That is why, at this month’s county meeting, Sophie from Lanyon Bowdler joined us to speak on the NFU’s free contract checking service.
This service can help you understand what protections are written in to your contracts. Initial discussions are free to all Farmer and Grower members and the NFU will fund up to £250 per contract should you require a more specialised report. Phone CallFirst on 0370 845 8458 for a referral.
During the county meeting, our County Chair, Will Watkins, shared some alarming statistics from the NFU Council meeting, which reported that there had been 33 on-farm deaths in the last year. Since this data was collected, a further four deaths have occurred on-farm in April 2026.
Rightly, the conversation turned to health and safety, as members shared best practice and discussed the challenges they face on farm.
Herefordshire pre-harvest health and safety event
Herefordshire’s Farm Health and Safety event will be held on 5 June and I would urge all members, and their staff, to come along for a refresher.
We will be joined by the Vice-President of IOSH Dr Gary Latta and the Group Commander for Herefordshire Fire and Rescue Service Dave Swallow, and we'll be hosting a panel discussion with NFU Chief Policy Specialist Sam Durham, Herefordshire Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion and Rural Safe Guard’s Crime Reduction Specialist Frank Cannon.
There will also be practical sessions on pesticide handling systems, chainsaw safety and trauma first aid from Midlands Air Ambulance.
Royal Three Counties Show
Next month, NFU President Tom Bradshaw and NFU Vice-president Robyn Munt will be joining us at the Three Counties Showground.
Each of the NFU Mutual offices are again selling tickets at a 50% discount, so please do contact them directly and we look forward to seeing you.
The full agenda will be published shortly.