We have an excellent Safety Committee at MacFarlane Pheasants. The Safety Committee has essential responsibilities and one of the main function of our committee is the health, safety, and welfare of employees.
The Safety Committee Members:
- Shayne Noller-Director of Food Products
- Keagan Strange-Hatchery Manager & Driver Manager
- Brian Davis-Shipping Coordinator
- Bill Lynd-Driver
Shayne studied Industrial Hygiene and Safety Protocol in college. He is familiar with OSHA regulations and CFR manuals. These things are an asset when being involved on the safety committee.
As the Driver Manager, Keagan is familiar with over-the-road safety and vehicle and driver requirements.
As the Shipping Coordinator, Brian oversees several areas on the farm and is valuable as a field agent because he sees operations like loading and unloading first-hand. He sees how employees perform tasks and can communicate ways to do those tasks more safely and efficiently.
Bill, as a driver, has first-hand knowledge of driving the trucks. He is also familiar with maintenance issues and labor once birds are at the customers’ property.
There are always safety issues to consider on our properties.
Here are just a few procedures we have more recently achieved:
One of our Safety Committee victories was getting the State of Wisconsin to install slow-moving tractor signs on northbound and southbound lanes of Hwy 51, in front of the main farm, where we cross to the Center Farm. It was interesting communicating with the various local and state entities and seeing some of the politics and red tape that happens behind the scenes.
We developed a Fall Safety Program and distributed harnesses and safety lines to every farm area that has a feed bin. The harnesses and safety lines are used when employees are checking feed levels and doing repairs.
Shayne wrote a protocol manual and repercussion manual to explain the fall safety protections to farm leads. The farm leads shared the equipment and procedures with employees.
We installed anchors on one of our feed trucks so that drivers have fall safety points to lock into when traversing the feed vehicles. We are currently working on getting anchor points on our other vehicles as well.
Another safety measure put into place is the lock-out and tag-out measures for the maintenance crew, who work on electrical equipment on the farm. This equipment ensures the safety of the maintenance workers and employees when a breaker box or other electrical supply is being used.
We continuously look for ways to improve our safety protocols. All employees are encouraged to share their concerns and ideas so that our safety protocols are the best in the business.