As pastures and returns for cattle and sheep rapidly deteriorate, fears that mental health in the bush will follow the same path has prompted a group of farmers to act.
Driven by the belief that not enough is being done, and with the toll of the last drought still so fresh in the mind, Wilmot Cattle Company general manager Stuart Austin said the decision to put together a roadshow of mental health workshops was about being proactive at a time when everything can feel like it's out of our control.
“A month or six weeks ago when early spring and El Nino had been announced, I reckon I got half a dozen emails in a day from different organisations saying, drought has been declared; try and be on the front foot, make some decisions; if you’re having a hard time, call Lifeline,” Mr Austin said.
“I just thought, 'fuck, we’ve got to do better than that'.”
Recognising that peer-to-peer conversations often have greater impact than an agency “standing up there and saying here’s what you need to do”, the roadshow is all about farmers trying to help other farmers and the people that support those farmers.
“There will be three key aspects to the sessions - helping people recognize how important quick decision making is; keeping people together, keeping communities together, keeping teams together; and providing people with some tools and resources to feel a bit more empowered to help those around them,” Mr Austin said.
“The whole premise behind this is not so much targeting farmers themselves, but the people around the farmers - partners, mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, all those who support the male in a business, as well as livestock agents, bankers, agronomists, vets, truckies.
“We’re targeting all those support people and saying here’s some tools to have the conversations, to help you ask the right questions, to help you recognise when someone’s really struggling, and lo and behold, if they do need some professional support, to help you understand where they can find it.”
The importance of mental health first aid training for the people supporting farmers was a lesson learnt in the 2018/19 drought, sparked by conversations with livestock agents, Mr Austin said.
“Livestock agents bear the brunt of so many of these conversations in the first instance.
“They went through the 2019 drought driving away from farms not knowing whether that bloke was going to be there tomorrow and they said that was really hard to deal with.”
Falling off a cliff
Located in the New England region of northern New South Wales, the Wilmot operation is no stranger to drought, but there’s a key difference this time, Mr Austin said.
“We’ve gone from go to woah in less than six months. It took two years to get to this point in 2018/19, this time we’ve fallen off a cliff.
“I would rarely describe Ebor as hot, dry and smokey in the middle of October but that’s exactly what I’m looking at out the window.
“It was 31 degrees here on Saturday, which is unheard of for this neck of the woods.
“All four of our farms are in reasonable shape in terms of we do still have some cattle on them and pastures are in reasonable condition, but deteriorating rapidly and we’re in fairly serious destock mode.”
Wilmot Cattle Company general manager Stuart Austin aims to get boots on the ground to talk about farmer mental health, rather than "putting up a website with a bunch of names and phone numbers and saying ‘call this bloke if you’re having a hard time".
Last time, Wilmot’s number one priority was to preserve the ecology of their assets by leaving the landscape in a rain-ready state, with pastures grazed but not over-grazed, such that they were ready to respond to rain as soon as it came.
“We’re taking the same strategy this time, but the difference is we’re selling cattle for 40% less than what we were four years ago, and our operating expenses have gone up at the same rate as inflation, if not more,” Mr Austin said.
Decision paralysis
It’s effectively the perfect storm, which can be exacerbated by decision paralysis.
“The biggest impact is seeing cattle prices and sheep prices and thinking 'well shit, I can’t sell them for that. I paid x amount for them, and I just can’t sell them for that',” Mr Austin said.
“And so you don’t, then a week goes by and they’re selling for less and less, and that’s what’s been happening.
“Every week the market keeps falling and so we get into this bit of a paralysis about making a decision we need to make, and it’s very hard to make with all those things in mind, particularly what we paid for breeding females over the last three years.”
Making these “bloody hard decisions” will be one of the things talked about during the roadshow.
“It’s not so much whether you can afford to sell, it’s that you can’t afford not to.
“In most cases, we have to keep making decisions, and not making a decision is actually a choice and making a decision in itself.
“I can’t emphasise it enough, it’s really bloody hard to make those decisions sometimes.”
All in this together
The roadshow sessions will also reiterate the importance of keeping communities together, keeping families together, keeping teams together, looking out for each other, and lifting each other up.
“This is really hard, but let’s not try to do this on our own. Let’s stick together and help each other out, and be there for each other as much as we can.”
The Farmers Helping Our Own roadshow will be held in multiple regional towns from southern Queensland to southern NSW from November 13 to 24.
More details can be found on the Facebook page and the registration form.
This story is the first in a series, Resilience in the Bush, by AuctionsPlus. The series will tell the stories of people helping farmers and their communities to deal with tough times. If you have suggestions for profiles of people who are making a difference, or tips about how to get through this time, please email newsroom@auctionsplus.com.au.
If you need someone to talk, there are excellent resources available. Visit our webpage with a bunch of names and phones numbers for where you can find support.
