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Howsaferu Consulting

Sector 01 · Poultry & Broiler Production

Broiler safety from someone who ran it at national scale.

For six years I was National Risk Manager for ProTen: 57 broiler farms, more than 560 sheds, close to a fifth of Australia's production. I built their WHS systems from the ground up. I know broiler sheds from the inside, the hazards that actually hurt people and the controls that hold up shed-side, not just on paper.

R01

Traffic management with multiple crews on site

Pick-up/Catch, Clean-Out, Sanitation and Fumigation crews are regularly on the farm at the same time, often with heavy vehicles moving around sheds while people are working on foot and forklifts are coming in and out of shed during catch. That overlap is one of the biggest risks on a broiler site, and it is routinely underestimated. Traffic Management Plans and Exclusion Zones, sets out who controls the site when several parties are working across it at once.

R02

Catch/Pick-up Crews

Night work, changing starting times, fatigue, manual handling, powered mobile plant, and a casual crew that turns over constantly. I put fast, real inductions and safe systems of work in place according to the risk each task may pose.

R03

Plant and Machinery

Silo's, feeder and drinker lines, fans, heaters, powered mobile plant (Tractors, Rotary Hoes). I assess all plant and machinery to ensure guarding is appropriate and in place, isolation is effective and can be achieved when required

R04

Hazardous Chemical and Compliance

Chemicals play a major part in broiler production, especially around the day-to-day use of water sanitation and biosecurity (footbaths/car wash). I assess these chemicals to ensure compliance against storage and handling, training, and notification requirements to the Regulator.

Common questions

Questions I get asked

What are the main safety risks on a broiler farm?
The two I focus on here are traffic management and powered mobile plant. Pick-up, catch, clean-out and fumigation crews are regularly on the farm at the same time, with heavy vehicles moving around sheds while people are working on foot. Powered mobile plant operates in and around those same sheds, so the controls have to keep it separated from people rather than rely on everyone seeing each other.
How do you manage traffic when several contractors are on the farm at once?
Pick-up, clean-out and sanitation crews often overlap, with heavy vehicles moving around sheds while people are on foot. It needs a traffic management plan that sets the routes, keeps vehicles and pedestrians separated via exclusion zones, and makes clear who is controlling the site while multiple parties are on it. Inductions have to cover it, because most of the drivers are not your own people.
How often should a farm risk assessment be reviewed?
Review it whenever something changes: new plant, a new task, an incident, or a control that is no longer working. An annual review is the usual working standard on top of that. The regulations require a review when a control measure is found to be ineffective.
Do all contractors and service providers need their own induction?
All workers require induction and verification when working on a Broiler farm. I set up the induction and permit steps so they are accounted for.

Written by

Jim Rimmer · WHS Specialist

I'm Jim Rimmer, a WHS specialist with more than 32 years leading safety across agriculture, food processing, manufacturing, mining and logistics.

More about Jim Rimmer and his background

From inside the industry

I didn't read about broiler safety, I ran it.

At ProTen I inherited rudimentary systems and built them into what the industry now benchmarks against: integrated management systems, a contractor induction platform, risk registers and a national WHS strategy across 57 farms. That's the experience I bring to your operation.

Call 0438 750 974

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