August 2019 - 5

STRESS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
action items to dial down growers'
stress levels.
Action items
" You can't just have a woe-is-me,
touchy-feely kind of meeting, " Goldy
said. " You
want people to
go away with
some actions
that they can
do, because
people are, in
general, actionoriented.
And
they need to
be able to take
RON GOLDY
something home with them, saying,
'OK, I can do this.' "
Some action items highlighted by
Goldy's speakers include hiring and
keeping good seasonal retail staff, and
creating value-added products to pad
the farm income. Ruth Ann Roney of
Tuttle Farms (see Page 10) will give
a lecture on how to sell fruits and
vegetables online. Ben Hartman, an
author writing about farm efficiency,
will speak on
minimizing
waste and
maximizing
value on farms.
Hartman and
his wife earn
a living while
cultivating just
half an acre of
land at Clay
BEN HARTMAN
Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana.
" While hard work is a virtue, so is
finding a healthy life-work balance, "
according to an email from Hartman.
Some families can reduce future
or current stress by creating a farm
succession plan.
Paige J. Pratt knows the importance
of farm succession planning from
experience. Her own family farm
transition led to moving the Pratt
Cattle Co. from Virginia to Kansas and
back again.
Pratt - who now works as a
succession planner - said the young and
old alike stress out over the process.
" As young farmers are taking on debt
and trying to plan for their future - if
there's uncertainty in that future of where
they stand or what they might stand to
inherit at the end of the day, then it can
lead to not only a lot of stress for a young
person but if it's a married couple, it can
lead to a lot of stress in their marriage, "
Pratt said. " For the older generation,
it's stressful, because you don't want to
disappoint any of your children. "
She encourages farm owners to talk
with their children about succession
as early as
possible, and
to put their
decisions
in writing.
In her own
family's case,
a transition
facilitator
helped to write
a buy-purchase
agreement and establish a limited
liability company, and in the end,
still gets along, " she said.
Real emotion
Weather, labor availability and even
price-setting may be out of growers'
control, but they can and should get
emotional support when they're stressed
by them.
Goldy explained some of the common
stressors: " I don't know of any other
industry that works this way, but farmers
are not able to tell a buyer what the cost
is. The buyer tells the farmer what they're
going to pay them. The price that the
farmer gets has not gone up to the extent
Warm, wet seasons are very conducive to disease development in blueberries and other
fruit crops. Waterlogged fields such as this one have been a common sight this year.
that the farmer's costs have gone up. "
Labor necessary for harvests is scarcer
and more expensive. Increased regulation
of farms also is mostly out of their hands.
While growers face stressful
situations for completely
understandable reasons, many are slow
to talk about it or otherwise express
emotion, he said. However, those
conversations need to happen.
Goldy, who is encouraging growers
PAIGE J. PRATT
to bring their spouses to his education
sessions, emphasized that family
members need to keep talking to
each other and their faith-based
guided the family to a happy ending.
" Everybody still talks - everybody
organizations, surrounding themselves
" with people that care for them. "
A variety of resources are available for
help (read Gary Pullano's column, " Help
where it's needed, " on Page 4). Nonprofit
group Farm Aid - famous for its starstudded
fundraising concerts - operates
a phone hotline specifically for farmers.
Struggling growers can call 1-800-FARMAID
(1-800-327-6243) 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST
to talk to farm advocate Joe Schroeder and
other Farm Aid staff.
Such discussions might include a
simple sharing of grief.
Bill Grabemeyer, a fruit grower near
Dowagiac, Michigan, will speak at the
EXPO about " Preparing for Life Before
and After the Auction. " Farm auctions
are often associated with the end of the
family business.
" Whenever that happens, there is a
price to pay emotionally, " Grabemeyer
said. There is a grieving process similar
to divorce or
other tragic
life events,
he said, with
the associated
stages that
include denial,
bargaining,
and ultimately
acceptance and
growth.
Farm auctions don't always go well -
BILL GRABEMEYER
some require sheriff escorts. Others, he
said, have unfortunately been followed
by suicide.
It should never be that way,
Grabemeyer said. The farmer is, in his
words, " the most valuable thing at a
farm auction that never gets bid on. "
" My goal is that no one that faces
a forced auction goes the route of
suicide, but still understands that they
have inherent value as a person, and
are willing to accept that and grow
from whatever it was that caused that
situation, " he said. FGN
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August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2019
