#AgSafety Leader – May 2017
MARK GRAFTON
Livestock Predator Program
“For Mark a key concept of safety on the ranch is the ability and need to incorporate safety into the day to day business of a working cattle ranch operation.”
Mark is a working stockman, a horsemanship clinician and a long-time rancher in BC.
Recently honored by induction into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame, Mark spent decades as the manager of the Bar K Ranch, north west of Prince George and built a robust and effective health and safety program at that site – one of the first in the ranching industry in BC.
Mark took his role seriously as a director on the FARSHA board for many years and was exemplary in his pursuit of an active program. He worked closely with (at the time) FARSHA’s Ranching Safety Consultant and Regional Safety Consultant, sharing his expertise in the development of real, relevant and valuable programs, videos, teaching tools and materials. His photo and fingerprints remain upon much of the ranch content offered today.
For Mark, a key to the concept of safety on the ranch is the ability and need to incorporate safety into the day to day business of a working cattle ranch operation. In the clinics Mark does today he insists that safety for the individual and the animals is a priority and ensures there is a solid understanding of when you are at risk, how to know if you are in over your head and when to get out and seek help.
He has a deep passion for the historic methods of the working stockman and incorporates those long-standing traditions and techniques into the needs and regulatory nature of the ranching industry of today. He is also the manager of the Livestock Predator Program, a farm labor contractor undertaking, for BC and provided the venue and opportunity for AgSafe’s Ranching Consultant to develop and implement a safety program. This unique program serves the many contractors who service the agricultural sector in this role and is part of their orientation.
Mark’s ability to ensure health and safety is considered, addressed and included in varied agricultural settings, his awareness and attention to the needs of workers as well as the regulatory requirements of health and safety in these varied settings demonstrates his passion for the well being of the worker. Mark’s concern for safety, his ability to train, teach, mentor and orient workers safely into the cowboy culture is why Mark is an AgSafety Leader.
Do you know an Ag Safety Leader?