Cattle & Livestock Handling SWMS

Cattle and livestock handling covers yard work, drenching, pregnancy testing, branding, truck loading and unloading, and mustering by horseback or motorbike — tasks consistently identified by Safe Work Australia as among the highest fatality and serious-injury contributors in the agriculture sector. Workers face unpredictable animal behaviour, confined yard environments, zoonotic disease exposure, vehicle and horse interactions, and repetitive manual handling under time pressure. Under WHS Regulation 2025 and the Model WHS Act s.19, a PCBU operating a livestock enterprise must identify foreseeable risks and implement documented controls before work commences. A Safe Work Method Statement is the principal vehicle for capturing those controls, communicating them to workers and contractors at pre-start, and demonstrating consultation under s.47. The Safe Work Australia Hazardous Work in Agriculture Code of Practice expressly nominates cattle handling as work requiring a written method statement where struck-by, crush, or zoonotic exposure risks are present, making this SWMS a mandatory control document, not an optional record.

Hazards identified

7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.

Control measures

Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.

1. 1Elimination — Replace manual pregnancy testing and branding with contracted mobile veterinary crush services where calf throughput and budget allow, removing handler exposure entirely.
2. 2Elimination — Eliminate quad bike mustering on slopes exceeding manufacturer-specified gradient; use side-by-side UTV, horse, or helicopter contractor instead.
3. 3Substitution — Substitute traditional fire branding with freeze branding or NLIS electronic ear tags to reduce handler proximity time and animal distress response.
4. 4Substitution — Substitute glass multi-dose vaccinators with self-resheathing safety injectors meeting AS/NZS 4031 to reduce needlestick exposure.
5. 5Engineering — Install Bud Box or curved race system with catwalks, anti-backing gates, and hydraulic head bail compliant with MLA Tips & Tools yard design specifications.
6. 6Engineering — Fit operator protective devices (crush protection device or roll cage) to all quad bikes per ACCC mandatory standard, and helmets meeting AS/NZS 3838.
7. 7Administrative — Conduct documented pre-start briefing using this SWMS, confirm Q fever vaccination status (Q-VAX) for all yard workers per Australian Immunisation Handbook.
8. 8Administrative — Schedule yard work to avoid heat stress windows, rotate handlers every two hours, and prohibit lone work in cattle yards without UHF radio check-in.
9. 9Administrative — Restrict crush operation to workers competency-assessed against AHCLSK330 (Administer medication to livestock); maintain training register for SafeWork inspection.
10. 10PPE — Issue steel-cap riding boots, impact-rated gloves, P2 respirator (AS/NZS 1716) during birthing fluid exposure, safety glasses, and high-visibility long-sleeved cotton drill.

Applicable Codes of Practice

Worked example

At a 400-head weaner branding muster on a mixed grazing enterprise in central-west New South Wales, the leading hand convenes the crew at the yard gate at 6:00am before cattle arrive from the holding paddock. He opens this SWMS on a tablet and walks through the seven hazards line by line. When he reaches zoonotic exposure, he confirms each worker's Q fever vaccination card — one casual jackaroo is unvaccinated, so the leading hand reassigns him to gate work upwind of the cradle, away from any birthing fluid aerosols, and documents the reassignment in the sign-on sheet. He nominates two crush operators rotating every two hours per the administrative control, confirms the hydraulic head bail has been serviced, and issues P2 respirators and impact gloves from the ute. During branding, a heifer crashes the race and a worker reports near-miss bruising to the shin. The leading hand pauses work, returns to the SWMS, adds a dynamic control — installing a temporary backing bar — initials the change, and has all workers re-sign before resuming. At smoko he photographs the updated control measure and uploads it to the property's WHS folder, creating a contemporaneous record that satisfies SafeWork NSW inspection requirements and demonstrates active risk management rather than a tick-and-flick compliance gesture.

Related legislation

• WHS Act 2011 (model)
• WHS Regulation 2025
• Managing the Risks of Plant in Rural Workplaces CoP; AS 2789 — Quad bikes

Frequently asked questions