The toys most kids get to play with growing up are in miniature, Lego, Tonka Trucks, swing sets and stuffed animals. But the kids that grow up on farms get the real deal: acres of land to play on, real trucks, cows, horses and barn lofts to explore.

But organizers and volunteers at the 15th Annual Children's Farm Safety Day on Saturday wanted to remind these kids that it's not all fun and games.

John Drummond, a volunteer with 4H (RESEARCH) said "you can't stress the importance of safety enough. And you might as well start when they're young."

Troops of children marched through the rain from stations on fire safety to water or sun safety or to visit the John Deere and Caterpillar safety experts.

Drummond was showing groups of children around upstairs of the McNabb family barn where there were simulated hazards for the children to identify. Then they'd have to come up with how to deal with that hazard. For example, if they found a nail sticking out of a wall they would tell their parents.

The kids also learned to wear a dust filter and goggles in the barn and to stay out completely if a front-end loader was being used.

The McNabb farm is a dairy farm and the yard coming up to it was littered with cows. Underneath the haymow, the children learned about a cow named Daisy's blind spots and to wear steel toed boots in case a cow stepped on your foot.

Despite the rain that hung around all morning, more than 90 children attended the farm safety day.

Organizer Heidi Wagner said that for most of these kids the safety is a refresher, but it comes at a good time of year. With school just ending, she said they're still in the mindset to sit and listen, but it's also close enough to when they'll be spending long days playing and helping their parents.

She said they began the safety day because there just wasn't enough safety training available.

"These kids live where there parents work and that creates a unique situation," she said.

While it may be fun to accompany mom or dad on the tractors or in with the cows at milking time, the dangers of the workplace are very real. Unfortunately there are many accidents.

Just last week a two-year-old Listowel boy was killed when a large piece of farming equipment fell on him while he was playing in the haymow.

Drummond stressed to the children in the barn not to play on hay bales no matter how sturdy they seem because a fall from them, or being trapped under them, can be very dangerous.

Falls from tractors are also common, as are injuries from children being run over by mowers or having their arms or legs caught in the machinery. Randy Huber, a shop foreperson at John Deere came to teach children about safety on tractors, teaching "seatbelts first" and other safety tips.

He said kids are usually the best teachers because they will bring the information home to their parents and siblings and enforce the safety rules they've been taught are important.

Still, he said, "there's not enough opportunity to teach farm safety." Owners of farms can purchase and operate the machinery without any safety training. Jacob Nitz, also a John Deere employee said sometimes an instructional DVD is sent home, but once a machine is purchased anyone on the farm can use it and safety is only passed on generation to generation.

When safety is not understood or is ignored, it's usually children that are the victims of the accidents, said Huber.

From 1990-2004 there were 70 fatal agricultural injuries in children aged 0-15 according to a report by the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program. The child deaths made up 15 per cent of the total fatal injuries in those years but the report stated that number was higher than expected based on the number of children living on farms.

While Wagner said the safety day reached a significant number of children, it was difficult to get everyone there, partly because the event moves between the four townships, Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich and North Dumfries. The other reason, she said, was that many of the Mennonite families with farms in the area wouldn't attend an event like this.

To meet the need for safety education on those farms, she said they travel to classrooms to give workshops as well.

But having the hands-on experience like exploring a fire truck, inspecting the haymow and climbing aboard a lawnmower to see if you're big enough to drive it can't be taught in a classroom.

In the end, the kids get more out of events like Saturday and take the message home to hopefully prevent tragedy on farms in the area.

saanderson@therecord.com

saanderson@therecord.com