This past week, I read an article that was a sad reminder that the activities associated with agricultural are dangerous and can lead to serious injury and death. Not only will agricultural producers be working in potentially dangerous situations this spring, but homeowners will also be working out-of-doors mowing lawns, improving landscapes and using pesticides. All of these activities remind us that it is time to do a spring safety check.

People are not very good at guessing or estimating the odds of injury from various activities. We often think that a situation is safer than it is or that we are more in control of external factors than we actually are.

Past experience is one reason why our evaluation of a situation may be less than correct. If you have performed a certain risky task without injury in the past, you may assume that you can perform that task in the same way every time with no change to the level of risk.

If you think "I did it this way last time with no problem, so I'll do it that way again," even though something is different — such as the condition of the ground, temperament of an animal, wear and tear on a tool or machine part — you may be setting yourself up for injury.

Dramatic portrayals of certain incidents such as airplane crashes can make you overestimate that risk and underestimate the risk of less dramatic, or underreported ones, such as a dairy cow stomping on your foot while you are wearing inappropriate shoes, slipping on a wet, grassy slope, or a PTO catching hold of your shirt sleeve.

Farm family operators are known to be jacks-of-all-trades. Do you often attempt to design, construct, maintain, repair and treat farm structures, machinery, equipment, and animals yourself — to the extent that you avoid calling more experienced professionals when you should? Although cost is often a factor, electric wiring installation, cutting down large trees, welding and giving veterinary care to animals are all examples of specialized and risk-involved tasks that may be best left to professionals who are trained to do these procedures, especially when the task at hand goes beyond your skills.

Overconfidence is also seen in many situations where farmers and farm workers deliberately engage in unsafe acts such as reaching into the crop intake of a running machine, or hitching a ride on the fender of a tractor. Many probably don't see the inherent risk or are confident that since they are aware of the risk, they can "be careful" and avoid injury.

Will it take an injury to make you more aware of the risk of certain work methods and work environments and to change not only those work methods, but also to admit there is a limit to the level of risk that you can safely work within?

Familiar risks are taken daily in production agriculture work, so to you they may seem less threatening, less hazardous. You feel more in control of a risk that you take on yourself. The one-victim-at-a-time nature of production agriculture work related injury also obscures the level of risk.

Do you take the right steps to make your work methods and work environment safer? No boss is going to make you do it. It's up to you to pause and take the steps necessary to work safely. As you sow the seeds, take care so that you can reap the harvest.

This material is submitted by Donna Zang, director, and the staff of the Penn State Extension office at the Sunnyview Home complex.