Is the farming press contributing to stress and anxiety?

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I can't help but wonder whether certain sectors of the farming press are escalating feelings of personal stress and worry.

For those of us with limited time to socialise or spend time away from the farm one of our few insights into the 'wider world' is the few minutes we get to read the farming press.

In my own experience the reports I read bear little resemblance to my own business. Typical yields beyond what I could hope to achieve. Machinery reports that make out the norm for spending on one piece of kit is more than the aggregate value of my entire fleet. Technology that seems to have no added value for my business yet reading the article suggests I am a Luddite if I don't use it. And really a general feeling of being left behind.

In reality though I don't feel we are doing too bad and farming friends are in a similar place with fragile confidence.

I have today cancelled my last farming publication and have signed up to a completely different magazine.

I hope this will lead to a more positive attitude and feeling of wellbeing rather than an all too often feeling of inadequacy when scanning the farm press.

Am I the only one who feels like this?

 

[Happy]

Farming press always been full of everyone's local willy wavers.
When it's your willy waver you take them with a pinch of salt.
It's because you don't know the majority of them that doubts set in.
If you feel ok about how you are doing that's all that matters.

Just remember a few of them sometimes feature nearer the back pages a few years later due to a "restructuring of the business"

 

[s~~t shoveller]

I/we were left behind years ago so i am past caring now!i under stand what you mean exactly though.

 

[spin cycle]

don't read any except the yellow bits of farmers guide, sometimes fen tiger and scan ag bit of edp

late 90s.or early noughties.....i rang up farmers guide and asked them not to send it to me anymore as i was getting pee'd off with a certain up and coming nfu chap who ,as a columnist, was extolling the virtues of farm assurance....bet you can't guess who that was

edit....clue....member on here who can't work the emoji bar

 

[Yale]

Scan the FG,FW however the real barometer is here.

 

[DrWazzock]

There are a lot of sensationalist doom laden headlines which don't help either, like the alleged shortage of straw. It all adds to those niggling pressures and I could do without them.

We fell way behind on the kit front years ago and no longer take any notice of the hi tech toys on offer. Our bull/tup didn't cost £50,000 either.

Glad to be just bumbling along.

 

[Feldspar]

I can't help but wonder whether certain sectors of the farming press are escalating feelings of personal stress and worry.

For those of us with limited time to socialise or spend time away from the farm one of our few insights into the 'wider world' is the few minutes we get to read the farming press.

In my own experience the reports I read bear little resemblance to my own business. Typical yields beyond what I could hope to achieve. Machinery reports that make out the norm for spending on one piece of kit is more than the aggregate value of my entire fleet. Technology that seems to have no added value for my business yet reading the article suggests I am a Luddite if I don't use it. And really a general feeling of being left behind.

In reality though I don't feel we are doing too bad and farming friends are in a similar place with fragile confidence.

I have today cancelled my last farming publication and have signed up to a completely different magazine.

I hope this will lead to a more positive attitude and feeling of wellbeing rather than an all too often feeling of inadequacy when scanning the farm press.

Am I the only one who feels like this?

I think you put your finger very neatly on the pulse here. I was just reading the FW earlier and that was exactly what I perceived as I read through it. I think, whether by design or not, a lot of the supply industry relies on a psychological technique called anchoring. Set the zero point at 12 t/ha average of wheat and it's a lot easier to sell chemicals that help alleviate the fear of getting a yield less than this set norm. It's well known in psychology that humans overweight losses relative to gains, and so if the bar is set high everything is a potential loss thus making it much easier to persuade people to spend their money.

 

[Clive]

I can't help but wonder whether certain sectors of the farming press are escalating feelings of personal stress and worry.

For those of us with limited time to socialise or spend time away from the farm one of our few insights into the 'wider world' is the few minutes we get to read the farming press.

In my own experience the reports I read bear little resemblance to my own business. Typical yields beyond what I could hope to achieve. Machinery reports that make out the norm for spending on one piece of kit is more than the aggregate value of my entire fleet. Technology that seems to have no added value for my business yet reading the article suggests I am a Luddite if I don't use it. And really a general feeling of being left behind.

In reality though I don't feel we are doing too bad and farming friends are in a similar place with fragile confidence.

I have today cancelled my last farming publication and have signed up to a completely different magazine.

I hope this will lead to a more positive attitude and feeling of wellbeing rather than an all too often feeling of inadequacy when scanning the farm press.

Am I the only one who feels like this?

they exist for one reason - TO SELL YOU STUFF

never forget that when you read them, every world is written to make you think that if you used product X or bought machine Y you too could be as successful as those farmers who seem to control the weather and never grow a crop that doesn't break yet a new world record

don't fall for it and don't feel inadequate for a moment, its all mostly bullshite

 

[Feldspar]

they exist for one reason - TO SELL YOU STUFF

never forget that when you read them, every world is written to make you think that if you used product X or bought machine Y you too could be as successful as those farmers who seem to control the weather and never grow a crop that doesn't break yet a new world record

don't fall for it and don't feel inadequate for a moment, its all mostly bullshite

More succinct than what I said and spot on too. Read the "This is going to be a bad phoma year" article with a chuckle after having seen the data I sent you a few days ago.

 

[Clive]

I think you put your finger very neatly on the pulse here. I was just reading the FW earlier and that was exactly what I perceived as I read through it. I think, whether by design or not, a lot of the supply industry relies on a psychological technique called anchoring. Set the zero point at 12 t/ha average of wheat and it's a lot easier to sell chemicals that help alleviate the fear of getting a yield less than this set norm. It's well known in psychology that humans overweight losses relative to gains, and so if the bar is set high everything is a potential loss thus making it much easier to persuade people to spend their money.

Ag marketing is based on fear of loss - "use Deter or get BYDV" etc - its everywhere once you start to notice it. Its also based on fear of not keeping up "buy a big tractor or your neighbours will laugh at you"

It's very negative but clearly works in selling stuff to farmers

 

[ARW]

I hate the willy waving, looks what's in my shed! Yes.... half a million a year in depreciation!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Cancelled the farmers guardian and farmers weekly last year and have to say I haven't missed them one bit
Despite both companies constantly ringing up to try and get me to renew they've been told I won't be

 

[CornishTone]

I don't get the British farming press anymore but I do keep up with UK Ag stories in other media outlets and I have to say there's never any good news stories coming out of the UK with regard to farming.

Whether it's the weather, (which no one can help), or government, or public perception, or prices, or TB, or subsidies (reaches for tin hat), it's all doom and gloom. The press in general are disinclined to write good news stories or useful/educational stories so I can see how this in turn contributes to overall stress and anxiety. I get depressed reading them and I'm not even there!

I'd be inclined to ignore the gutter press in all it's forms, Ag related or otherwise, and subscribe to a relevant scientific journal where you might actually read something relevant and useful.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Ag marketing is based on fear of loss - "use Deter or get BYDV" etc - its everywhere once you start to notice it. Its also based on fear of not keeping up "buy a big tractor or your neighbours will laugh at you"

It's very negative but clearly works in selling stuff to farmers

Bingo!

It is incredibly similar to what you'd find in most women's (and men's) magazines - let's make 'unrealistic' the new 'average' and then sell them stuff while they're not thinking.

Must work incredibly well, "man-made solutions to man-made problems" !

 

[wasted years]

We don't buy a single printed word, not a daily or a weekly, in fact haven't bought a daily paper in 16 years.
I used to have the FW but ended it about 5 yrs ago.
Don't miss them.

 

[ewald]

Be selective in what you read - people complain about rubbish on TV, there is an 'off' button! The press can be treated in the same way - read what is interesting/useful, ignore the rest.
While I agree with much of what has been said on this thread, I think that anyone running a business in a rapidly changing environment does need information to help with decisions - selective use of the press can be useful.

 

[Nearly]

I've got a year's worth of FW from 1987. I read them again and again. The grain prices are the same as 2017 and I still aspire to a fleet of 10 series Fords.

 

[Fiacre]

There are only a few areas of life where I would consider myself to be an 'expert'. Generally, whenever these subjects are covered in the press I mostly see the articles for the tosh they really are.

The choice therefore appears simple. Read the press and be misinformed, or choose not to read the press and be uninformed. I generally choose the latter and feel much happier for it.

 

[gone up the hill]

There are a lot of sensationalist doom laden headlines which don't help either, like the alleged shortage of straw. It all adds to those niggling pressures and I could do without them.

We fell way behind on the kit front years ago and no longer take any notice of the hi tech toys on offer. Our bull/tup didn't cost £50,000 either.

Glad to be just bumbling along.

The front page of yesterdays FG is utterly misleading and shouldn't be allowed!

Not sure what the FG is trying to achieve by claiming straw is so short.

What they should have been doing is suggesting ways farmers can bed their stock without needing straw ( of which their are many ways ) not saying its the worst harvest in living memory which is totally untrue because 2012 was a lot worse than this year, that year I didn't bale any wheat until the last week of Sept and the last of it was baled up wet for a farm just to get it off the field in the first week of Nov for example.

 

[Wooly]

I think if you decide not to read any newspaper or watch any news on the tv, then your stress levels will become lower.

There is nothing I can do about Brexit, terrorist, wars, the level of the pound, or Kim Youg-un, so why worry about it !?!