Stress in farming discussed at annual town hall
The Butler County Farm Bureau’s Young Ag Professionals is developing a program to help farmers deal with stress and anxiety.
YAP members discussed mental health assistance for farmers Wednesday at the county commissioners’ annual Butler County Farm Town Hall.
Brittany Speer and Jessie Dressler, of the YAP, received peer mentor training in January from AMI Inc., a Washington County nonprofit organization that trains people to become peer mentors.
More training is planned, and YAP is developing a peer mentor program to help farmers deal with stress, Dressler said.
Dressler said peer mentors are trained to listen and direct people to agencies and organization that provide assistance.
Speer said a long-view approach is needed for farmers to handle stress that many of them live with.
“It’s a process. You have to continue to work at it,” Speer said. “There’s no finish line.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Agirculture’s AgriStress helpline is a good starting point, Dressler said.
The hotline, which can be reached at 833-897-2474, answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week .
Pennsylvania received a $500,000 grant last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build the peer support program, sad Mark Critz, of the state department of agriculture’s Rural Development Council.
“Farmers want to talk to farmers who have walked in the same shoes,” Critz said.
Farm tours and events were another of the wide range of topics discussed at the town hall.
Speer said a committee will be formed to plan a farm tour, but the YAP is working on plans for another farm promotion and education event.
A two-day Butler County Farm Trail and Harvest Festival involving four farms is being planned for Sept. 9 to 10.
The first day will feature an educational tour for students and a harvest dinner with guest speakers, she said.
Day two would include farm tours and a farmers market at at least one of the farms. Other farms would be invited to sell products at the market, Speer said.
The plan is to have two farms from the northern part of the county and two from the southern half participate in the event.
Turning to another subject, three or four farms are expected to be added this year to the county’s farmland preservation program, according to Sheryl Kelly, program director.
She said 66 farms with a combined 7,000 acres are current enrolled.
The program operates by buying easements that permanently prohibit development on the property. Farmers enrolled in the program continue to own the property and can sell it, Kelly said.
The state matches the price the county pays for the easement and the federal government reimburses the county half of the amount, she said.
