A UK-wide competition to improve farm safety awareness among young farmers has been won by members of Pembrokeshire County Federation of YFCs for the 10th time.
The annual competition, launched in 2002, challenged young farmers to demonstrate their knowledge of farm machinery and its safe operation.
It also tested first aid skills by creating a realistic farm accident that team members must respond to during the competition.
The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs’ (NFYFC) Farm Machinery Skills competition was held a week before Farm Safety Week (17-21 July).
The winning Pembrokeshire team fought off six other county teams in the final to win a KRAMP toolkit each and a JCB VIP hospitality tour round the world headquarters in Staffordshire, along with the trophy.
The team, made up of Caryl Bevan, Berwyn Warlow, Rhys Bevan and William Lewis, are all from Llys Y Fran YFC and due to their involvement in farming prioritise this competition above others.
Rhys Bevan, who has been on the winning team five times, said: “We do take it seriously. As well as the first aid, we all have an interest in farm machinery and it’s the only health and safety competition that we [YFC] have that could save your life.”
Teammate Caryl Bevan is in her final year of YFC and has been part of the winning team on six previous occasions at the national final.
Former members support the team and she said that would continue as new people joined to try to hold on to Pembrokeshire’s winning title.
Caryl said highlighting farm safety was important for the club: "Teaching new skills, first aid especially, and making sure we practice what we preach.”
Another member of the team, Will Lewis, also won an individual trophy for his ATV handling skills.
Dave Johns from Arley Medical Services created the realistic farm accidents, which are based on real-life examples, using actors from the Casualties Union.
He said: “It is a really important competition as we know farms have a large number of accidents. As a paramedic I see those myself, so anything we can do to make sure people are supported is good.
“We usually see a high standard of entrants but there are always some learning opportunities from the competition. It makes people think about how they would deal with the situation on the farm."
He added: “Some tips to take away would be to make sure they know what’s in their first aid kit and that they have it with them – as it’s not much use back in the shed somewhere.
“People do learn from the competition as we do see improvements when the same team is back in the final. There has been a lot of new teams this year at the national final and I think they have learnt quite a lot from it.”
The competition comes at a critical time for the industry with figures from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) showing farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation in Britain.
