Agricultural anxiety

Finance
with Don Fraser
Fraser Farm Finance

 Ruminations of an Old Fart.

I was recently chairing a meeting of senior people who were listening to a prominent doctor talking about heart health. The underlying feeling, I got from the group was that of anxiety.

When you look at agriculture, as it is now, there is so much pressure on farmers it is mind blowing. They are being lambasted by the government, the media and even their dairy factories are judging them now to comply. Then there is Health and Safety and their requirements, and the list goes on, too long to detail here.

My last blog in this paper was ‘farmers please stop apologising for being farmers’ really epitomised how they feel.

The real things that make farmers anxious also include:

  • Shortage of feed
  • Skinny livestock
  • Unhealthy livestock (cow down, dead cows, poor quality replacements)
  • Failed/poor crops
  • Mud and slush
  • Lack of working capital
  • Lack of workers/staffing issues
  • Large debt (very common)
  • Relationship issues
  • What do the neighbours think?

And this list goes on and on. Put on top of that the uncertainty of Covid, inflation, sky rocketing costs and land values, and you can see why ‘agricultural anxiety’ is at a high level.

Yes, I could go on and on about cause and effect and all the issues farmers face, but I am more interested in support and solutions for anxious farmers.

I was given a book about 25 years ago and it was life changing for me. It helped me review how I saw life and the world. ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ by David J Schwartz PhD. I have used this book extensively in presentations to farmers and professional people alike throughout New Zealand. It was a ‘game changer’ as they say.

It is probably about thinking clearer and better than thinking big, so here we go…

And I quote: “Believe you can succeed, and you will. Every human being wants success. When you believe I can do it, the ‘how’ to do it develops.”

Learn how successful people approach problems and make good decisions.

Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life. The following points might help you:

  1. Think success, don’t think failure.
  2. Believe big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief.
  3. Remind yourself regularly, that you are better than you think, or your teacher told you, you were.
  4. Add your own training programme so you can focus on what you need to do to succeed with an action plan to follow.

Nothing, absolutely nothing in this life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you are on the road to success and achievement.

We need to push back on all the noise and fear and anxiety that is pervading our lives and agriculture today.

We need to build confidence and destroy fear.

Fear and anxiety are why millions of people accomplish nothing and enjoy very little. 

We can make mental monsters out of almost anything and we do! 

In summary you can see where I am going with this. We are surrounded by difficult and fearful stuff that makes us anxious.

We need to reprogramme what we are telling ourselves and only talk about positive stuff.

So, there are some ruminations of an Old Fart around agricultural anxiety.

Disclaimer – these are the opinions of Don Fraser (an Old Fart). Any decisions made should not be based on this article along and appropriate professional assistance should be sought.

Don Fraser is the retired Principal of Fraser Farm Finance and was a consultant to the farming industry for many decades. You can still contact him on: 021 777 675

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