getting Started: complete the safety checklist, follow with the induction process before moving to the 3 key parts of the Kit.

You can also download the induction checklist.

Safety System Snapshot: use the snapshot with your farm team to check your farm safety system against the current Work Health and Safety Legislation & create an Action plan.

Earlier Safety Improvements: use this tool to think back over the last 2-3 years and make a list of safety improvements you have made – some may not have been done just for safety reasons, but have improved the workplace from a safety perspective.

Quick Safety Scans (14 scans): a set of 30 minute scans on the key hazard areas, designed to assist you in identifying and fixing hazards identified. The safety scans are designed to be used when setting up your safety system and then for ongoing reviews.

Action Plan: when you identify areas for improvement, add these to the Action plan.

Note: the Farm Safety Starter Kit compliments the Employment Starter Kit initiative (ESKi) which contains more information regarding induction.