Suffering in silence: Local efforts target ag mental health

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories about mental health and suicide among farmers and ranchers. This story discusses suicidal thoughts, suicide and those grappling with its aftermath. If you or someone you know are having thoughts of suicide, help is available from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1 (800) 273-8255 and https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/.

The parched ground yields less and less each year, mirroring a yearslong slide in beef prices—meanwhile, the costs of equipment, feed, gas and life in general keep rising, sometimes out of reach. 

That’s the reality for many modern farmers and ranchers, especially in the drought-stricken West. All that stress, according to experts—and farmers and ranchers themselves—leads to mental health struggles. The rugged independence that makes farmers and ranchers so resilient also makes it hard for them to seek help when they need it. Couple that with family legacies that instill both pride and a fear of failure, and there’s a recipe for personal struggle brewing in pastures and tractor cabs, and across corrals and open ranges—and it often ends in tragedy.