One in six farms inspected by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) was found to be in breach of safety regulations, according to new figures.
Inspectors from the body's agricultural safety unit carried out 251 visits to farms during Farm Safety Action Week in April.
Forty-one prohibition notices were issued requiring an immediate stoppage of particular activities. In some cases, notices were issued prohibiting farmers to use machinery considered to be dangerous.
Some 90 per cent of the notices related to inadequate guarding of PTO shafts, devices which rotate and can trap clothing and limbs. This problem was "persistent" in the sector and a factor in a large proportion of fatal and other serious farming accidents, the HSA said.
Senior agricultural safety inspector Mr Brian Higgisson said there would be "rigorous" follow-up activity of every notice issued.
Mr Tom Beegan, chief executive of the HSA, urged farmers to make a conscious effort to ensure that every week is a safe week.
"This is the only way of reducing the pain and misery caused by farm accidents."
Just last week, the HSA revealed that agriculture and forestry remain the most hazardous sectors in Irish industry. In its annual report for 2002 it reported 13 fatalities in total, two of whom were children.