Cultivating Leadership in Agriculture: The Importance of Mental Health Support

Leadership is an important component of any business and leadership in agriculture is no different. Leaders on the farm or ranch must be able to guide their teams, strategically make plans, make difficult decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances often out of their control. Additionally, effective communication while problem-solving, managing finances, and implementing sustainable farming practices are some of the significant leadership skills asked of farmers and ranchers.

Leaders on farms face challenges that are unique to the agriculture industry:

• Unpredictable weather patterns and climate change can severely impact crop yields and livestock health, requiring farm leaders to adapt and plan for weather-related disruptions.

• Finding and retaining skilled labour can be difficult, especially during peak seasons. Additionally, managing labor costs while ensuring fair wages and working conditions is a constant balancing act.

• Navigating complex agricultural regulations and ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, and labor laws can be time-consuming and challenging, especially as regulations frequently change.

• Economic pressures and market volatility cause prices for crops and livestock to fluctuate dramatically due to global market trends, trade policies, and local supply and demand. Farm leaders must be adept at financial planning and risk management to remain profitable.

• Keeping up with advancements in agricultural technology and integrating new tools and methods into existing practices can be overwhelming. Leaders must invest in training and equipment while balancing the costs and potential benefits.

• Social isolation and rural living also pose a challenge. Long hours spent alone working the fields, living long distances from cities where services and activities take place, poor internet connections, limited access to care, etc. all play a role.

Each of these challenges requires strategic thinking, adaptability, and effective management skills to navigate successfully.

Where Leadership and Mental Health Meet

The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the process and outcome of successfully adapting to challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.

Because leaders face challenges and setbacks throughout their day, it is important to be able to quickly bounce back from these challenges and setbacks while maintaining a positive outlook on life. This positive outlook and attitude not only benefit themselves, but also their team as they motivate and encourage those around them. Some individuals come by this more easily, while others work on it and strive for it daily. Resilient leaders are more effective, build stronger relationships, and adapt better to changes that inevitably come up. Dr. Leith Deacon and Lauren Van Ewyk say it well, in an article for Gateway Rural Health:

Rural resilience is not the absence of challenges, nor is it the ability to move toward and through endless challenges concurrently. Rather, it is the ability to recognize that farming is complex and, at times, lonely. It presents unprecedented challenges and can be incredibly rewarding. Rural resilience requires us to build social capital within our families and communities, advocate for rural-specific policies, and work collectively to support one another in a way that validates a farmer’s contribution.

Whether you are naturally a resilient leader or it is something you are working on or want to work on, mental health issues are increasingly more common for farmers and ranchers.

Common mental health issues faced by agriculture leaders include stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, substance abuse, sleep disorders, PTSD, and chronic pain/physical health issues. Although these issues are common, there is a great stigma around mental health in rural communities. Farmers tend to replace their sense of identity as a farmer, with a diagnosis. The underlying tone from farmers is that “I cannot be a farmer and have a mental health struggle because if I have a mental health struggle that contradicts the persona of ‘salt of the earth’; ‘I can handle it all’” 

In the article, Farmers Fight to Overcome Stigma to Address Mental Health Struggles, Hina Alem states: Research has found that thoughts of suicide were twice as high among farmers than in the general population but often they find themselves silenced by the stigma surrounding mental illness.

With this stigma being so strong in rural communities, how can we better support mental health in farm and ranch leaders?

Strategies for Supporting Mental Health in Farm and Ranch Leaders:

1. Promoting open conversations about mental health. As family members and a community, we can learn to create a safe space to share our stories and express our emotions in a way that is non-judgemental using gentle questioning—especially for men who don’t instinctively do this, as many women would.
2. Implementing regular mental health check-ins. Watch for warning signs such as a change in behaviour. Ask them if they are okay in a simple way such as Hey, I noticed that you’re not yourself. Are you okay? The offer for conversation is on the table and it may be accepted and may not be, but it is on the table and may be accepted at a later time, because you have checked-in and shown you care. 
3. Providing access to mental health resources and support services. Have a list of ag-related mental health resources on hand. (see a helpful list we have curated for you at the end of this article)
4. Encouraging a balanced lifestyle and time management. Plants and animals don’t take time off, so creating a balanced lifestyle on the farm can be challenging. For some, it is helpful to put limits in place on their work day when at all possible. Perhaps it is helpful to have a set morning and evening routine. Start the day with meditation, deep breathing, or a simple cup of coffee and walk, free from technology. Or end your day with a 10-minute wind-down routine of neatening the shop or farm office, or walking around the farm as you transition from your work day to your evening at home with family. Set monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. Maybe that looks like meeting-up with other farmers monthly to share experiences, advice, challenges, successes, and problem-solving. Maybe that looks like a quarterly ‘farm-free’ weekend. Plan a short family trip or staycation or get tickets to an event that interests you. This could also look like annual non-farm goal setting: personal health goals, a new skill or hobby, or professional development where you challenge yourself to read or listen to a book a month.

Farms and ranches need strong leaders so that they are best able to lead their farm teams. In order to be effective leaders mental health needs to be a priority. Let’s support one another in this goal by being there for one another—offering a listening ear, providing hands-on support, and sharing wisdom, knowledge, and resources to help lift each other up in this journey of growth.
Written by Iris Parr, B. Ed, @irisparr

Iris Parr is a wife, mother, teacher and author. She lives in northern Alberta with her husband Jason and daughter Olivia. Their forever 4 ½ year old son, Mikail, passed away unexpectedly in Iris is the Director of Communications at the NFMHA, has recently been accepted into the Masters of Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University and can be found managing their Air BnB: The Urban Cottage, helping renovate their 1946 home, encouraging others on social media: @irisparr, and through her Scripture Writing Devotional Series as well as the Advent Devotional A Thrill of Hope—Finding Hope, Peace, Joy and Love in the Minor Notes of Christmas.

Link to Iris’ books is found HERE.

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