Slurry pit death: Widow highlights farm safety and stress after rise in fatalities

The widow of a farmer who died after he fell into a slurry pit has spoken about the stresses facing workers after a rise in deaths.

Margaret Owen said the impact of husband Islwyn's death had been brought back to her once again following reports that a father and son had died in similar circumstances last week.

She said Islwyn had worried about bad weather and recently-introduced rules on slurry spreading when he had fallen at his farm in Bala, Gwynedd, in 2024.

Latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 22 workers died on British farms during 2025-26 - the highest number in a decade.

Margaret said the number of deaths had made it appear "things are getting worse and worse".

An inquest into Islwyn's death found he had fallen into the slurry pit after he had climbed on to a short wall to adjust some machinery at Cefn Bodig farm in Llanycil, Bala.

He suffered asphyxia along with serious injuries to his right arm and chest caused by the machinery, and his body was found by a neighbour 90 minutes after he was reported missing on the evening of 4 September 2024.

Islwyn was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled as accidental.

Margaret said that, although it had not been the cause of his death, Islwyn had been under pressure because of a combination of bad weather and the Welsh government's rules that banned farmers from spreading slurry between mid-October to January.

She said that farmers in general are often under a lot of stress.

The ban on muck-spreading over winter months to protect rivers is something that Wales' environment minister Llyr Gruffydd has said he wanted to change after Plaid Cymru came into power.

"The weather had been wet and there was a problem with mixing the slurry and emptying the slurry before the cattle came in - it was quite a stressful situation," she told BBC Cymru Fyw.

The deaths of Alan Ford, 72, and his son Rick, 42, after they had fallen into an industrial slurry tank at a farm in Chester on 26 August, had brought back memories of her husband's death, she said.

The 22 deaths of workers on farms in Wales, England and Scotland during 2025-26 was the highest in a decade, and second only to the number of deaths of those working in construction (27), according to HSE figures.

But the rate of farm deaths was seven times higher per 100,000 workers, and 21 times more likely than the all-industry average.

"It seems that things are getting worse and worse", Margaret said, and that "four [people] within four miles of here have died in recent years - it's scary isn't it?"

"Islwyn was so careful - one of those rare farmers who wore a helmet," she said.

"He was aware of the dangers of farming and I kept saying 'be careful'."

She said she had known something was wrong on the day Islwyn died "because he was never very late for dinner", and said the nature of his death had been "hard to accept".

Margaret had to sell their farm stock and arrange for other farmers to rent the majority of their land.

"For over a year I had tears coming every day, and I thought I'm going to be like this forever. But it's getting easier," she said.

She had stayed in Llanycil and said it had been "important to focus on the nice memories", keeping herself busy by keeping horses.