Grainswest - Winter 2022

Winter 2022 Grains West 32 THE PERSONAL COST Farm families cope with stress and anxiety The mild winter, light snowpack, lots of wind and even a Prairie fire were all clues the 2021 growing season would be difficult. Still, Taber area farmer and AWC vice-chair Jason Saunders did what he always does: plan for the worst and hope for the best, especially in springtime, to ensure success. Though his land is located in the heart of southern Alberta’s irrigated landscape, his farm is about 10 kilometres from water, meaning it’s just not possible to turn on the taps. He farms dry like the bulk of Prairie farmers. As spring approached, his moisture profile was average and there was even one last dump of snow in May to help things along. April and May conditions were not remarkable one way or the other. “By June, traditionally our wettest month, not much was happening,” said Saunders. “Two inches is the minimum [for June] and we did get some moisture. We can’t say we got zero. In June, four inches means it’s a good year, but two inches is kind of the minimum. It was six- tenths of an inch over the 30 days.” By the third day of the month, temperatures soared to 35 C and didn’t let up. “Six- tenths with that kind of heat is not good. I knew it was going to be hard by then.” As crops began to set their yield during the heat wave, Saunders pondered his next moves. His canola, flax and chickpeas hung on for dear life while grasshoppers moved in, adding “salt to the wound.” He virtually never sprays insecticide but this year he did so around the edge of one field. When he began harvest in the third week of July, it was more of a rescue mission. “I was surprised we got anything,” he admitted. He was finished by Aug. 30, a first for him. As awful as the season was, he remembers worse years and said it simply comes with farming in perennially dry geography. “It’s depressing, it’s frustrating,” he said. “I grew up in the reality that you never count on anything until it’s in the bin. Period. It’s not to say I don’t do some presales, but we are always very modest with that. You try not to spend all your money in the good years, because you need it in the bad ones.” Though farming is a weather- dependant endeavour, Saunders believes it cannot be a farmer’s sole fixation or it will eat you alive. “If you only focus on the weather and the things you can’t fix … it’s very challenging to have a happy, fulfilled career,” he said. “Just work with the things you can fix.” Saunders said he has a strong support system that includes friends and neighbours, his wife and mother. “You get help, you talk to others,” he said. “It’s not just one thing, it’s a combination.” It’s sound advice that reflects the message from Do More Ag, a non- profit agriculture group that supports the mental health of farmers across the country. One of its co-founders, Lesley Kelly, farms with her husband Matt at Watrous, SK. Their harvest concluded by Labour Day, and the crops they took off were nothing special. “It was extremely difficult and challenging on all fronts,” she said. “There was really no escape from those stressors.” One way everyone at their farm coped was to note the positives of their day in a WhatsApp group chat. Just the simple act of writing a text for others to read became a small yet effective tool. “They were even as simple as, ‘This winter we don’t have to work in -40 C and clean all those grain bags,’” she said with a laugh. “It gave a bit of optimism in those challenging and hard, difficult times …we rallied around those successes and clung onto them.” FEATURE