In 2020 alone, there were 1291 – an average of 3.5 per-day.
Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said the number of injuries in the region was "far too high" and must be addressed.
"It's not a nice statistic to have and it's of real concern," he said.
Last year, a total of were 22,796 farm-related injury claims were accepted nationwide, which came at a cost of $84m to help people recover. That is over 60 farm workers getting injured every day.
In all, ACC has spent more than $383m on farm-related injuries in the past five years, with the cost in 2020 the highest from this period.
The top three types of farming injury were soft tissue injuries (66 per cent), laceration, puncture or sting (17 per cent) and fracture or dislocation (6 per cent).
Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said the number of injuries in the region must be addressed. Photo / NZME
Galloway said in Hawke's Bay, the most common types of farm injuries are from being kicked or knocked by animals, alongside strains and sprains from lifting and muscle injuries from chasing stock.
Last month, a 24-year-old female farm worker fell down a 7m hill after being kicked in the back by a bull in an incident in Te Haroto.
The Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter was alerted to the incident after the woman, who suffered moderate back injuries, activated a personal locator beacon.
Galloway, who recently suffered a calf muscle injury after chasing cattle, said farmers frequently suffer injuries while chasing stock.
"Vehicle accidents on farms are quite prevalent in Hawke's Bay too," he said. "Whether it's a quad bike, side by side or tractors – there's a heap of potential for injuries in vehicles."
He encouraged farmers to take advantage of ACC's subsidy on roll bars for quad bikes and urged farmers to learn from accidents.
"Quad accidents have been a major cause of accidents and death here," he said. "We need to make some changes.
"Not only is it expensive for our ACC levy, as if we have more claims it comes back to us as farmers, but also it's unproductive if someone is off injured. You can't run your farm if you're workers are in a hospital bed."
ACC partnered with the Federated Farmers and NZ Shearing Contractors Association to develop Tahi Ngātahi – an online training platform for shearers and other woolshed workers.
Virginia Burton-Konia, ACC head of workplace safety, said farmers spend their lives looking after animals, but must learn to look after themselves.
"Farmers need to get better at putting in systems to look after the most important asset on the farm, themselves and those who work in the business," she said.
An ACC-funded study for Farmstrong revealed 58 per cent of recently injured farmers linked their accident to stress associated with farm work. A quarter of them said it was a major factor.
The research showed that exhaustion, lack of sleep, stresses of farming, being isolated from friends and family and being unable to take a break all add to the risks that a farmer or farm worker will have an accident.
ACC accepts more than two million claims every year in New Zealand, which equates to more than 5000 injury claims a day nationwide – at a cost of more than $4bn annually.
It is estimated 90 per cent of injuries are preventable.
The high levels of claims sparked the launch of a new injury prevention campaign entitled "Preventable", which aims to improve wellbeing by decreasing the number and severity of injuries.
