PhD Student (Ex-Farmers Son) Researching Mental Health in Dairy Farmers. Looking for Participants

[Joe Goodenough]

Hello Everyone,

I hope you can help me out, I am currently doing a PhD and need 10 Farmers and 10 farmers close acquaintances (Partners, Parents, Children over 18, friends) who would be interested in doing an interview.

Before I discuss the project I thought I would explain why I am interested in this topic area. My father has now packed up dairy farming this all started with us receiving notice on our tenancy in the summer of 2020 (not an uncommon occurrence these days). I was back and forth from university and week by week started to notice the stress and impact this life-changing period was having on my entire family. After my undergraduate, and not seeing farming as an option, I decided to start a PhD investigating the causes and solutions to mental health in dairy farmers.

So why am I reaching out to you?

I don't want to be one of these researchers who goes out into the world and tells everyone that there is a problem with mental health, we know that. what I think we are missing is the input from those individuals with lived experience of the industry both positive and negative, and that understand what it is like to be a dairy farmer. If taking part is of interest to you please send me a message.

Thank you very much,

Best wishes,

Joe

 

[frederick]

@farmer on a bike
Am I right that you have a soon to be published paper on more or less exactly this that might be helpful.

 

[kfpben]

As a former dairy worker I’d say it’s all related to sleep deprivation. Being permanently exhausted is not good for health, mental or physical. On a twice a day milking set up, with night checks, it’s pretty much impossible to get adequate sleep.

 

[farmer on a bike]

Hello Everyone,

I hope you can help me out, I am currently doing a PhD and need 10 Farmers and 10 farmers close acquaintances (Partners, Parents, Children over 18, friends) who would be interested in doing an interview.

Before I discuss the project I thought I would explain why I am interested in this topic area. My father has now packed up dairy farming this all started with us receiving notice on our tenancy in the summer of 2020 (not an uncommon occurrence these days). I was back and forth from university and week by week started to notice the stress and impact this life-changing period was having on my entire family. After my undergraduate, and not seeing farming as an option, I decided to start a PhD investigating the causes and solutions to mental health in dairy farmers.

So why am I reaching out to you?

I don't want to be one of these researchers who goes out into the world and tells everyone that there is a problem with mental health, we know that. what I think we are missing is the input from those individuals with lived experience of the industry both positive and negative, and that understand what it is like to be a dairy farmer. If taking part is of interest to you please send me a message.

Thank you very much,

Best wishes,

Joe

My dissertation work on my MBA use both quantitative (480 responses)) and qualitative (22 interviews) looks at the reason dairy farmers give up dairy farming and particularly the link to mental well-being, working with a couple of others in my university department we have now submitted a paper for publication. I will contact you directly.

 

[FarmerPerspectives]

Hello Joe, I'm also writing a dissertation on a losely similar subject; justice/fairness in sustainable agricultural changes in the UK. The idea being sustainability changes are supposed to help people, but often farmer interests/livelihoods are not properly considered.

I'm also doing qualitative data collection. I wondered if you had any tips on contacting farmers (both livestock, arable, and mixed). I don't live in the UK any more, nor have direct personal connects to farmers so I wondered if there were other places, similar to this forum, that you know of that might have people interested in calls (or answering a survey if it's easier for them).