Understanding Stockyard Design:Stockyards, crucial for stock handling, can pose risks if poorly designed or maintained. WorkCover Queensland emphasizes the importance of sound stockyard design and upkeep to minimize risks to both handlers and livestock.

What is Good Stockyard Design? Effective stockyard design involves large pens accommodating various livestock activities, such as weighing, drenching, vaccination, and loading. It aims to enhance animal handling safety, promote humane treatment, ensure worker safety, and boost productivity.

Key Features of Good Stockyard Design:

• Utilizes livestock's natural circling instinct.
• Avoids making stock run towards threats.
• Eliminates sharp corners and dead ends.
• Incorporates modern technologies like RFID scanning and automated drafting.

Risks of Poor Stockyard Design:Investing in stockyards involves significant resources, impacting worker and livestock safety, operational efficiency, and ongoing maintenance costs. Choosing the right site, yard design, and construction materials is critical. Risks associated with poor stockyard design include:

• Increased worker injuries and fatalities.
• Inefficiencies in livestock handling, requiring more workers.
• Elevated stress and bruising on stock, leading to injuries.
• Delayed animal husbandry and limitations on intensive practices.
• Compromised animal welfare.

Managing Risks:Workers and management collaboration is essential to mitigate stockyard design risks.

For Workers:

• Prioritize personal health and safety, extending care to others.
• Cooperate with management to fulfill health and safety requirements and minimize risks.

For Businesses:As an employer or business owner, compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 is crucial. Adhering to the four-step risk management process outlined below supports WHS law responsibilities:

1. Identify the Risk: Recognize potential hazards in stockyard design, considering site, yard layout, and materials.

2. Assess the Risk: Evaluate the severity and likelihood of harm associated with each identified hazard.

3. Control the Risk: Follow the hierarchy of controls and employ measures to eliminate or minimize risks.

4. Review Risk Controls: Regularly assess and adjust control measures to maintain a safe work environment.

Practical guidance is available in the How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021. Emphasizing a collaborative approach ensures the well-being of workers, livestock, and the overall success of stockyard operations.