The Risk Register Knew. The PTO Still Had No Guard.
Shady Farming already required PTO shafts always guarded. A worker still lost an arm. The Safety Lab builds a system that gets watched. Assure Safe stays so the pre-start is done, not filed.
The tractor is hooked to the feed mixer. The PTO shaft is turning. There is no guard. Clothing catches. A worker loses an arm and suffers multiple serious injuries.
January 2025, a Wairarapa dairy. On 26 August 2026 WorkSafe published the outcome. Shady Farming Limited pleaded guilty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, was convicted, fined an end total of $60,000, and ordered to pay reparation of approximately $96,000. This is not legal advice. It is what happens when the last line of defence is missing, and nobody is watching whether it is still there.
PTO shafts rotate at high speed. Unguarded, they catch loose clothing instantly. WorkSafe’s Central Region Manager, Nigel Formosa, said farmers know PTOs are dangerous. Guards are the last line of defence. A missing or damaged guard can be devastating.
The system was already written
The farm’s risk register recognised the high risk of entanglement. The safety management system required PTO shafts always guarded — no exceptions. WorkSafe found the tractor and feed mixer were run with no guarding on the PTO shaft. An adequate pre-start and maintenance process was not effectively monitored. That process should have included checking guards were present and replacing damaged ones.
Formosa’s line is the whole job: rules on paper are not enough. You need a system that makes sure guards are actually present, in good condition, and checked before the shaft turns. That is the work The Safety Lab does with a New Zealand farm or plant that already has a folder. They rebuild the SMS so the pre-start is specific, the monitor is named, and a missing guard is a stop, not a note for later. A register that already knew, and a shaft that still had no guard, is a systems problem. It is not a missing poster.
Then someone has to keep doing it
PTO guards get damaged in normal farm work. They need replacing. A documented pre-start that is actually done is how you find that out before the mixer starts. WorkSafe is asking farmers to check shafts are fully guarded, inspect for wear, replace immediately, put guarding on the pre-start, train the team to report a missing guard, and disengage before anyone steps in.
None of that is new. The difference is whether it happens on a Tuesday. A one-off induction will not produce a report when the guard is cracked. A sheet that lives only in a shed folder will not stop a mixer that is already hooked up. That is the work Assure Safe is for: membership that stays with the farm. Advice on the plant you actually run, documentation that matches it, training so the team will refuse to start, a client area where this morning’s pre-start lives, and someone still there to notice when the sheet was filled after the first load.
The Safety Lab can set the system. Assure Safe is how a small farm keeps using it when the consultant has gone. One without the other is how you get a current folder and an unguarded shaft.
What good looks like on a Tuesday
Hypothetical. A small Wairarapa dairy, morning feed. The tractor-end PTO guard is cracked from a yard knock. The pre-start is short: shaft guarded both ends, guard free to turn, no loose clothing or twine, PTO disengaged before anyone steps in. Someone walks it before the tractor starts. The cracked guard is a stop. They replace it, or they do not mix. The sheet records the defect. At the next talk the team hears what was found.
If WorkSafe visits — they do inspections and visits — they will look at the plant and the last pre-start, not the prose in the risk register. The register at Shady Farming already knew. The shaft did not.
This week
Walk every PTO you will use. If a guard is missing, damaged, or will not turn freely, stop that machine. If your SMS says “always guarded” and nobody can show the last check, that is a Safety Lab conversation. If the check exists and it is skipped, that is Assure Safe: write it in the words the team already uses, train them to report a missing guard the same way they report a dry trough, and stay long enough to notice when it is not done.
Agriculture remains one of New Zealand’s highest-risk industries. Formosa said no job on the farm is so urgent that it justifies taking risks around moving machinery. The rule was already written. The worker still lost an arm. Build a system that gets watched. Stay close enough that someone notices when it is not used.