Farmers of retirement age are hurt more often than younger farmers, and WorkSafe says more care needs to be taken of children on farms.

In the first three months of this year there were five farm fatalities and 30 WorkSafe notifiable injuries, with more fatalities on farms than any other industry.

ACC figures showed the number of farm injuries over the past five years were on a downward trend, with 23,096 farming-related injuries in 2018 down to 22,631 last year.

Farmers aged 65 or older was the biggest group of claimants at 3429 last year. That compared to a total 7455 claims for those aged 25 to 60.