It was somewhat ironic that Miss Panko attended the Otago launch of the Safer Farms programme with her arm in a splint. She broke the radial head in her elbow in a farm accident as she was cutting some bulls out of a mob of heifers.
Two bulls were fighting and, as she sat on the stationary quad bike - wearing a helmet - one ran into her as it was chased by the other.
Miss Panko, who has worked for Paul and Suzie Corboy for two and a half years, said safety was something that was taken seriously on the sheep and beef farm.
She had never been injured before and always believed she was a ''really safe'' person.
Even though she had shifted bulls many times, she took the precaution of having Mr Corboy present in case there was ''any grief''.
The bull ''just came flying out of nowhere'' and, as she reflected on the accident, she said the only way it could have been prevented was ''not being at work at all''.
Miss Panko, a former Telford student, is chairwoman of Tokomairiro Young Farmers and secretary of the Otago Southland region. Safety was taken importantly at Young Farmers, she said.
With plates and screws in her elbow, she would be able to do light work within the next few months, but it would be ''small steps''.
''I won't be doing any crutching . . . for the rest of the year,'' she said.
She was particularly disappointed to have to withdraw from riding on a trail in this week's Otago Goldfields cavalcade.
