DUCHY COLLEGE Stoke Climsland hosted more than 100 local farmers for a series of workshops to highlight health and safety and cut the number of deaths in agriculture.

Duchy College and Lantra-approved trainers ran sessions on working at height, manual handling, safe use of farm machinery, electrocution and handling livestock, at two free events run by rural insurer Cornish Mutual as part of its Farmsafe initiative.

There were also practical demonstrations on how to deal with entrapment and machinery blockages, and working with chemicals.

Rob Pearce, principal inspector in Cornwall and Devon for the Health and Safety Executive, said farmers were ten times more likely than most workers to be killed while at work, and that someone is killed on a farm in Devon and Cornwall on average once every two months.

Philip Wilson, business development manager at Cornish Mutual, said: "By providing training like this and through other Farmsafe activities, we want to raise awareness of safety issues and help to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on farms."

Ian Davey, a farmer and Cornish Mutual member from Trerulefoot, broke his arm and dislocated his shoulder after being electrocuted with 11,000 volts when his trailer tipped up and touched an overhead power line.

He said: "Farms are very dangerous places and there are lots of hazards which we're not always fully aware of.

"We're always in a hurry to get a job done, usually influenced by the weather, and often we don't stand back and look at the dangers involved.

"My message is to look up and be aware of power lines. These events are very important to make farmers more aware of the situations they find themselves in."

Mike Hambly, from Westcott Farm at Callington, said he had friends who had been killed.

"I think there are a lot of us in the industry that know of people that have been touched by serious accidents.

"These are really key events to make sure we keep everyone safe."

For more visit www.cornish mutual.co.uk/farmsafe