10 Simple Ways to Keep You Safe on Your Farm!

1. The Safe Way to Open Gates.

Always open pasture and pen gates into the pasture or pen, not out!
When you enter into a pasture or pen, opening any gate inwards turns the gate into a barrier between you and the animals. If they rush you to get to feed or hay you are carrying, or just to escape, the gate will shut instead of flying wide open and letting everything escape. This can be quite funny if someone opens the gate the wrong way and all the just weaned babies run out and scatter into the alleyway, but that can also be dangerous if that gate leads to a highway or the escaping animal is an 1800 pound bull.

2. The Safe Way to Turn an Animal Out Into Pasture

When you take an animal out to pasture, turn the animal to face you and the gate before letting it go!
If the animal, be it a horse or a goat or a cow, is turned towards you and the gate before taking the halter off and releasing the animal, it has to do a 180 degree turn before it can speed up and kick out. This will give you time to step out of the way and avoid being kicked or run over. This applies to all animals, even those you think would never do that. An older mare will just as likely kick up her heels and speed off in cooler weather as a 175 pound doe who wants to join her herd mates. It is no fun being run over either way. Those little goat feet are amazingly sharp and sitting down on your tail bone is not comfortable either.

There are 8 more tips to go, for the complete article go to:

Mother Earth News Blog Link for 10 Simple Ways to keep you safe on the Farm

Enjoy and don't forget to watch the video at the beginning of the article.

Happy Farming

Julia