Kubota equipment – the farm as a work place

Kubota make a wide range of tractors, from their Kubota BX series, of which they call their estate tractors through to their TLB tractors, their tractor loader backhoe series.

In addition they make a number of other tractors and agricultural machinery that can be used on farms of any size as well as residential land, smallholdings and small businesses such as garden centres etc.

The Kubota BX Series, The BX 2660, the BX 2360 and the BX 1860 range from 18hp to 25.5hp, and all come with a number of safety features, including a category 3.1 hitch, and a ROPS as standard

The term farm can be misleading in some ways. This is partly because many people have a preconceived idea of what a farm is. From a point of view of looking at Kubota tractor safety, the same principles apply to thinking of the farm as a workplace, whether the land is one or two acres or several thousand.

Running a farm, whatever its size is a highly intensive business experience.

There are many factors that make running a farm unique and different to any other type of business, although these are often not recognised as such. Some of these factors are environmental ones, such as the weather meaning that work must be carried out in all types of conditions, both outside and inside buildings.

Often work must be carried out on land where there is poor visibility, either in daylight or early morning or late night. There is likely to be an overlap between the workplace and a home life, both in terms of physical environment, and work practices and boundaries.

It is much more likely that their will be children and teenagers and young adults in places where they could potentially be at risk from certain types of hazards. Some of these young people may be family members or employed on a farm or doing seasonal work.

It is also likely that people working on a farm will be physically isolated both from other people and from any emergency services that may be needed on any occasion.

This is not to say that farming is inherently dangerous, simply that there are unique and specialist types of hazards that need to be anticipated and catered for when planning what type of equipment to use on a farm.

One of the most common types of accident involves tractor overturns and run overs. Most modern day Kubota tractors have an ROPS fitted as standard, and if the operative has a seatbelt fitted as well, then that is the best safety protection available.

It is also very common for young children and teenagers to want to look at tractors whilst they are working, which means there are often up close or in an environment where the tractor driver may not see them.

Accidents like this to happen fairly regularly on farms and small holdings, but with a number of preventative and commonsense measures the majority of them can be avoided.

Kubota tractors, such as the L series tractors, are on the whole designed with a huge amount of safety features built into them. This is in part to ensure a high degree of safety for the tractor and the operator, but also with a very clear sense of the nature of the environment, the type of land that the tractor is most likely to be used on.

It is important always to remember that a tractor is a piece of agricultural machinery not a toy, whatever its size and whatever type of land it is being used on. The risk of injury on a farm is as likely as in any type of business in one sense, and it is important to recognise the need for health and safety implementation and structures.

These health and safety rules need to be applied both to personnel and machinery all types, such as tractors, garden tractors, atv’s and all types of industrial or agricultural machinery.