In addition to the tragic loss of life, there are an estimated 23,000 additional cases of long-term ill health and serious injuries to farm workers every year on GB farms according to HSE.
James Bannister, 10th Anniversary Champion
James Bannister may be a familiar face in our industry as he is the past Chairman of the National Association of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC) as well as one of the stars of this year’s hero film however, this year he also signed up to be one of our 10th anniversary champions to help bring greater visibility to the importance of farm safety.
“The message needs to be out there, things need doing, and we need to make the whole industry safer”
Born into a farming family in Lincolnshire, James was always destined to follow the family footsteps into farming. His father was the foreman on a large arable estate, his mother worked on a smaller, neighbouring farm, and some of James’ earliest recollections are of days spent on these farms.
There are very few farm jobs that James hasn’t done at one time or another! He even tried a brief spell working in a warehouse in Louth to get a taste of life outside agriculture, but her soon learnt it wasn’t for him and, as soon as an opportunity came up to go back to farm work, he jumped at it. Then, in the early nineties he accepted a position on a mixed arable and root farm where, six years later, he would experience a life-changing experience.
“The farm was just under 1,000 acres,” explains James. “It was mostly beet, potatoes, carrots, cereals, and some grassland. When I first went there, I was mostly doing carrot and potato harvesting, and destoning. We bought a new drill so I moved away from the destoning and did the carrot and sugar beet drilling as well as the harvesting.”
However, in 1998, James suffered an accident with that potato harvester, resulting in the loss of his left arm and changing his life forever.
“It was a day like any other day,” says James. “Go to work in the morning, meet up with your colleagues, get your instructions, sort out with the trailer men where you were going.
“We were harvesting potatoes. I had just finished a field and had cleaned the machine down ready to go on to the next crop of potatoes as I always do. The last thing I can remember clearly before the accident was talking to my trailer man between the harvester and his trailer. The next clear memory is being inside it, fighting…”
After two and a half hours, James was finally released from the harvester, and air-lifted to Sheffield Hospital. “They got me there in nine minutes,” explains James. “If we had been travelling by road, it would have taken an hour and a half.”
By the time he was in the helicopter, he knew that he would lose the arm.
“Two things kept me going in hospital,” he recalls. “The first was, that I wanted to ride my motorbikes again, and the other was that I wanted to get back to work.”
Unfortunately, James suffered a serious setback six months after the accident when he received a visit from his manager who informed him that he would no longer be able to do the work. Not one to take no for an answer, it was this conversation that ultimately led James to set up his first contracting business…
“It was pure grit and determination. I wanted to show them that I could still do it,” he says.
In 2001 James bought his first tractor. Having moved to a village in Nottinghamshire, he began building contacts with local farmers, which gave him a foothold to set up JB Farm Services. “I ran this for six years, but in 2007 I decided to take a job in New Zealand,” says James. “I then spent nearly two years mostly working for a contractor driving a sprayer.”
Returning to the UK in 2009, James took on farm work in England and Scotland before returning to contracting, setting up JLR Farm Services with his partner, Lorraine, in 2011.
With a strong base of clients in the North-East, James proved anyone who doubted him wrong, “there are not many things I can’t do now!” he enthuses.
James has openly admitted that he had been pretty blasé about safety before his accident but not any more. Having had his accident, he is keen to warn others of how important it is to plan the job, take some time to properly assess the risks, share your learnings and always always think of the consequences:
“One thing I have learnt is that what doesn’t get done today will still be there tomorrow. At the end of the day, your life is more important than any job. I am lucky to still be here – things could have been very very different.”
To learn more about working safely with machinery visit:
Agriculture: Machinery – safe use (hse.gov.uk)
