why ohs required in managing a farm?

In short, no. While the terminology isn’t important, understanding the difference is.

A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm. Risk is the likelihood or chance of it happening. Eg, barbed wire is a hazard. On its own it poses no risk to you. But you throw your leg over a barbed wire fence and there’s sure to be a risk of getting caught.

There are many hazards in agriculture, including:

Find out what the most common hazards are in your commodity.

The trick here is to think about your business and commodity, then consider what could hurt or kill someone (the risks) and start from there.

You need to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to manage risks. If you can’t reasonably manage the risk, perhaps you shouldn’t do that thing.

When it comes to managing hazards and risks, your obligation as a PCBU, responsible person and/or an Officer is to eliminate them, or if you can’t eliminate then you need to effectively manage them. A risk assessment is a step closer to ensuring you are protecting your workers, family, and anyone else on farm as far as reasonably practicable.

Having documented processes is a great foundation to your system and often where most people start. Just make sure your processes are followed in day-to-day operations.