{"id":291171,"date":"2026-02-10T21:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/291171\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T21:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:26:13","slug":"theres-a-lot-of-farmers-battling-on-through-mental-health-issues-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/291171\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;There&#8217;s a lot of farmers battling on through mental health issues&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Really struggling&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ker agrees there is a &#8220;hidden problem&#8221; around mental health in agriculture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Speaking about his own experience, he said it was not until he picked up a rugby injury and his dad retired, that he had to take on his farm, near Wellington, full time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I took on all the pressures and all the challenges within the farming system, but I also delved into farming 24\/7 \u2013 not going off the farm and doing anything,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I got myself into quite a bad spot mentally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I was really struggling, and didn&#8217;t feel able to speak to anyone about it, didn&#8217;t really know what to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said he ended up lonely and isolated, questioning if he even wanted to continue the work, adding his mental health &#8220;pushed me further away from everyone&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He wants farmers to stop saying, &#8220;ah, I&#8217;m fine, it&#8217;ll be alright \u2013 the sun&#8217;ll come out&#8221;, and instead speak to someone about their mental health. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769779088_625_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fa2c9e30-036e-11f1-9e76-4b68ed91a379.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"John Ker A grassy green field with three cows, of varying colours, and two young calves, black and brown.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>John KerKer&#8217;s organic beef farm took over his life, leading to his feeling of isolation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8216;Really struggling&#8217; Ker agrees there is a &#8220;hidden problem&#8221; around mental health in agriculture. Speaking about his own&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-291171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}