Stress in Agriculture Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. Farmers and ranchers across the country are having significant difficulty finding enough hired help, forcing producers and the few workers they do have to pull double-duty, leading to a build-up of stress on farms and ranches.
Sean Brotherson, Family Science Specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service, says that’s called a “stress pileup,” and it’s a large load to carry…
BROTHERSON … “When you're down, one or multiple laborers that typically would help you on your farm or ranch operation, then those tasks that you might be able to delegate or share with them, start to pile up on you. So, you're spending longer hours, you have less energy, and so you simply start to have a pileup or an accumulation of stress.”
That, Brotherson says leads to what he calls “stress spillover”…
BROTHERSON … “Whereas normally you might be able to say, hey, we've got things on our farm operation managed, we know our timeline for this activity or that activity, it starts to feel like it's spilling over constantly, and you're always on the hook for whatever task is needed for you to manage because there aren't other people to help you manage it.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the importance of managing stress on your farm or ranch.
