Forward Farm Safety Toolbox
Farm Safety
Toolbox
To prepare and protect your workforce.
Best in Class | Backed by Research
The bilingual Forward Farm Safety Toolbox is based on solid research and is designed to help agricultural operations create a strong safety culture. This foundation supports long‑lasting behavior changes and ongoing leadership support for safety.
The toolbox includes a hands‑on training guide that helps farms, consultants, and instructors lead training sessions using a 20‑40‑40 model: 20% learning, 40% exploring, and 40% solving.
This approach makes safety training more interactive than traditional presentations. Using adult‑learning principles, it encourages participants to take ownership and responsibility. The added learning materials further support a workplace where safe behaviors become part of everyday farm life.
Frequently Asked Questions | FAQs
The bilingual Forward Farm Safety Toolbox is a resource designed to support agricultural operations by providing a blueprint for building a strong safety culture and delivering effective, interactive safety trainings
What is included in the toolbox?
The toolbox includes a comprehensive blueprint for building a culture of safety, along with different modules featuring training guides, bilingual videos, and fact sheets.
Who can use this tool?
The toolbox is designed for farm operations, safety consultants, educators, and instructors who lead or support agricultural safety training.
Why is this toolbox unique?
Unlike traditional presentation-based safety training, this toolbox uses an interactive safety guide and adult-learning principles to encourage participation, ownership, and responsibility for safety.
What is the approach behind the toolbox?
The toolbox follows the training model of: 20% learning, 40% exploring, and 40% solving. This hands-on approach helps participants apply safety concepts to real situations and supports safe behaviors as part of everyday farm life.
Are there supplemental learning materials or videos?
Every training module comes with 1-2 bilingual videos and a bilingual fact sheet.
Does the Forward Farm Safety Toolbox provide a complete farm safety plan for my operation? Can it guarantee that my farm is compliant with safety regulations?
Materials in the Forward Farm Safety Toolkit were developed by educators and specialists in the UW-Madison Division of Extension. These materials are intended to build awareness and address many common hazards associated with farm work, but they do not cover all hazards that may be present in every operation.
- The UW-Madison Division of Extension makes no warranty or representation that following the recommendations in this document will make any premises, property, or operation safe or compliant with applicable laws or regulations.
- Each employer is responsible for assessing their own risks and for developing measures to protect people, animals, property, and the environment. Safety programs must be tailored to the specific conditions of each farming operation.
- Farm safety programs should be reviewed periodically with individuals who support farm risk management. These may include insurance representatives, veterinarians, local emergency services personnel, healthcare providers, safety consultants, attorneys, and others familiar with the operation.
Have more questions? Contact our team.
John Shutske
Agricultural Safety and Health Extension Specialist
Alison Pfau
Bilingual Regional Dairy Educator
Manuel Peña
Bilingual Regional Dairy Educator