A tough farming season calls for a hard look at mental health

To help build confidence and foster self-help, a series of workshops across the state will run for the next fortnight and focus on three key topics: Decision making in adverse times; mental health during adversity; and keeping communities united.

Part of the talk-fest will look at some of the tough questions surrounding future farming and discuss ways forward.

Facilitator Stuart Austin, who also manages the Wilmot grazing enterprise from its Hernani farm, said he dreamt of the idea of such a workshop during the last drought, after an agent friend reported the dire mental attitude of his clients at that time. It wasn't just a few who were hurting.

"This time around we need this sort of forum even more, with falling cattle prices and lack of rainfall," he said.

The focus of each gathering is to educate people who come into contact with farmers including business associates, friends and family to lead the conversation towards mental well being.

"This is about getting the conversation going," he says. "It's about asking how all this is making people feel; bouncing ideas around and surrounding yourself with the right people.

"After all, a problem shared is a problem halved."

Mr Austin says he directly feels the pain of this season, with usually safe country at Hernani via Ebor badly moisture deficient going into summer.

"For six months we never had more than an inch at one time," he said. "But so many places were the same. Things have changed very quickly and this has caught people off guard.

"With the way cattle prices are, no analyst predicted how far they would fall. They've come back 70pc in 12 months. In any other industry that is a massive fall. What we are experiencing could be considered like a Global Financial Crisis event.

"Combine this with inflation. The challenge is really about short term cash flow. How do we pay our bills?"

Mr Austin said some of his friends were regarded as best practice land managers - the most "switched on" - and yet these one-percenters were struggling in the current livestock climate. So how was everyone else coping?

"This idea of holding workshops is about asking the right questions and to steer the conversation that leads to decisions and ways forward.

"This is about people perspective; about bankers taking a step back to ask how a farmer is coping ... to convey empathy rather than just conduct a financial transaction.

"Agents are some of the most trusted people in a farming enterprise.

"When a cockie says 'I'm in a hole', should the agent say, 'I can get you 10c more', or should he be asking how that farmer is coping - this is beyond just selling cattle."

Mr Austin's passion for this project comes as a way of repaying the support he received early in his career.

Those views are shared by livestock producers Stu and Gem Green, Mandurama, via Blayney, who also are prepared to give back, through these workshops, the mental resilience training that was handed to them in the formative years of their lives.

The project is funded from anonymous support.

Locations and dates of these free forums are:

For more information search Facebook for Farmers Helping Our Own.