 Hi, this is Sean Brotherson, Extension Family Life Specialist with MDSU Extension. This is the first in a series of short videos on the topic of understanding and managing key stresses in farming and ranching. Thank you for your interest in this topic and how it might be of relevance in your life and work. The main objectives of our discussion on this topic are to increase understanding of rural stress issues in farming and ranching, explore some of the key stress-related concerns in farming, and identify available resources and sources of support related to managing stress. Farming and ranching has consistently been ranked among the top 10 most stressful occupations in the United States. Although most people working in agriculture appreciate the opportunity to direct their own work activities or be involved in a rural lifestyle, they also recognize that there are a variety of inherent stresses that come with working in the field of agriculture. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recently examined 130 occupations and found that laborers and farm owners had the highest rate of death due to stress-related conditions like heart disease and artery disease, hypertension, ulcers, or nervous disorders. It's important that we all learn how to manage our stress levels and to reduce the effects of unwanted stress. Too much stress can make a person more accident prone, and we all recognize that farm worker health and safety is an important priority for those working in agriculture. Additionally, a person under stress can have their health affected negatively, withdraw from interactions with others, or be more prone to make rushed or ineffective decisions when decision-making needs to be better. These reasons indicate why it's important to identify common stressors in farming and ranching, understand their effects, and access resources to pursue better health and safety. By doing these three things, you'll make the workplace a safer place including your farm or ranch operation, and prioritize your physical and mental health, which is your most important asset when working in agriculture. So what is stress? Stress is typically defined as a state of physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension resulting from difficult or demanding circumstances. Stress is made apparent in a variety of ways as a person responds physically, mentally, or emotionally to these existing pressures or concerns. Each person is affected differently by stress, and becoming familiar with common ways that stress affects a person is helpful. How do you know that you're feeling stressed? Well you may notice physical symptoms of stress such as having digestive troubles, feeling unable to sleep, getting a headache or experiencing tension in your neck or back muscles. For someone else, they may notice mental or emotional signs of stress such as having a sense of confusion or anxiety, feeling discouraged or not wanting to face the day, or having a sense of hopelessness about conditions on your farm operation. Recognizing signs of stress is an important first step in understanding how to manage the experience of heightened stress on the farmer ranch. Each person who is affected by stress is going to respond physically, mentally, or emotionally in different ways to such pressures. Taking yourself a regular self-check with regard to your stress level is important, both to be aware of your own experience with stress and to think about what steps you can take to stay out of the high stress zone. Privately, think about where you might be in the stress zone on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being low and 8, 9, or 10 being high. Now this might vary at work, at home, or on a given day, so you want to assess where you are in general, maybe rather than at a specific time. It's not uncommon for people to get into the high stress zone on a fairly regular basis, but you want to return to the low stress zone if you can. If you're consistently at a 6, 7, or particularly 8, 9, 10, or above in the high stress zone, then you need to consider getting a checkup with a medical provider. There are a variety of unique pressures that can occur in farming, ranching, or agricultural work that can result in feeling stressed. These pressures are not exactly the same on every farm or ranch operation. Commodity prices and weather are typically considered the twin towers of stress in farming and ranching. But farm and ranch stresses can come from many directions, including low prices for commodities or livestock, outside obligations in a smaller rural community, machinery breaking down or related difficulties, storms or weather concerns, difficulty with spouse, children or parents, running into town for medicine or apart to fix equipment, struggles with finances, just long hours, fatigue, and getting worn out, meeting with a loan officer, conflict with a family member, partner, employees or others, physical or mental health concerns or succession planning. When a variety of stresses come together, this can lead to what we call a pile up of stresses that can leave you feeling overwhelmed or uncertain of how to cope. Some of the pressures that occur in the agricultural industry are unique and beyond a person's control, which can be difficult and lead to feelings of frustration or even helplessness. Some of these unique pressures, often beyond a person's immediate control, include weather difficulties that affect crops or livestock and market prices that vary without warning. Because of this pattern, focusing on what you can do to control how you respond to stressful conditions is perhaps the most important thing you can do to manage such stresses. In other words, taking care of yourself is critical to being able to take care of the stresses affecting you or your farm operation. This cyclical model indicates how stress often develops in agricultural contexts, such as farming and ranching, and then impacts farming operations, individuals, families, and communities. Rural stress can have a challenging effect on individuals and families due to the many pressures that interact with each other. Individuals and families who work in agriculture are tightly linked to the agricultural system and pressures in the agricultural system, such as difficulties in getting crops shipped or weather that slows down the planting season, then lead towards stresses on the farm financial situation or the family financial situation. Economic stresses occurring in the farm financial setting or the family financial setting, such as concern about getting an operating loan or making a house payment, can then raise challenges and stress levels for individuals, leading to heightened levels of personal stress that have physical, emotional, and mental impacts. Individuals who are experiencing increased personal stresses, such as anxiety, depression, or physical fatigue, may find themselves having greater difficulties or conflicts in their family or business relationships. You may be more irritable with a spouse or find it harder to work with business partners and make decisions on the farm operation. Stresses or conflicts experienced in relationships with others may generate further stress or unhealthy outcomes, such as relationship difficulties, parenting difficulties, frustration or stress for children, or less involvement in the community. A healthy response to stresses occurring due to challenges in agriculture is to pay attention to all aspects of this system and find coping strategies and resources that are useful in each area. The twin sources of farm financial concerns and family financial challenges can generate a lot of pressures that cause uncertainty or challenging to manage and increased feelings of being frustrated or overwhelmed. Any clear sense of specific stress points can be important as you consider your farm financial situation. So what are some of the specific issues that individual farmers and ranchers and their families deal with in the farm financial situation that can result in feeling stressed? One of the first is a decline in net farm ranch income. In other words, the money that is spent on fuel, fertilizer, seed, or other input costs is not offset by the revenue from what is produced on the farm. A second concern is the debt to asset ratio of the farm operation. Is the operation able to meet debt payments and is there any flexibility in making adjustments if that is needed? A third concern tends to be cash flow on the farm operation, which tends to have an impact on family financial patterns and such money decisions as transportation or the need to work an extra job. Another concern is arranging financing, where you may need to work with a loan officer to determine plans and options for the coming year with regard to financing your production efforts. Another area is that there often is complicated or strained decision making. People tend to have a tendency to make worse decisions when they are under stress and become more isolated and individualistic in their decision making rather than engaging support from others. Other challenges may include just dealing with factors outside your control such as commodity prices or market difficulties or the persistence of a problem in which you are dealing with a challenging situation for an extended period of time. Sometimes we avoid developing a detailed understanding of the farm financial situation in seeking to avoid stress, but good information and awareness of your farm's financial picture is helpful in working with others to develop options and strategies for moving forward or making decisions. Family financial challenges can also generate a lot of pressures that are difficult to manage and increase feelings of frustration or stress. There are also a variety of specific issues that individual farmers and ranchers and their families deal with in the family financial situation that can result in stress. With regard to the family financial situation, the most basic concern is the ability to meet family living expenses, although that is making a mortgage or rent payment, putting gas in the truck or supporting kids with school expenses. Another common stress related to the family financial situation is long hours as one person may work two or three jobs or there are struggles in balancing work efforts and family time or opportunities. A mental and emotional stress that farmers may deal with is a sense of inadequacy due to economic difficulties. They may feel that they are not doing a good job in fulfilling the role of providing for themselves or the family, even though there are many factors that are beyond their control. Finally, if it comes to the point that an individual or family is facing the challenge of having to leave the farm, there is often a sense of generational legacy that exists and the stress of being the person that may need to end that legacy. If a farm operation has been in the family for 50, 70 or 100 years, this sense of generational obligation can be strong and you have to work through the stress that occurs in this circumstance. In the context of understanding farm and ranch stress, there are a couple of final key points that are most important. First, it is critical to remember and understand that your health is your most important asset as a farmer or rancher. Your health is what allows you to function every day, make decisions and manage all aspects of your farm operation. Your health is the key to managing your stress and good stress management is good farm management. The most important thing to do when dealing with stress is to just get checked and access resources that can exist with your health and stress management. If you as an individual feel a need to access physical or mental health supports or services or if a person feels concerned about you or you feel concerned about an individual may be under stress and have difficulty coping, connect with or refer somebody to a local health care provider. Most rural communities have access to a health care provider and health care providers typically deal with a wide range of health issues whether physical or mental or emotional health and can help you take next steps in attending to your health. Others you may connect with or refer to include a counselor, clergy member, medical professional, social worker or local law enforcement. There are a variety of other useful resources available to assist with health and stress management. If you as an individual feel a need to access mental health supports or services or if a person feels concerned about an individual that here she knows who is under stress and may have difficulty coping or has suicidal feelings, the resources listed here provide a starting point for information in North Dakota and the upper Midwest. To begin with you can call the 211 helpline number 24 hours a day which is staffed by individuals and counselors who can provide information, services, referrals or crisis counseling. Additionally, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available at any time by calling 1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-273-8255. Please don't hesitate to call on your own behalf or on behalf of someone you know or are concerned about. Remember your health and the health of others needs to be your first priority. The NDSU Extension Farm Stress Website also has a wealth of resources on farm stress that you can access and it can be accessed at www.ag.ndsu.edu backslash farm ranch stress. This concludes video number one in the series, Understanding and Managing Stresses in Farming and Ranching. Thank you for viewing this resource. We encourage you to seek out further understanding on farm and ranch stress by viewing the other short educational videos in this series. These and other educational resources can be accessed on the NDSU Extension YouTube channel or on the NDSU Farm Stress Website. This educational resource has been supported and brought to you by the North Dakota Soybean Council and NDSU Extension, Extending Knowledge, Changing Lives.