Saskatchewan Agriculture is advising farmers to pay particular attention to overhead electrical power lines in the wake of an unusually high number of cases of farm machinery contacting electrical equipment this spring.
In its weekly Crop Report, released last week, Saskatchewan Agriculture reminds farmers to check for overhead power lines and plan ahead when moving equipment.
Shannon Friesen, a Crop Development Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, suggests the late spring that shorted the window for preparing for planting could be partially responsible for an unusually high number of power line strikes.
Clip-Shannon Friesen-Saskatchewan Agriculture:
SaskPower reports that there were 34 contacts with farm machinery to power lines in the past week.
That does bring our May total up to about 119.
Those are quite high numbers and not something we really like to see.
Those numbers are much higher than we would normally have and some of that could be due to our spring season being so crunched.
A lot of farmers have been going hard, going 24 hours a day, really pushing things.
What we would like to do is remind farmers to be safe out there to make sure that, whether they are working in the field or in the yard that they're making sure that they're staying away from those power lines, that they're working with SaskPower if any lines need to be moved so that equipment can get through and to just really take care out there and be safe.
Friesen says a lot this is likely due to having such a late spring with a lot of field work to do and a lot things happening on the farm and as we get into the seeding season we can get tired or distracted.
More safety information, including "Powerful Stories" of individual experiences with power line strikes, can be found at saskpower.com/safety.
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