Farm Safety Week, which is set to run from Monday, will highlight a different, true farm accident every day.

The "Don't Leave it to FATE" campaign (almost all accidents on Scottish farms can be attributed to Falls, Animals, Transport or Equipment), is a combined initiative from the Farm Safety Foundation, Farm Safety Partnerships, the Health and Safety Executive and NFU Scotland, that will alert farmers and their employees to potential risks.

My wife Carmen has been chosen as one of the examples as she still suffers the effects of a horrific accident nine years ago when she was attacked by a recently-calved Aberdeen Angus cross cow.

She had been moving a small group of cow and calves with me on our rented hill farm Auchentaggart, near Sanquhar. I had gone ahead in the Land Rover to open a gate, when the beast turned on her without warning.

The cow knocked her to the ground, gored and crushed her with its head and trampled her.

That left her seriously injured and fighting for her life in the Intensive Care Unit at Dumfries Royal Infirmary following a lengthy operation involving 30 pints of blood and the removal of her right lung and two ribs.

After spending three weeks in intensive care Carmen went on to develop serious complications when the cavity left after her lung was removed became infected with a cocktail of infections that included MRSA and a very persistent strain of pseudomonas.

Following several months in hospital fighting those infections she then went on to have further major surgery to her chest.

Not surprisingly, after several near-death experiences and lengthy periods of considerable pain, Carmen suffered from depression and became dependent on anti-depressants, a dependency that was subsequently treated during a six-week residency at the Priory Clinic.

Although she has now made a good recovery, she still suffers pain, her posture and mobility has been affected and she suffers badly from breathlessness when she gets an infection in her remaining lung.

The accident also had a profound effect on the rest of the family, including our two daughters and young grandson.

We worked the farm between us, with Carmen looking after it while I was away tending to my extensive off-farm business activities.

With me fully committed to nursing my recuperating wife, and the farm not financially viable if full-time staff had to be employed, the decision was made to give up farming eight years ago.

So a moment's madness by a cow nine years ago completely changed our lives forever.

The incident should make us think more carefully about how we handle livestock, and newly-calved cows in particular.

Carmen was fortunate that I was near at hand with a Land Rover and managed to summon medical assistance quickly. She could just as easily been alone and lain unattended for hours, which in her case would have been fatal.

We should all learn lessons from Carmen's tragic accident and think very carefully before working with cattle to ensure it's done as safely as possible.

"Be wary" should always be our motto.

- Rog Wood is The Herald's farming correspondent.