The drought sweeping through the Midwest has forced many farmers to make tough operational decisions against their wishes. For Macey Hurst, a cattle farmer outside of Jefferson City, that meant cutting a third of her herd because of dry pastures and a lack of hay.
These difficult decisions that often are out of farmers’ control can lead to mental health concerns.
On the day Hurst brought her cattle to the market, she ended up taking the afternoon off of work to prioritize her mental health.
“We have an emotional attachment to those animals and we've so often made sacrifices to make sure they're taken care of,” Hurst said. “So seeing them go and not having another option was pretty difficult.”
Stressors, including increasingly extreme weather, financing and familial struggles, are associated with farmer anxiety and depression. The stress accompanying farm life can be exacerbated by a lack of access to health care, stigma surrounding mental health support and the potential isolation in rural areas.
Close to 40% of the farmer population experienced at least mild symptoms of anxiety or depression in a survey of Illinois farmers in 2021 and 2022. In comparison, around 17% to 20% of the general population experiences at least mild symptoms of anxiety or depression. The survey was completed by Josie Rudolphi, an assistant professor for agricultural safety and health at the University of Illinois.
Additionally, rural suicide rates in Missouri are 18% higher than those in non-rural areas, according to a Missouri Hospital Association report.
Emma Alexander, a farmer from Rogersville, is an advocate for farmer mental health because she sees the many stressors agriculturists face as a seventh generation agriculturist. She raises goats, pigs and cows on her family farm.
“It's not that (farming communities) don't have the mental fortitude to overcome those challenges,” Alexander said. “It just takes time to work through those and stay connected with your network and your support system.”
Stressors
A lot of factors in a farmer's profit and success are out of their control, including weather and global market prices. These factors can be stressful for farmers.
“We're subject to the markets,” Hurst said. “Whenever your entire livelihood is essentially out of your hands, it can be hard to wake up and want to do the same thing the next day.”
Extreme weather, like droughts, flooding or natural disasters, are stressors for farmers and are associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, Rudolphi said.
Hurst remembers one Christmas when her family spent the entire day feeding the cattle because it snowed on Christmas Eve. While the snow was not an instance of extreme weather impacting the farm, it is an example of how uncontrollable factors impact farmers' personal lives.
The drought sweeping throughout the state is a weather stressor on the mental health of farmers in the Midwest. It has resulted in poor crop conditions and potentially lower profits for Missouri farmers. Dry pastures and low hay levels forced many cattle farmers, like Hurst, to cut down on their herds.
“Whenever something you love so much and are so passionate about kind of crumbles before your eyes or fails or isn't successful, then you take that very personally,” Hurst said. “It can affect you on a mental level as well as a physical level and a financial level which all just accumulates.”
Farm finances can also be an additional source of stress because of high interest rates and a predicted decrease in farm income in Missouri. One reason finances are a stressor for farmers is because commodity prices are often out of the hands of farmers.
“Farm finances is consistently cited as a major source of stress, and consistently associated with those symptoms of anxiety and depression,” Rudolphi said. “We know that agriculture is financially complicated. We often don't set the price for our product.”
Many Missouri farmers hope to pass their farm on to future generations. But a drought impacting crop quality or high interest rates that stop farmers from buying new equipment makes it harder for them to turn a profit to keep the farm in operation.
Source: kbia.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-hirurg
Categories: Missouri, Weather