Farm and Ranch Stress

Agriculture is an occupation full of potential stressors like weather, changing economic markets, animal health and machinery breakdowns. When these start to compound, many farmers experience excessive amounts of stress, making it hard to remain positive and move forward through the hard times.

Due in part to the stresses that are faced, agricultural workers have high rates of suicide. The loss of a spouse, parent, sibling, child or friend can be avoided. If you or someone you know is experiencing excessive stress or thoughts of suicide, please reach out to a confidential crisis support line.

I believe wholeheartedly that it’s important for all of us to be able to recognize the signs of extreme stress – that’s why I jumped in to start this program in Oregon. I personally know individuals who were very thankful that someone cared enough about them to 1) notice that something wasn’t right, 2) ask them about it, and 3) help them get help. We’re offering some special trainings that are focused on giving you the tools you need to do the same thing: recognize signs that someone might be too stressed and struggling, talk to them about it, and assist them in getting the help they need.

These trainings are called Question, Persuade, and Refer, or QPR trainings. They’re kind of like CPR, but instead of being for emergency medical intervention, QPR is designed for emergency mental health intervention. These QPR trainings that we’re offering are farmer-centric; they are full of statistics and information about the agricultural community. I would highly encourage anyone who farms or ranches, or works with farmers and ranchers, to take this course. It’s only 90 minutes of your life, but it will provide you with the tools that could help you help someone else who’s considering suicide.

I should point out that none of us who are providing this training are mental health professionals; part of the toolkit is helping you find local resources that you can refer someone to.

Here’s a link to the QPR Trainings. We’re offering 4 more trainings, but each training is limited to 20 people, and spots are filling up fairly quickly. We’ll offer more if needed. The training dates are:

March 16, 9:00 – 10:30am
April 6, 12:00 – 1:30pm
April 29, 6:00 – 7:30pm
June 3, 4:00 – 5:30pm

Temple Grandin on Low Stress Cattle Handling

Is Acting Like a Predator Low Stress Cattle Handling?

Progressive ranchers and feedlot operators work hard to reduce stress on cattle during handling. They may wonder how mimicking the initial stalking movements of a predator can be a low stress way to gather cattle on large pastures. The methods are described in my article “Low Stress Methods for Moving and Herding Cattle on Pastures” that appears on my webpage at http://www.grandin.com (GREAT article!). What people don’t realize is that the animal common low stress cattle handling principles such as entering the flight zone to make an animal move and using the point of balance to control the animal’s direction of movement are all based on instinctual behavior patterns that the animals use to escape from predators.

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Weaning management of beef calves

Weaning is considered one of the most stressful periods in the productive life of a beef calf. During the weening process, calves are exposed to various stressors that include removal from their dam, physiological changes (actively developing lean tissue or muscle), castration, vaccination, dehorning, exposure to novel pen or pasture environments, possible changes in feed and water sources, and for many spring-born calves, exposure to season climate changes.

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A New Meat School Coming to a Town or Computer Near You!

In October of last year, 50 farmers and ranchers attended the first ever Meat School, hosted in person and online by Colorado State University (CSU) and the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN). The school included 6 classes, covering marketing, production, and processing topics considered critical for direct marketing high-quality meat. Inspired by the format and topics of the OSU Grassfed Meat School held in Central Point, OR in 2018, NMPAN and CSU adapted the school to serve a wider audience and be available online.

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Farmers: Consider Individual Development Accounts to help you build your farm business

Dreams and goals are powerful things to have. They allow us to act today in support of becoming our best and higher selves tomorrow. For many Oregonians, there is not a clear and direct path to reaching their dreams or achieving future life goals. What if there were a program that could help create a plan, map out the steps and provide some financial support to get you closer to your goals?

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