By Corey Everitt
Officer’s Ross Doherty is lucky to not be paralysed, let alone be alive after an incident with a bull left him badly injured and with a reminder that being a farmer is still one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.
Currently, Doherty is recovering from 17 broken ribs, both lungs punctured, 2 cracked vertebrae and a shattered left foot.
All of this occurred when he let his guard down for a moment with an agitated bull.
Three weeks ago, he and two others were attempting to load up the bull he hired at his farm on Brown Road.
Throughout the bull’s time at Doherty’s property he was as ‘quiet as anything’ and never ‘looked sideways’.
“We were putting up in the truck to go home and he wouldn’t go quite up the way, he got agitated,” he said.
“He was trying to go right through the fence, that’s how wild he was.”
Doherty needed to get to another position on the edge of his paddock, he needed to cross a little breezeway in the paddock to do so.
While the bull seemingly held its attention at another by the fence a distance away, he opted to cross.
He made the mistake of lifting his attention from the bull – only for a moment – while he crossed. In only a matter of seconds the situation turned, like ‘a lion after a zebra’.
“Unbeknownst to me he must have spotted me,” Doherty said.
“And before I knew it he is 3 metres away from me.
“There were two big plastic barrels in the way, he went straight through them like skittles.”
Doherty was pinned into the fence, the bull’s charge was too quick to leave time to get out.
If he was alone in such a situation, he thinks he would certainly have died.
“I counted 5 times he bashed me on the gate, then I dropped to the ground and I counted another three,” Doherty said.
“Andy came around and whacked him in the face with a whip three times and he stopped.
“The doctor said how the hell could you even move, but I crawled to get out of the way.”
Doherty is particularly thankful for friend Andy Fyfe for fending the bull off and the truck driver Stephen Fuchner for calling the ambulance who were on the scene ‘in no time’.
He was treated at the Alfred Hospital where he was ‘lucky to not be paralysed or killed’.
He is wheelchair-bound as he recovers, he had an operation this week to rearrange his left foot which was badly broken by a stomp of the bull.
Despite pain that at times hit ‘12’ out of ten, Doherty remains chipper. He takes this as an important reminder for him and farmers to stay alert.
Farming is a dangerous job, whether from incidents from livestock or equipment to the overall strenuous work on the body.
These risk combined with a role that is largely ‘work alone’ by an ‘ageing farming workforce’ with ‘disadvantaged access to medical services’, farmers have eight times the rate of fatality of the general employed population.
The State Government’s Better Health Channel says farming ‘continues to be the highest risk occupation’.
For Doherty, he implores farmers to be weary of letting your guard down.
“Be able to read the cattle which I did and do not assume that you have got plenty of time,” he said.
“Keep your eyes on the bull for as long as possible.
“If I had of done that I would have been right to get to safety.”
Furthermore, it matters to those living on the intersection of town and country. Doherty’s property is on Brown Road, the border with Officer’s urban growth zone.
Cows and horses may be a friendly sight by the fences, but they should be thought of with respect.
“It’s not only just for farmers, but little kids. There are buildings everywhere and farms still everywhere,” Doherty said.
“For local children, never go into the paddocks because you can’t trust the animals.”
For residents unfamiliar, you can learn about the risks and safety measures around cow behaviour at worksafe.vic.gov.au/cattle-behaviour-basics
