Lifeline Australia -13 11 14
These mental health support lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and have been put in place for farmers and other rural people by NSW Health and Lifeline Australia.
Many people in rural communities are facing pressures they find difficult to cope with and need to speak to someone about their problems.
If you would like to talk to someone yourself or if you are worried about a family member or friend call one of the above support lines.
Even if you don’t need the number now, put it in your phone book and keep them handy for future use.
Farm Family Business Handbook.
How do I use this handbook
USE checklists
This handbook has three easy lists for you to use and keep for future use. Start by using the checklists to identify the most difficult pressures to deal with on
your farm. Plan to do the checklist each 12 months, when you are facing change or when pressures build up.
READ guides
The checklists will refer you to a series of 10 guides which provide more information about each pressure you have identified. These guides provide you
with a way of identifying practical actions you can take to address the pressures and will allow you to regularly review them.
FIND practical actions
Guides will suggest a range of options including things you can do yourself, where to seek professional assistance and courses you can do.
A booklet is provided so you can locate training options that may meet a need identified from using the checklist and guide.
Farm Business Checklist
- Do the checklist with your business partner
- Choose pressures that are most difficult to deal with
- Some options may not suit now, but may later
Farm Family Checklist
- Do the checklist with family members
- Choose pressures that are most difficult to deal with
- Some options may not suit now, but may later
Personal Checklist
- Do this checklist by yourself
- Choose pressures that are most difficult to deal with
- Some options may not suit now, but may late
Managing the pressures of farming
[Table of Content]
How is this handbook going to help my
business, my family and myself?
Farmers have put this manual together with the help of researchers, rural counsellors and health workers as part of the Farm Family Business Project. It is based on information that farmers in north-west NSW have provided about the impact of common pressures they face in their farm family businesses. The manual aims to point to the things we can do as a business, family and by ourself to manage the pressures in farming. It
won’t help you deal with all of your pressures and some of the options may not suit your situation – you may also be doing a lot of the things already. However, it is a good guide for you to do a quick “maintenance check” and to start mapping out a plan of how your farm family business is going to manage the stressful pressures in farming now and in the years ahead.
Why is managing pressure in farming important?
All businesses in Australia, from the big ‘corporates’, to smaller companies are facing increased
pressure from changing economic conditions, changing government requirements and effects
of such things as globalisation and information technology. Bigger companies have already put
in place plans for executives to manage the tensions and stresses in the modern business
world, and they see this as a very important part of good business management.
Farmers are under as much, if not more, pressure than corporate businesses in the pressure we
face. Pressures come from external sources such as weather/drought, government legislation and
reduced finance from economic conditions that impact on commodity prices and interest rates.
Pressures also come from within our farm business, farm family and from individual goals and
needs. Issues such as lack of time to get things done, different goals of family members for
business direction and difficulty finding, paying and keeping good workers cause pressure on
farm family businesses.
We also have special circumstances in that we live where we work which means we take our
work ‘home’ and we are isolated from services and social interaction.
Surely the best way is to just get rid of the pressure?
Yes, we should do what we can to reduce unwanted pressure from within and without!
However, we also need to make our business, our family and ourselves individually more
resilient so that we can deal the pressures that we can’t change immediately. We cannot afford
to let those pressures get us down to the point where damage is being done to our productivity,
our family life or our enjoyment of life.