How RFID technology brings to Agriculture

Technology has brought about so many advances in agriculture. Automation and computers allow us to do more than ever before. But high-tech doesn’t always equal high safety. Understanding what can’t be replaced with technology and how to use technology as a tool is a new area of farm safety that will only grow as technology advances.

Automatic systems can be huge time savers on the farm. We use them for so many things, but each one will have limitations and have safety requirements that are different than the older more manual systems. Adding an automatic system can mean adding new safety issues.

No matter how much technology comes to the farm there will always be one constant — the farmer. Higher technology means a higher level of training and a rethinking of safety around that technology.

A very simple but bloody example is an auger mover. A young farm hand starts his new job. He comes from a beef farm but understands farming. He is tasked with moving an auger. Everyone assumes because he has done a great job so far that he will be familiar with the operation of the new auger. He was not and, in his efforts, to manually move the auger his hand was injured. When the safety meeting happened, it was discovered that he had not been oriented to the auger mover.

The accident happened as soon as the team assumed everyone had the same understanding and experience with a piece of equipment, or in this case, and addition to a piece of equipment. The injury wasn’t serious, and the lesson was learned. Every new piece of equipment gets an orientation for everyone. The rule became: if you haven’t been trained to use it, don’t use it.

A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem is always going to be training your people. This is especially true if you have seasonal workers who join your team. They need to know the changes that happened out of season. Invest the time in orienting them to changes, sending them to train and doing on-site orientation with each one.