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How to farm in uncertain times and keep your sanity?

An awesome responsibility of farmers is to reduce risk in a business environment that is inherently competitive and risky. Production has to be good. Cash flow is important. Marketing is crucial. The potential is there to make good money and have really good years.
The downside is that farming can have major losses even when the decisions are sound. It is a nervy, high-stress way of making a living. Add how farmers love their profession and way of life, and you have high emotions entering the decision-making process. Volatility in the markets and tougher-than-normal weather wears on everybody.

What to plant? When to plant? How to market? How to deal with equipment repair and replacement? What to spray and when? Fertilizers? Major land purchases? Is there enough work and income to support additional families? What about new technology and new ideas?

Some farmers may develop excessive worry or anxiety about their fears and decision-making. Depression and anxiety can paralyze the decision-making process. Obsessive worry can take the fun out of farming.

These conditions need medical and psychological attention and are treatable with and without medication. Sometimes professional help is necessary to get anxieties under control.

How should farmers approach decision-making?

Seek information. Consult with knowledgeable people. Be a good listener. Get “big picture” information about weather, markets, new technology, et cetera. Do a “pro” and “con” list but also take your gut feeling into account.

Get consensus decisions on big-ticket items. Persuade, educate and give farming partners time to think through the issue and give their ideas. A family business meeting is ideal for drawing out ideas and developing a unified strategy on key decisions.

Some decisions (land, major equipment) may take months and even years before they are enacted. If decisions are made this way, there will be no, “I told you so’s.” Family members will share in the responsibility. Both sides of an issue need to come out with plenty of comparison information and shopping around.

Start slow and go with the results. Carry out experimental decisions on part of your operation before converting the whole enterprise to the new idea. New ideas should have to prove themselves with firsthand experience, or based on proven results and research data from a trusted source.

How does a farmer let go of decisions once they’ve been made? It is a matter of controlling the controllable and letting go of the uncontrollable. Once a decision has been made, farmers need to detach from it and have the patience to sit back and wait.

To second-guess or blame oneself puts unnecessary agony and anxiety into farming. There are plenty of day-to-day decisions to worry about without revisiting a decision you’ve already made. Make the tough decision and then work hard to make that decision the right one.

This ability to detach can take the form of concentrating on a quality family life, hobbies, community involvement, church activities, friendships, leisure and relaxation. If something needs to be done, then it will be done. Otherwise, farmers manage stress better by moving on to new things and rethink major decisions only after new developments occur.

Decision-making is easier when farmers have an equity base and savings that enable them to withstand the bad years and capitalize on the good years. A lot of pressure can be taken off farmers when they set aside savings or investments that can buffer hard times. The conservative use of money and the retirement of debt after good years affords farmers a calmer existence in the future.

Farming on the edge has higher levels of stress, as the threat of loss becomes more real. Farmers with high debt loads and a tenuous foothold in farming can make good decisions and still battle with depression and anxiety because so much is on the line.
Farmers in this position benefit by a review from a third party to get additional opinions about options and their financial position. Stress moderates when people have hope and confidence that they have a good plan and the goal is to carry it out.

How do farmers live with mistakes? If farmers see themselves as learning and growing, mistakes are useful information upon which to make future decisions. Paying attention to mistakes and correcting them is the name of the game.

Nobody is perfect. By trying things, people learn and improve what they are doing. As one farmer said, “We try not to make the same mistake twice.”

Farmers also benefit from their inner confidence in their overall decision-making. Success builds on success. If over the years their decisions have generally been good, then new circumstances cannot intimidate them as easily.

They may not know the immediate answers, but they can have confidence that they have risen to the occasion in the past and are likely to do so again. Their experience in farming will give them the security of making decisions under stressful circumstances. Basic optimism goes a long way in life, and in farming.

Decisions are the building blocks of life. The big ones take thought, communication and work. Then farmers have to take a step back, watch, learn, adjust and go easy on themselves as circumstances unfold. Life is serious – but not that serious.

Dr. Val Farmer is a clinical psychologist specializing in family business consultation and mediation with farm families. He lives in Wildwood, Mo., and may be contacted through his website at www.valfarmer.com

Farmer’s book Honey, I Shrunk the Farm can be purchased by sending a check or money order for $7.50 to: “Honey, I Shrunk the Farm,” The Preston Connection, P.O. Box 1135, Orem UT 84059.

2/4/2010