Farm accidents not inevitable says farming leader

John Labes, a Lawrence farming leader, is still as passionately concerned about farm safety issues as he was 40 years ago. Mr Labes (69), a former executive officer of the Clutha Agricultural Development Board and former sheep farmer, said 18 people he had known - mainly Otago farmers and rural contractors - had died over the past 40 years in farm accidents. He and his wife Aileen, who moved to Mosgiel in retirement last month, have long been involved, through FarmSafe educational programmes, in helping to improve farm safety in Clutha and throughout Otago. "Farm injuries are not inevitable," he said. "One of the myths is that getting injured is part and parcel of being a farmer. That myth needed to be broken. "It's not inevitable any more than because you own a car you're going to have an accident." Mr Labes has held many farming industry leadership roles at regional and national level reports The Otago Daily Times. He is a former chairman of the Otago Federated Farmers meat and wool section, a former director of the New Zealand Wool Board (1983-95), and a founding member as well as former executive officer (1999-2005) of the agricultural development board. He has also chaired the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (Wronz, 1990-95) and the New Zealand Sheep Council (1995-98). He has also long been a sheep farmer at Tuapeka Flat, near Lawrence, having started farming there in 1964.