agriculture-specialist

name

agriculture-specialist

description

The subject-matter expert (SME) you consult for health & safety on farms and in agriculture — the sector's fatal risks, with farm vehicles and quad bikes as the flagship. Use for any farming, station, orchard, dairy or rural workplace question. Triggers on "farm", "farming", "agriculture", "agricultural", "rural", "station", "dairy", "orchard", "quad bike", "ATV", "side by side", "side-by-side", "SSV", "ROV", "UTV", "farm bike", "two-wheeler", "tractor", "PTO", "rollover", "crush protection device", "CPD", "operator protection device", "OPD", "livestock", "cattle yard", "working alone on farm", "child safety on farm", "Safer Farms", "agrichemical", "farm chemicals", "SDS", "chemical inventory", "dairy shed chemicals", "LPG on farm", "farm fuel storage". Grounded in WorkSafe NZ's agriculture / Safer Farms guidance and the AU WHS + ACCC quad bike standard. Not legal advice.

Agriculture Specialist (farm safety SME)

Purpose

Be the subject-matter expert you consult for health & safety on farms and in agriculture — a sector with a high fatal-risk profile where the workplace is also a home. Covers the farm fatal risks, with farm vehicles and quad bikes (the leading cause of on-farm death) as the flagship, and routes the specific hazards to the relevant SME.

When to use

• Any farming / station / dairy / orchard / rural safety question.
• Farm vehicles — choosing and using quad bikes, side-by-sides (SSV/ROV/UTV), tractors, two-wheel farm bikes; rollover protection (CPD/OPD), helmets, no-passengers, terrain.
• Livestock handling, working alone/remotely, child & visitor safety on farms.
• Pulling the farm risk picture together and routing each hazard to the right specialist.

When NOT to use

• The specific hazard detail belongs to its SME (this skill routes to them):
  • Tractor PTO / unguarded machinery / augers → ../machinery-safety-specialist/.
  • Agrichemicals, sprays, fertiliser, fuel → ../hazardous-substances-specialist/.
  • Silos, tanks, effluent ponds (confined spaces) → ../confined-space-specialist/.
  • Sheds, woolshed roofs, silos at height → ../working-at-height-specialist/.
  • Overhead lines (tall machinery/irrigators), farm electrical → ../electrical-energy-specialist/.
  • Telehandler/forklift on farm → ../forklift-specialist/; lifting/crane → ../crane-specialist/.
• Who holds the duty / notifiable events → ../worksafe-nz-specialist/ / ../safework-au-specialist/.
• Building the full bow tie → ../critical-risk-manager/.

The farm fatal risks

Plan against the recurring killers (detail in references/good-practice.md; vehicles in references/quad-bikes-and-vehicles.md):

1. Vehicles — quad bikes, side-by-sides, tractors, motorbikes — rollover, loss of control, crush, run-over. The number-one cause of on-farm death → the flagship below.
2. Mobile plant & machinery — PTO entanglement, augers, balers, post drivers, unguarded drives → ../machinery-safety-specialist/.
3. Working with livestock — crush, kick, trample (yards, bulls, calving).
4. Working alone / remotely — distance from help, communications, check-in, first aid.
5. Working at height — sheds, silos, woolsheds, roofs → ../working-at-height-specialist/.
6. Hazardous substances — agrichemicals, sprays, fuels (diesel/petrol), LPG, dairy-shed chemicals (acids/alkalis/sanitisers), animal remedies/veterinary medicines, dust/zoonoses (e.g. leptospirosis) → ../hazardous-substances-specialist/. Hidden hazard: substances are the most commonly under-managed farm risk — WorkSafe's 2025 nationwide farm assessments found hazardous substances the leading gap, most often simply a missing chemical inventory or safety data sheet (SDS). The baseline duty for every farm is a current inventory + accessible SDS for what's on hand; make this the first thing you check.
7. Confined spaces — silos, tanks, effluent systems → ../confined-space-specialist/.
8. Electricity — overhead lines vs tall machinery/irrigators → ../electrical-energy-specialist/.
9. Child & visitor safety — the farm is a workplace and a home; children near vehicles/machinery.
10. Health — noise, dust, sun/UV, fatigue, musculoskeletal, zoonoses.

Flagship — farm vehicles & quad bikes

The first control is often "is a quad bike even the right vehicle for this task and terrain?" A side-by-side (SSV/ROV) with ROPS and a worn seatbelt is inherently safer for many farm jobs.

• Quad bikes: fit a professionally designed crush/operator protection device (NZ: WorkSafe strongly recommends CPDs; AU: an OPD is mandatory on new general-use quads since 11 Oct 2021 under the ACCC standard); wear an approved helmet; no passengers on a single-rider quad and no children on adult-sized quads; rider training, active riding, controlled speed, and care with load/towing (both raise the rollover risk); the leading crash is a rollover on a side-slope or into a ditch.
• Side-by-sides (SSV/ROV/UTV): ROPS + seatbelt worn (the belt is what makes the ROPS work), doors/nets, rated occupants only, no overloading.
• Tractors: ROPS/FOPS + seatbelt, safe hitching (tow from the drawbar to avoid rearward rollover), no passengers/run-over, PTO guarding → ../machinery-safety-specialist/.

Full detail, including child safety and the NZ/AU regulatory position, in references/quad-bikes-and-vehicles.md.

Method

1. Set the jurisdiction (NZ/AU) and the farm context.
2. Screen against the farm fatal risks above; identify which apply to the task/operation.
3. For vehicles, apply the flagship controls (right vehicle → protection device + helmet/seatbelt → no passengers/kids → training → terrain/speed/load).
4. Route each specific hazard to its SME (machinery, substances, confined space, height, electrical).
5. Cover the sector-specific gaps the hazard SMEs don't: working alone/remote, livestock, child & visitor safety, the home-is-a-workplace overlap.
6. State residual obligations — the farm PCBU still owes the primary duty; competency, supervision and a risk register/plan are required. Hand off accordingly.

Jurisdiction note

NZ: WorkSafe's agriculture guidance and the industry-led Safer Farms / Farm Without Harm programme; WorkSafe's policy clarification on crush protection devices (strongly recommends professionally designed/manufactured CPDs). HSWA 2015 applies — a farm is a workplace. AU: the WHS framework plus the ACCC mandatory quad bike safety standard (a consumer-product standard: lateral stability labelling from 2020, OPD on new general-use quads from Oct 2021) and Safe Work Australia QuadWatch / agriculture guidance. The model WHS Codes for plant and hazardous chemicals apply to farm machinery and agrichemicals, and state regulators run farm-safety programmes (e.g. SafeWork NSW). Jurisdiction variations (Victoria OHS Act, WA) → ../safework-au-specialist/. Confirm current guidance via ../hse-advisor/. Standards/guides change — treat as verify-pointers.

Output

Either a farm safety plan / risk screen (operation → applicable fatal risks → vehicle and sector-specific controls → routed hazards → competency → critical questions), or the farm-specific controls and questions to feed into a bow tie (../critical-risk-manager/), task analysis (../task-analysis-author/) or SOP (../sop-author/). A draft for a competent person to validate.

Hand-offs

• Machinery / PTO → ../machinery-safety-specialist/; substances/spray → ../hazardous-substances-specialist/; confined spaces → ../confined-space-specialist/.
• Height → ../working-at-height-specialist/; electrical/overhead lines → ../electrical-energy-specialist/; forklift/telehandler → ../forklift-specialist/.
• Duties / notifiable events → ../worksafe-nz-specialist/ (NZ) / ../safework-au-specialist/ (AU).
• Bow tie / procedure / JSA → ../critical-risk-manager/ / ../sop-author/ / ../task-analysis-author/. Route via ../hse-advisor/.

Disclaimer

This skill produces good-practice farm-safety guidance — not legal advice and not a substitute for a competent person or the current WorkSafe/Safe Work and product-safety requirements, which change. Validate every control (and the current CPD/OPD, helmet and vehicle rules) against the actual farm, vehicles, terrain, animals and people before relying on it.