Calving season can be a dangerous time of year for cattle producers.

With this being Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, the new farm safety coordinator with Manitoba Agriculture is reminding producers about some on-farm risks.

"Every year we see a lot of injuries related to livestock. It's important to look ahead and make sure you know the risks of the job you're getting into," says Jeff Shaw. "Also, know your animals, as we all know they have different temperments."

While cattle producers are busy with calving, the busy seeding season for grain farmers is just a few weeks away. Shaw says producers should make a commitment to use safe farming practices this growing season. He notes there are certain situations where things tend to go wrong.

"We still have too many fatalities and injuries where producers become entangled in equipment, so make sure that guards are in place. We still have producers injured and killed in rollovers, so make sure your tractor has rollover protection, and we still have producers getting run over when they're ground-starting tractors, so at no point should you be ground-starting a tractor," he says.

He says MAFRI has a wide range of safety resources that producers can access.

"We have anything from safe handling of chemicals to safety guidelines for animals and poultry to ATV training," he says. "Just contact me or your MAFRI office and we can get the material to you."

Shaw can be reached in Brandon at 204-726-6361.