Farming is not just Cows and Plows

When you think about farming and ranching, what first comes to mind? Maybe, farmers working in the field or ranchers feeding their cattle? Plain and simple. Before August 2017, that was mainly what I thought about. Of course, I thought about the economy, the stock markets, financial issues, and how carefully they take care of their animals and equipment; however, I never considered the mental health of a farmer or rancher. I knew that struggles were a real thing, but it never effected my family until it happened to us.

Life changed in August. My uncle decided to 'throw in' his favorite hot shot and quit living his dreams. Sometimes the burden of farming and ranching is too much, unfortunately. 75 other farmers took their lives in 2017 in the Midwest states, according to USA Today.

Pictured: My dad planting soybeans in 2020.

Farmers and ranchers are bombarded with economic crisis every year. Key commodity prices have decreased, farm debt has jumped to amounts that haven’t been seen since the 1980s, 20 million acres were not able to get planted last year due to bad weather and soybean exports from China dropped 75% … WOW! Now, this is something that the whole world was aware of, so why is agricultural suicide something we do not think of? I honestly cannot answer that question, and I am ashamed to say that.

“Farmers, ranchers and agriculture workers are experiencing severe stress and high rates of suicide,” said U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who sponsored the bipartisan bill to fund the initiative. “Unfortunately, Washington has been slow to recognize the challenges that farmers are facing.”

It is scary to realize how so many people do not see the situation occurring. Our leaders of the world do not even recognize the problem ranchers and farmers are dealing with, and that was before COVID-19 was occurring.

According to USA Today, "More than 450 farmers killed themselves across nine Midwestern states from 2014 to 2018." Some states did not even record their suicidal rates, so there could be more that we are unaware of. These are things I had no clue about until my uncle passed away. I always knew farmers and ranchers were facing difficulties with tarrfis and the markets, but never realized how much their mental health is affected by it.

Farmers and rancher’s suicide rate are double of a veterans suicide rate.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Agricultural suicide is a nationwide problem, not just in the US. According to TheGuardian.com,

“The US farmer suicide crisis echoes a much larger farmer suicide crisis happening globally: an Australian farmer dies by suicide every four days; in the UK, one farmer a week takes his or her own life; in France, one farmer dies by suicide every two days; in India, more than 270,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995.”

These statistics are SCARY but unfortunately true.

Most people think that the Federal Aid that is ‘handed out’ to farmers should make everything better… well, jokes on them. It only makes things a little better. But, do not get me wrong living in a farming and ranching family, the Federal Aid, does help. The CFAP.1 and CFAP.2 has been beneficial to what we are facing during the National Pandemic Crisis of COVID-19.

But, it just not the economic stress and let-downs, it is also the family stress that can occur and letting your family down can be one of the worst feelings to a person. To me, letting my family down is something I never want to do, but I know things happen in life that is uncontrollable. Family farms are the hardest things to deal with. If the farm needs to sell ground due to money loss or debt, you feel like you are letting everyone down. Ty Higgins, spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau discusses how when you feel like you are letting your family down, you also feel like you are letting your family legacy down.

I do not know about you, but my family legacy is important to me. I can be three counties away from home and people will know my great-grandpa and will be able to tell me stories about the ‘good ol’ days’. Letting down someone I did not even get to meet is something I do never want to do. All because of a family legacy, a generational farm/ranch.

My uncle had a wife and two kids, the last thing he wanted to do is let the people he loved so much and created a family with down. I could go on and on about this topic, but maybe we will save that for another day, another blog?

My grandpa, Clifford Charles Miller,

working cattle, February 2020.

In the 1980s farm crisis, more than 900 farmers died due to suicide in five midwestern states. All of a sudden hotlines went up all over the place, trying to help farmers with stress. But, after the farm crisis surpassed, the hotlines did too. The help for farmers dried up… like it was only a one-time thing? Silly people.

This is just the first of three blog posts. As we discuss agricultural suicide, we will discuss the major hotlines that are being used for agricultural suicide. But, a hotline… when you think of your grandpa, do you think he would pick up a hotline to tell someone he was upset? I do not know if mine would do such a thing… In all reality, I would just want him to call me though, because I know how he is. (Papa, I hope you are not reading this one…)

I am sharing my story with you, not because I want you to feel bad for me and my family or to feel bad for the ranchers and farmers; however, I am sharing this for you know to reach out to your family members facing problems and struggles in the agricultural industry. Or even family members that are not in the agricultural industry. Reach out and care for them.

Remember it is just not all about cows and plows, farmers and rancher’s mental health play a vital role while taking care of those cows and running those plows.