"What we found was that about a quarter of injuries were occurring to people's backs and then knee and ankle injuries were also pretty common at about 15 per cent."
These injuries were also painful for a farmer's back pocket, Eastwood said.
"We found that people that were injured were taking on average 12 days off work and taking 27 days to recover fully so it's an area that can have quite a big impact."
After talking to farmers, DairyNZ found that most strains and sprains happened during calving season - especially in the calf-pick-up process, Eastwood said.
"[Farmers are] out in the paddock, lifting calves and putting them into trailers - or rolling ankles or hurting knees in slippery, uneven paddocks."
Calf-rearing is also another problem area, with farmers lifting heavy buckets whilst training calves to feed.
Naturally milking was a big part of a dairy farmer's day and could also cause issues, Eastwood said.
"A lot of time is spent milking on dairy farms – reaching to put the cups on – and repetitive strain injuries are pretty common."
This was where the Reducing Strains and Sprains project came in, Eastwood said.
"We're really focused on identifying the problems but developing some win-win solutions for farmers so that we can engineer out some of these problem sprains and strain risks on-farm."
DairyNZ surveyed farmers for their top tips on how to reduce strains and sprains and found "a lot of good advice," he said.
They are:
• Taking a team approach to picking up calves – get two staff members to do the lifting
• Using specialised trailers during calf pick-up
• Piping milk into calf feeders rather than carrying buckets
• Tucking away hoses in the shed so there is less risk of people tripping on them
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As a result of this information, DairyNZ was able to come up with solutions to help minimise the risk of injury, including a calf pick-up trailer, Eastwood said.
"We've been working with Kea trailers on that – so we have a prototype out in the field we've been testing."
There were also a couple of other problem areas DairyNZ was studying, he said.
"We're looking at different ways to reduce the reach that people have to do when they're putting cups on cows and we're looking at how we can help farmers choose the right footwear for the job, to help with the slips and trips that are happening on-farm."
Eastwood was proud of the work DairyNZ had done to help keep farmers safe.
"It's a pretty cool project because we're working alongside farmers and other experts to co-design solutions."
Find out more about reducing sprains and strains here.
