TWO new ambassadorial roles to promote health and safety awareness on farms across Wales.

The new farm safety ambassadors will promote the work of the Wales Farm Safety Partnership - a collaboration of key agricultural stakeholder organisations working together to help drive down the unacceptable number of serious accidents and deaths that occur on farms across Wales each year.

Both Alun Elidyr Edwards and Glyn Davies have extensive farming experience and are keen to impart their knowledge to other farm businesses in a bid to make Welsh farms safer and reduce the risk of accidents.

The Wales Farm Safety Partnership was last year awarded £46,000 by the Welsh Government to highlight the dangers associated with farming and to provide health and safety advice and guidance to farmers.

A total of 388 people have been killed while at work on British farms in the last ten years while thousands more have suffered serious injuries and work related ill health.

Over the last 20 years, other industries such as construction and quarrying have greatly improved their safety records, while farming has not, you are now six times more likely to be killed on a farm than you would on a building site.

Glyn Davies is a farmer from Ceredigion and a former ATB land-based/Lantra trainer specialising in tractor driving and tractor driving on slopes.

He is one of the four Farming Connect health and safety mentors, with more than 38 years’ experience of working in agriculture and of operating a variety of farm machinery efficiently and safely.

He is keen to impart his knowledge to other farm businesses in a bid to make Welsh farms safer and reduce the risk of accidents. Glyn recently organised and led Ceredigion YFC’s ‘Efficiency with Safety’ competition. He is vice-chairman of the NFU Cymru Rural Affairs Board.

Alun Edwards is a trained actor who returned home to work on the family farm near Dolgellau, Meirionnydd, in 1996 following the sudden death of his father.

He is currently one of the presenters on the S4C farming series Ffermio. He has a high profile in the agricultural industry in Wales, a passion for farm safety and is keen to help change the current poor track record of farm accidents and fatalities in Wales.

He has also contributed a great deal in rising awareness of mental health issues and has been very open about his own experience.