The Rural Voice, 1980-09, Page 19GUEST COLUMN
Farm Stress:
A time for research
Someone once said that "modern
man seems to be living in a perpetual
state of Condition Red with overload
approaching the danger zone and
change accelerating toward an ultimate
destructive spasm." The result of this
perpetual state is stress. Until several
decades ago, however, stress was
relatively unknown. That does not mean
that people did not experience stress;
we simply were not aware of its
existence or of its dangers. We now
know that some amount of stress is
functional but that it also has a variety
of dysfunctional aspects ranging from
lowered levels or quality of productivity,
bad decision making, lowered ability to
concentrate and to react, to greater
family and neighbourhood conflict,
illness, and even death.
But there is no stress in farming! The
farmer carries out this ideal independ-
ent pastime, without answering to any
boss, in a calm peaceful serene
environment. Wrong! Farming is a
stressful occupation. The farmer today
must not only know farming, he must be
an engineer, a business manager, and a
politician. He must be concerned with
the weather, quotas, marketing board
policies, and expropriation. Govern-
ment monetary and fiscal poiicies can
BY DR. OLGA L. CROCKER,
Faculty of Business Administration,
University of Windsor
leave a farm family destitute after a
lifetime of work. Stress is one of the
most vital problems facing farmers
today.
Dysfunctional affects of stress for
farmers include the risk of equipment
and machinery accidents which are
attributable to inattention, lack of
alertness, or because of carelessness.
In spite of this, the dearth of research
in Canada and the U.S. on farm stress is
appalling. Little of it has been done by
people who are in the best position to do
it --farmers themselves. The reasons are
clear. Farmers farm; they have not been
trained to do research; they do not have
time for this. They do not have the tools,
such as stress instruments and com-
puters, to do this work. Furthermore,
research is a government responsibility.
All these things are true.
It also is true that governments, both
at the federal and at the provincial level,
must be more concerned with the
problems of farmers. Two of the most
stressful aspects of farm life (that
caused by financial problems and that
caused because of uncertainty) can be
alleviated, to a considerable degree, by
government planning and assistance to
farmers in difficult times.
Stress research, when done by
governments and institutions, is very
expensive. The preparation of instru-
ments and the analyses of these
instruments are relatively minor
expenses compared to those incurred
through personal visits by researchers
to farm homes to gather the necessary
responses.
Not all the costs are financial in
nature. No matter how hard they might
try, researchers, who are outsiders to
farming, do not understand the intrica-
cies of that occupation. They interpret
the results in line with their own
experience and training. In doing so,
they may overlook obvious and impor-
tant findings.
Farmers must recognize that farm
stress is their problem and that they
alone can provide the insight and
solutions that are necessary. They, of
course, must be willing to give data to
researchers. They also must play a vital
role in urging their agricultural col-
leges, the faculties of agriculture in
universities, and government agencies
to provide the funding and the expertise
that is required for farmers to take a
leading role in learning about stress, its
dysfunctional aspects, and its cures.
Farmers must be willing to be trained
and to practice as stress researchers.
HOW IT WORKS;
20" disc. blades, mounted on individual pivots, are
rotated by hydraulic motors to cut bean plants off
below ground surface. Each pivot -mounted section
rests on two depth wheels. Two or three windrows
are produced, depending on the number of blades.
The Smyth Bean Cutter can be mounted on the front
or on the rear of a tractor. This compact machine is
not bothered by mud or trash.
Canada's first rotary bean cutter is a product of
the George Smyth Welding and Machine Shop.
THE FIRST NEW IDEA IN BEAN
PULLING IN 70 YEARS
SMYTN
Welding and
Machine Shop
RR 2, Auburn, Ontario (519) 529-7212
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1980 PG. 17