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Farm Safety Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is a structured look at what could go wrong, how likely it is and what you can do about it. It helps you spend limited time and money where they matter most.

What is a risk assessment?

It is a way of thinking through the hazards on the farm in an organized order. You identify the hazard, consider who could be harmed and how, estimate how likely and how serious the harm could be, and decide on controls. Then you check later whether the controls are working.

The method is simple enough to use at the kitchen table. Extension offices and NIOSH publish guides and checklists, and they are a better source than memory for specific hazards and standards.

Keep the first assessment modest. Doing a rough version this season and improving it next year is better than waiting for the perfect version.

• Identify the hazard.
• Consider who could be harmed and how.
• Rank how likely and how serious.
• Choose controls and check they work.

How do you identify hazards?

Walk the farm job by job and season by season, and look at equipment, buildings, animals, chemicals, water, electricity, heights, traffic and weather. Ask people what worries them and review past injuries and near misses. Think about children, visitors and older family members.

Use a published checklist as a prompt, so that you do not overlook areas you pass every day. Take notes and photographs.

Think about seasonal work too. Hazards that appear only at planting, harvest, calving or fair season are easy to miss during a walk in a quiet month, so plan separate walks for busy periods.

• Machinery and vehicles.
• Animals and handling areas.
• Structures, storage and confined spaces.
• Chemicals, fuel and electricity.
• Water, weather and terrain.

How do you think about who could be harmed?

For each hazard, think about who is near it and how often. A worker using a machine every day faces a different exposure than a visitor passing by once. Children, new workers, older adults and people with health conditions may be more vulnerable.

Include people who are not on your payroll, such as delivery drivers, neighbors helping at harvest and relatives who visit.

Ask people how they actually do the job, not how the manual says it is done. Real habits reveal real hazards.

How do you rank risks?

A simple approach is to ask two questions for each hazard: how likely is it that harm happens, and how bad could it be? Hazards that are likely and could cause severe harm come first. You can use a basic high, medium and low sorting without any numbers.

Do not use outside statistics to rank your hazards unless you have an official source. Your own records and judgment, together with advice from extension and OSHA, are reliable starting points.

• High: likely and could cause severe harm.
• Medium: either less likely or less severe.
• Low: unlikely and minor, but still watched.

What controls can you choose?

A common way to think about controls is to prefer the ones that remove or reduce the hazard at its source, then guards and barriers, then procedures and training, and lastly protective equipment. The earlier options generally protect better because they do not depend on people remembering every time.

For technical specifics such as guards, ratings or exposure limits, consult the manufacturer manual and official sources like OSHA and NIOSH rather than working from memory.

How do you put findings to use?

Write the results in a simple table with the hazard, the people affected, the ranking, the control, the owner and the date. Share it with everyone on the farm and use it to guide your priorities and budget.

Make a point of discussing the findings with the crew so that they understand why changes are being made and can contribute ideas.

Keep a copy where all can see it, and mark off controls as they are put in place.

• Hazard, people affected, ranking, control, owner and date.
• Share the table with everyone on the farm.
• Use it to guide priorities and budget.

When do you repeat it?

Repeat the assessment at least yearly, and whenever something changes: a new machine, a new job, a new worker, a new building or an incident. Compare with the previous version and note what has improved.

Treat it as a living document. A short, regularly updated assessment is more valuable than a long one that is never revisited.

Ask someone from outside the farm to review your assessment now and then, since a fresh view can find hazards that daily familiarity hides.

• Yearly at least.
• After a new machine, job, worker or building.
• After any incident or near miss.

Last reviewed: November 12, 2026. Written by the Farm Safety Editorial Team. See our editorial policy.