QUINCY (WGEM) – A wave of anxiety towers over farmers across the country — and Brent Pollard knows it all too well.
“You’ve got to get the work done. And when you can’t because… you feel like everything is beyond your control, it’s disheartening,” he explained.
For seven generations, Pollard’s family has farmed and raised livestock in Winnebago County, Illinois.
Pollard returned to the farm in 2005. As he took over the operation, what he thought was normal stress became unmanageable.
“I have a generalized anxiety disorder that, in the past, could make it so that everything on the farm could overwhelm me to the point that it would just paralyze me,” he told a WGEM reporter.
Pollard is far from alone. Farmers across the country wrestle with mental health. Sadly, many ultimately die by suicide.
Data from the National Rural Health Association indicates the suicide rate for farmers is 3.5 times higher than the general population.
According to statistics from the CDC, the suicide rate for farmers, ranchers and agricultural managers sits at 52.1 (per 100,000) among males — well above the average of 32.
Several factors are driving the epidemic: long work hours, rising input costs, debt, an isolated work setting and stigmas around mental healthcare.
“That’s not rewarded in our society either… to say that, ‘Well, I’m deficient in this,’ or ‘This isn’t quite up to par,’” Pollard said. “And we need to accept who we are.”
On top of it all, the weight of expectations can feel suffocating for many farmers.
“Is the farming legacy going to just disappear, of my family, if I make one bad move tomorrow? And that adds another level of anxiety or worry to us as farmers,” Pollard explained.
It’s an uncertainty Barbara Baker Chapin, director of development for Transitions of Western Illinois and chair of the Adams County Suicide Prevention Coalition, has seen before.
“They can do everything right in terms of planting and caring for the crops… And then things out of their control can absolutely destroy everything that they’ve worked so hard to do,” she said.
Baker Chapin and Pollard both worry that recent changes in policy, like President Trump’s decision to lift tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, will only add to the mental strain farmers face.
“Uncertainty is the name of the game right now for us as farmers, and that can’t do anything but hurt farmers’ mental health because it’s another thing that we can’t control that’s just out there as an additional factor, on top of our local markets and the weather,” Pollard said, adding, “Those uncontrollables, they do nothing to help… your anxiety or depression.”
As farmers return to the field this September, Pollard hopes to erase the stigma around mental health.
“We work really hard and put a lot of work in. And if we’re willing to put in that much time and effort on our farms, why shouldn’t we put that much effort into our physical and mental health?”
Pollard says fellow farmers often feel more comfortable confiding in each other at first.
“(Farming) is hard work and (we think) we can plow through anything that happens in our lives. And there are just some things that aren’t that way in life. And you need to be willing to ask for help when those situations arise,” Pollard said.
Baker Chapman hopes families will remind their loved ones they’re not alone.
“To initiate the conversation is important. You know, to indicate: ‘I’m worried about you,’ she said, adding, ”Even in your darkest times, there is hope. And sometimes we can’t see that when we’re in the midst of it.”
Anyone experiencing a mental health emergency can call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Farm-specific resources include:
The SIU School of Medicine 1-833-FARM-SOS HotlineIllinois Extension’s mental health voucher programNCFR Stress Assistance Resources for Farmers
For more resources, you can Farm Bureau’s Farm State of Mind webpage.
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