April has arrived. Thankfully, the days are longer, the weather forecast is improving and fields are beginning to dry out. However, this week I’ve talked to at least one farmer from each of the main farming sectors, in what I will call severe hardship.

I call it ‘severe hardship’ but, really it’s probably a combination of mental exhaustion, physical fatigue, pent up frustration and loneliness, all usually compounded by perhaps an animal health issue such as scour in calves, TB in the herd etc.

Each felt they were in a very bad place. However, when you talk through the issues and possibilities only then do you realise that maybe there are options.

A frustrated tillage farmer with nothing done in the fields since February and water-soaked ploughed fields. An exhausted dairy farmer, out of silage, with scour in calves leading to multiple calf deaths. A beef and sheep farmer living in fear every day and night with a new stock bull that is delivering exceptionally big calves who also had two-week-old lambs, dying in the fields for no apparent reason. None of the farmers I talked to had exceptionally big farms, and while I agree scale can compound farmers’ problems very quickly, it’s not always big farmers in trouble.

After an exceptionally dry February, many felt we were going to get repaid February rains at some stage. In reality, March has brought that repayment faster than most expected.

Running out of winter feed is scary for many livestock farmers and the thought of having to buy silage often dents pride when it shouldn’t.

Anxiety

Often those on good land with much better grass growth don’t appreciate or understand the anxiety and pressures of those on heavier soils or in high-rainfall areas. This is especially true when the winter can be a month longer either side of the ‘normal’ months. Winter feed becomes a stress, what to do with waterlogged fields that haven’t got nitrogen becomes a stress, and when the clouds are the only things in the fields every day, that too becomes a stress.

There is no common thread to the problems of the farmers I talked to this week. One is a suckler and sheep farmer and she has 20 cows and 80 ewes. One is a dairy farmer with over 150 cows that has grown in scale of late who has debt, but nothing excessive that can’t be repaid. The third is a tillage farmer who has over 300 acres with a lot of work ahead of him.

Scale doesn’t help when it goes wrong, and, in many cases, a bad situation can develop on farm in a matter of days. Often farm practices that are not normal and out of character develop. In many cases, it’s the farm service people going up and down farm lanes that are the first to recognise a problem or the first to get a call.

Teagasc advisers need help and support in this space. Department officials need help and support, and some flexibility in rules, to allow them get the individual farmers out of trouble.

Farmers are very fortunate to have services and help available – vets, mechanics, advisers, fellow farmers in discussion groups or just local farming neighbours all play a part in this.

It’s often the simple things that can go against you as a farmer and this can be compounded when you hear endless stories of interest rates going up, pressure in hospitals, and costs rising. Then you look out in the yard and you have sick cows, sick calves you can’t sell, maybe a sick family member, and the back wall of the silage pit is getting closer and closer. Meanwhile, there is talk of milk and grain prices going down, no fertiliser out and the silage contractor maybe isn’t paid from last year.

I don’t want to be alarmist, but maybe make a phone call to a neighbour you haven’t seen or heard from this week. We are just at that crunch time of the year on many farms. The days are getting longer. Farmers in general are very tired. The worst of the winter is over.

Farm organisations can help. Professionals in this space such as Mental Health Ireland can help. Friends, family and neighbours can help if they are made aware of a problem. There are always options. Make that call.