To mark the beginning of Farm Safety week, which runs from Monday to Friday (4^th July), the Farm Safety Partnership has urged farmers to spend five minutes every day making safety checks on their holdings.

The new initiative is the industry's latest attempt to address the farm sector's poor health and safety record. Farming remains Britain's most dangerous profession; 36 people died on farms in the year to July 2013, the last year for which figures are available.

The union's recommended farm safety checks run as follows:

• Monday: Overhaul your overalls – wear the right safety gear with a secure chest pocket for your phone
• Tuesday: Ditch a duff shaft – make sure your pto shafts are safely covered
• Wednesday: Act on accident statistics – Causes of farm accidents revealed in annual HSE farm accident figures
• Thursday: Don’t step on my toes - protect yourself from livestock injuries
• Friday: Lose a lousy ladder – make sure your ladder is safe to climb.

Farm safety will be high on the agenda of NFU at the Livestock Event, which runs on 2^nd and 3^rd July at the NEC in Birmingham, coinciding with Farm Safety Week.

The Farm Safety Partnership – an industry group led by NFU – has launched several safety-focused initiatives in recent months, to raise awareness of certain major risks to farm workers, including the 'Safe Stop' campaign on vehicle safety and the Stop! Think! Slurry Gas campaign.

More information on Farm Safety Week is available here