Are you all depressed ?

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I've been lucky enough to have a bit of a family holiday recently with lockdown restrictions ending and I've also spent a lot more time with none farming friends and reduced my time talking farming online a fair bit. After a period where that has been hard to do it's easy to forget just how important such breaks and time away are for mental health and wellbeing. Time to rest and reflect and enjoy life rather than simpy "get through" it

What has REALLY struck me in that time is that pretty much all farmers are utterly miserable, down / negative on pretty much everything, anything and everyone

This despite being one of the groups least affected by covid 19 and its restrictions, living in the relative freedom of the beautiful British countryside and enjoying some of the best prices we have seen in quite some time, even the weather hasn't been so terrible recently!


It's like when individuals are suffering from proper clinical depression, there is just nothing you can say or do that they will not find the problem with. This forum and Twitter overflow with negativity. I swear if every farmer in the UK was offered a £100k bonus tomorrow the news would be met with skepticism and many would find a way to say it was probably a bad thing !


I really think things have been so bad, for so long, for so many that most of this industry is damaged and has forgotten how to smile ?


Does UK ag need some collective counseling to snap us out of this spiral of depression ? how does an entire industry drag itself out of negativity ?

Maybe it all starts individually ? maybe ask yourself if you could benefit from some help ? Suicide rates in Farmings are shocking, is this why ? Is the problem maybe not everyone and everything else but maybe us ?
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I think that as farmers we are put under immense pressure from every angle. We put all the risk in and are at the mercy of everyone. How could you not be slightly depressed turning the news on every day to hear how irresponsible we are ( trying to feed everyone)


But does this just promote a victim culture in the industry - If you step back and read a lot of threads here and posts on Twitter farmers always seem to cast themselves as the victim?


It may well be true that we often are but is it a case of becoming what you feel you are and would a more positive approach help change our outcomes ?
 

marco

Member
I've been lucky enough to have a bit of a family holiday recently with lockdown restrictions ending and I've also spent a lot more time with none farming friends and reduced my time talking farming online a fair bit. After a period where that has been hard to do it's easy to forget just how important such breaks and time away are for mental health and wellbeing. Time to rest and reflect and enjoy life rather than simpy "get through" it

What has REALLY struck me in that time is that pretty much all farmers are utterly miserable, down / negative on pretty much everything, anything and everyone

This despite being one of the groups least affected by covid 19 and its restrictions, living in the relative freedom of the beautiful British countryside and enjoying some of the best prices we have seen in quite some time, even the weather hasn't been so terrible recently!


It's like when individuals are suffering from proper clinical depression, there is just nothing you can say or do that they will not find the problem with. This forum and Twitter overflow with negativity. I swear if every farmer in the UK was offered a £100k bonus tomorrow the news would be met with skepticism and many would find a way to say it was probably a bad thing !


I really think things have been so bad, for so long, for so many that most of this industry is damaged and has forgotten how to smile ?


Does UK ag need some collective counseling to snap us out of this spiral of depression ? how does an entire industry drag itself out of negativity ?

Maybe it all starts individually ? maybe ask yourself if you could benefit from some help ? Suicide rates in Farmings are shocking, is this why ? Is the problem maybe not everyone and everything else but maybe you ?
Will you ever get down off your high horse. And don't be taring us all with the same brush
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Will you ever get down off your high horse. And don't be taring us all with the same brush


Sorry if my OPINION offends you, but I don't apologize for having one


You sound tense? Defensive ? are you Ok ? ask yourself why respond as you just have ? If you didn't like what I posted why just not ignore it ? You're kind of proving my opinion here with that post !
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I’m presently cutting a bit out and rejoining the canvas belt of a 60 year old Lainchbury elevator in readiness for harvest. To be honest I don’t know whether it’s madness, a hobby, depression or satisfaction. That will depend on how long it works after pressing the button.
Like that belt, I think many of us have stretched it and stretched it till it will stretch no more, generally not wanting to be ones that lost “the empire” or didn’t give the next lot a chance to carry on or inherit it tax free.
It’s a difficult one. It’s high stakes nowadays particularly if you are small. Mistakes can be financially very serious so it’s hardly surprising we are a bit grumpy.
I’ll admit we do need to look on the bright side a bit more often though.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
To be fair we spend most of our lives with everyone telling us we are wrong and generally c*nts 😂 whilst we spend our days grafting to provide essential stuff that most folk don’t even associate with us and the rest reckon is destroying their planet. 😂
and they let their septic tanks grey liquid empty into our fields, through disfunctional non existent 'soakaways' :rolleyes: causing wet patches that are bad enough they will drown a ewe (which it has, and another one contracted pneumonia and died from getting stuck in it ) without worrying about it and making out its the farmers problem .
and yet the estate agent advertises the houses involved as 'having a nice view to fields ,mentioned more than once as a selling point :mad::banghead:

:scratchhead:
 
I don’t know if depressed is the right word. That word crosses a line.

But I think frequently pee’d off would be right for many. And maybe more frequently than ever before.

We’ve sold our small hobby flock of sheep last week. To a great young bloke who is chuffed to have bought them, I’m sure he will take them forward very well, so it’s all good. But Christ, I have been really proper sad about it, like I’d found them all with their feet turned up.

I’ve decided it’s not just that they have gone, more that loads of things have been creeping up on me.

Because when I look at things I have three great kids doing well, a lovely wife (top 2% in fitness at her MOT at the surgery!!!), all my family and friends are well and I have a business that has sold out of fertiliser and has more lime ordered pre season than I’ve ever had.

What’s not to like?
 

Gong Farmer

Member
BASIS
Location
S E Glos
To be fair we spend most of our lives with everyone telling us we are wrong and generally c*nts 😂 whilst we spend our days grafting to provide essential stuff that most folk don’t even associate with us and the rest reckon is destroying their planet. 😂
Just finished a 40-plus year career as an agronomist and the only thing that kept me in the job was the positive feedback and appreciation from farmers I spoke to and dealt with. (Yes there was negative feedback as well but you need a bit of that to stay 'mean and lean').
Farmers themselves must rarely get any of this, so little career incentive in that respect and maybe any depression comes from a perceived lack of purpose.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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