Maté’s main point is that chronic stress takes a physical toll, and leaves people susceptible to disease. For example, our brain’s hippocampus, which moves short-term memory into long-term memory, is vulnerable to chronic stress. Too much cortisol, over a long period, impairs that process, Maté writes. He also links the complete repression of emotion to Alzheimer’s disease, by examining the lives of public figures, through interviews and by diving into a long-term study of nuns. One nun developed the brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s, yet didn’t show any symptoms. Maté attributed this to her acknowledgement of her own emotions, as evidenced in her diary.

This book raised a lot of questions for me. Because I’m interested in animals, I wonder how chronic stress might affect animals, and how their experiences differ from ours.

While our brains are different from the bovine variety, all mammals have some similarities. All have a hippocampus, and animal studies have also shown it’s susceptible to stress. Neurons don’t fire the way they should, and the hippocampus in overly stressed animals is smaller in volume. Their memory is also affected — for example, studies with rodents show exposure to stress negatively affects spatial memory, which involves the hippocampus.

This led me down a rabbit hole into the research around bovine brains. A 2016 study looking at domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) measured brain size related to body mass. The researchers found similarities to that of baleen whales, which they figured may be due to similar “feeding adaptions” (grazing). Importantly, they differed more from “fish-hunting toothed whales,” confirming the brains of predatory animals (like us) and prey differ. There were no real differences between cattle breeds, or even age of cattle, in this particular study.

Cattle, along with elephants and baleen whales, have larger temporal lobes than other species. Why this is, researchers were unsure, but they speculated it might be due to “the need for high level acoustic performance.” That’s an interesting way to think about how cattle low, bawl, and otherwise communicate. But consider this: We know whales not only communicate through sound, but are also sensitive to sound. People who practice low-stress handling know the importance of being quiet around cattle. They also know that because a cow’s eyes are on the sides of her head, she sees the world very differently than us predators. She has poor depth perception, a blind spot behind her, limited vision right in front of her, and a wider field of vision around her. I think it’s important to remember this, as how they perceive the world influences what scares or stresses them.

Another study examined the fossil record to compare the brains of extinct wild cattle (aurochs) to a wide range of domestic breeds, including those used for bull fighting. Researchers looked at 317 brains from 71 breeds, and overall found that domesticated cattle had, on average, 25 per cent smaller brains than their wild ancestors. But the aggressive bull-fighting breeds had much larger brains than other domestic breeds — only 15 per cent smaller than wild cattle. Beef cattle had brains that were about 25 per cent smaller than wild cattle, and dairy cattle had the smallest brains of all — 30 per cent smaller than the wild ones. Interestingly, beef cattle that traditionally have had less human interaction, such as White Park, also had larger brains.

Most beef and dairy cattle have smaller limbic systems than their wilder relatives. The limbic system is the emotional command centre of the brain, controlling aggression, fear and reactivity. Perhaps by selecting quieter cattle over the centuries, we have also been selecting cattle with reduced limbic systems. Or, maybe the cattle don’t need a large limbic system because people have been taking care of many of their basic needs — providing food and water, some sort of shelter, and attempting to protect them from predators. Either way, I think this speaks well to how people have been caring for their livestock for a long time.

There is still much we don’t know about how the brain, hormonal systems and the rest of the body respond to stress. There was a lot I couldn’t fit into this column, and frankly, I’m no expert. But I think this research suggests that the way we manage cattle has profound effects over many generations. And stress may affect animals, and us, even more than we realize. We only need think about the prevalence of bovine respiratory disease in calves after weaning to suspect there’s something to this. This time of year, as cows are approaching calving season, or already calving, think about the quality of the ration and how much they’re being fed, and whether all cows have access to feed.

We cannot eliminate all stress from our own lives, or from that of our livestock. That’s probably not even a desirable outcome. But unrelenting stress leads to physical changes in our bodies, and may leave people and animals more susceptible to disease.

Further reading

• Ballarin et. al. The brain of the domestic Bos taurus: Weight, encephalizations and cerebellar quotients, and comparison with other domestic and wild cetartiodactyla. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154580
• Kim et. al, Stress effects on the hippocampus: A critical review. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4561403/
• Balcarcel et. al., Intensive human contact correlates with smaller brains: differential brain size reduction in cattle types. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34102890/

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It pops up on cow-calf operations, too. The Beef Cattle Research Council’s website notes that BRD is a leading cause of death, illness and antibiotic treatment in calves from three weeks of age to weaning on the ranch.

And there’s no eliminating the pathogens that cause this respiratory disease.

“One thing that’s really important to remember about BRD is that it’s out there. It’s ubiquitous. Cattle have it all the time,” said Dr. Trent Wennekamp during an interview. Wennekamp is a veterinarian and owner at the Lloydminster Animal Hospital in Lloydminster, Alta. Healthy, unstressed cattle generally don’t get sick, he explained, but as animals become more stressed and less healthy, “that allows those bugs to get going.”

It’s important to remember that, he said, because it’s not so much that cattle are exposed to the pathogens and then get sick. “It’s more the right conditions have to exist to allow it to become a problem.”

BRD basics

Broadly speaking, BRD is disease of the upper or lower respiratory tract, notes the Beef Cattle Research Council. Wennekamp said there are three main bacteria that cause the disease, although other pathogens can join, or even start, the party (more on that later).

• RELATED: Respiratory disease linked to the gut

In most cases, the most significant BRD bacteria is Mannheimia haemolytica, or what used to be called Pasteurella haemolytica. Pasteurella multocida and Histophulus somni (formerly known as Haemophilus somnus) also “cause a lot of issues,” said Wennekamp.

Viruses such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine respiratory syncytial don’t necessarily cause a significant disease on their own, Wennekamp said, but sometimes they allow other pathogens to get a foothold.

Biosecurity and BRD

A few years ago, Wennekamp did a graduate degree looking at BRD, calf diarrhea and biosecurity on cow-calf operations, as well as antimicrobial resistance in feedlot calves. He surveyed producers on biosecurity practices through the Western College of Veterinary Medicine’s cow-calf surveillance network. About 80 people responded.

Wennekamp said they found three main points related to herds struggling with BRD and biosecurity. The first was that they tended to purchase more animals. Community pasture spread was the second factor. And finally, failure to vaccinate new animals was linked to more BRD, he added. Although BRD and calf diarrhea weren’t linked, prevalence of calf diarrhea was linked to the same three factors, he said.

While limiting the number of animals coming into the herd is “going to be positive,” a completely closed herd isn’t realistic. Wennekamp said people are going to need to buy bulls, and likely some replacement heifers. But there are things producers can do to slash the risk.

“If you know the disease status of the herd that they’re coming from, that’s going to be really helpful. If it’s similar to yours, and a fairly healthy herd, that’s definitely going to help.”

Bringing in cattle from a herd that’s well-vaccinated and doesn’t have many BRD issues is going to be less risky than buying cattle from an auction mart, possibly from a mix of herds. In that situation, he suggested being aware of the risk and doing whatever you can to reduce potential disease spread to the main herd. For example, keeping the new cattle separate for a while and vaccinating them are good practices.

Similarly, many producers use community pasture, and telling them to stop isn’t a practical solution. Vaccinating cattle before they’re shipped to community pasture is helpful, he said. Trying to reduce the number of herds your cattle are exposed to also cuts risk. It’s a good idea to know about the herds your cattle will be exposed to, and getting everyone following similar vaccination protocols.

“So there’s lots that can be done, even working within the current framework of how cattle are raised in Western Canada. And being aware of it and not ignoring it is probably the first step.”

Stress

While completing his graduate degree, Wennekamp also undertook a project comparing BRD and anti-microbial resistance in feedlot calves bought through an auction mart or ranch-direct.

“We would think of those as being two fairly different populations,” said Wennekamp. He said they found quite a few differences in the types of bacteria they found, though it wasn’t always things they could use practically. The auction mart calves seemed to have more of the Mannheimia haemolytica, “and a bit more actual (antibiotic) resistance in those calves.”

Wennekamp said they found a significant amount of antibiotic resistance. “And that is certainly concerning.”

Principally, the antibiotic resistance was to the oxytetracycline class (Bio-Mycin, Oxyvet, Liquamycin). The macrolide class (Draxxin, Micotil, Zuprevo) also had “a fair bit of resistance and increasing resistance over the feeding period, which is, of course a concern, and that is seen right across North America.” He added other studies have also found resistance to those two groups of antibiotics.

They also saw more Pasteurella multocida and Histophulus somni in the ranch-direct calves. The ranch-direct calves were relatively healthy, he added, but the study confirmed that even healthy cattle carry pathogens.

One takeaway, he said, was all the dynamics that trigger stress in calves seem to be more significant in causing disease than the actual pathogens. In the right situation, with a stressed calf, those pathogens develop into disease. On the other hand, “in a calf that doesn’t have those stresses, then the disease factors aren’t as significant.”

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They study team is “looking for farmers, ranchers, or anyone who works or lives on a farm” to participate, researchers said in a recent notice.

Their study is in the form of a 10- to 15-minute online survey.

Researchers involved in the study say global-level research shows farmers experience high levels of, or elevated risk for, stress, anxiety, depression and/or psychological distress.

Similarly, a national-level survey of 1,132 Canadian farmers found higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression but “lower levels of resilience” compared to the general population.

The sample group for that national survey, however, included just 98 Alberta farmers, or 8.7 per cent of the total sample, while Alberta farmers make up 21.4 per cent of Canada’s farmer population, the researchers said.

The survey would examine what aspects of running a farm are found to be most stressful, how farming stress impacts mental well-being, how farmers cope with stress and whether they experience burnout.

The study is led by Dr. Rebecca Purc-Stephenson, an applied social psychologist and professor at the university’s Augustana campus at Camrose.

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Factors such as financial insecurity, uncontrollable weather and isolating working conditions contribute to high depression, anxiety and suicide rates among farmers, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Devin Wozniak, a farmer and life coach from Glenavon, Sask., said he thinks there is a lack of emotional support for farmers.

“When I used to run a business, I used to get validation or gratification from my customers,” he said. “And then as I shifted into full-time farmer, I felt needy. I was constantly needing from my family, from ag stores. You need them to be open.”

After struggling with anxiety and depression for many years, Wozniak knew spending hours upon hours alone in a combine was not helping his case. He needed to find a support system outside of his family and his employees.

“There’s never really a ‘thank you.’ There’s actually resentment. Like the weather, we can’t control the weather. As the leader of the farm, we’re considered the boss so we’re needing people to work long hours, and they look at us as being the slave driver. Our boss is Mother Nature, but we feel the brunt of it.”

Wozniak found education and belonging through an online program called The Bulletproof Husband, which provides support to men struggling with their personal relationships.

Along with finding a community within that program, Wozniak said he was mentored by a psychiatrist for many years and explored other online programs involving mental wellness.

Wozniak said he would be interested in the DMAF program and he thinks rural communities could benefit from this type of offering.

“Especially in a small community, when you are going through a tough time a lot of people avoid it, they don’t know how to relate to it,” said Wozniak.

Literacy

DMAF is expanding its programming from last year to include multiple options for webinars and in-person workshops.

New to the DMAF menu this year is AgCulture, a program for mental health professionals looking to gain agricultural literacy to better care for rural patients.

“This year DMAF’s focus is on supporting the industry as a whole,” DMAF executive director Megz Reynolds said. “This means bringing mental health literacy and educational workshops to farming communities, hosting national webinars to bring Canadians in agriculture together, and bringing AgCulture to mental health clinicians across Canada to ensure an understanding and connection to agriculture.”

The three workshops available for communities are Talk, Ask, Listen; Mental Health First Aid; and In the Know.

“Talk, Ask, Listen” is a half-day workshop intended for farmers who want to increase their understanding of mental health and begin to unpack the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

For more intensive training, “Mental Health First Aid” is facilitated by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and provides a framework for people to better manage their own, or a loved one’s, mental health problems.

The DMAF website describes “In the Know” as an evidence-based workshop which “aims to build mental health knowledge and increase help-seeking among farmers.”

Individuals looking to bring any of the no-cost workshops to their communities can apply to DMAF’s Community Fund by filling out an online form. Applications are open until Dec. 10.

— Hannah Polk reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Regina.

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The community fund, presented by Farm Credit Canada, has been going on for four years and was created to provide access to mental health education at no cost to agricultural and rural communities across Canada and the people in them — whether they be farmers, the family members of farmers, or other professionals in the agriculture industry.

“We’re really looking to make that education and awareness piece as easy as possible by, for free, bringing learning opportunities that can lead to support opportunities into rural communities,” says Megz Reynolds, executive director of Do More Ag.

According to statistics from Do More Ag, 35 per cent of producers meet the classification for depression, 58 meet the classification for anxiety, 45 per cent report high stress and 68 per cent are more susceptible to chronic stress than the general population. They also have 20 to 30 per cent higher rates of suicide than any other occupation in Canada and are four times more likely to use a firearm to die by suicide than the general public.

Reynolds says these stats show how important it is to offer mental health resources to producers.

“There’s a strong stigma just in society in general, but so much more so in agriculture,” Reynolds says. “And we can’t have support for those in the industry that need it if we don’t have an understanding of mental health and how to support not only ourselves but those that we come in contact with.”

The training provided through the community fund isn’t just for people struggling with their own mental health — it’s also for people who may need to support someone who may be struggling and needs resources to do so.

“That’s how we build an agricultural community where we are all supported to take care of our own mental health and mental well-being and support each other.”

Reynolds also says this is the first year they are running virtual workshops across Canada.

“But those will be really great ways to get smaller amounts of 45-minute sessions but get more information to learn more about maybe different topics, things specific that you may want to explore more into, but to do so in that kind of larger, anonymous setting,” she says.

The application for the community fund closes on December 10.

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“You are the number-one piece of machinery on your farm,” says Cynthia Beck, cow-calf producer at Milestone, Sask. and clinical psychology masters’ candidate at the University of Regina.

Practicing self-care is vital, Beck explained during a recent Canadian Cattlemen’s Association webinar on mental well-being during a crisis. Her definition of self-care includes ensuring that you are well-hydrated, eating nutritious foods regularly and getting enough sleep. She recommends listening to your body when you need rest and movement, as well as disconnecting from the news and social media at least an hour before bed.

In addition to basic self-care, Beck offered several suggestions for taking care of your mental well-being in stressful situations:

Find your identity beyond agriculture

When we worry about the possibility of losing our farms, Beck explains, part of that stress relates to how we tie our identity and self-worth to agriculture.

“We lack self-identity outside of our farm, and I know that a lot of people have a really hard time when I talk about this because we’ve been taught for generations or centuries that we are the farm and the farm is us,” she says, stressing the importance of finding interests outside of agriculture.

“In today’s day and age, the farm is a business. It’s your chosen profession, and at some point, I encourage you to learn who you are outside of farming.”

Be aware of how you act in stressful situations

Understanding what triggers your stress response and how you cope with those situations is important for finding healthier ways to react.

“If sorting cattle with your in-laws always leaves you raging and angry at the end of the day, okay, there’s your trigger. If you know that going in, you can prepare yourself for that, and there will be a different outcome,” says Beck.

“A lot of times when we’re experiencing high rates of stress, we take that stress out on the family, friends, hired hands.” This is an opportunity to step back and be aware of how you’re behaving and then choose differently.

Focus on the facts

“If you’ve ever muttered the phrase, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t take this anymore, I’m a failure, I’m a terrible farmer, I’m going to lose the farm, I’m not smart enough’ — those are all lies,” says Beck.

Focusing on the worst-case scenario means that you’re not seeing the whole situation. “It probably isn’t an imminent fact, and you have many other steps to go through and solutions and strategies to use before you get to that point. So stick to the facts because it helps you regulate your emotions.”

Seek support

Remind yourself who you can turn to in difficult times, and be proactive in contacting your personal support system when you’re feeling overwhelmed. “If you recognize that you are struggling and that you would benefit from some additional support, get out there and contact that additional support,” says Beck.

She also encourages producers to reach out to others who may need support as well. Something as simple as sending a text to say you’re thinking of someone and ask how they’re doing can make a difference in getting through difficult times.

“When you feel like quitting, remember why you started,” she says. “You got into farming for a reason. It takes an incredible amount of knowledge for you to have come as far as you’ve come, so please keep that in mind.”

For mental health resources and support, see the following:

• Farm Stress Line: www.farmstressline.ca
• Canadian Mental Health Association: https://cmha.ca
• Dial 211 or visit www.211.org/get-help/mental-health for mental health services in your area
• The Do More Agriculture Foundation: www.domore.ag
• Kids Help Phone Canada offers help to anyone who calls: https://kidshelpphone.ca/

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“I think pulse crops have benefitted from the rains we’ve had over the last two or three weeks here in the province,” he said.

Potts noted Saskatchewan, as with the rest of the Prairies, went through a dry fall and winter that continued through most of the spring seeding season. Crops were becoming quite stressed due to the stretch of above-normal temperatures with almost no rain until recently.

Statistics Canada projected Saskatchewan farmers to plant almost 3.75 million acres of lentils for 2021-22, a dip of 1.6 per cent compared to the seeded acres in 2020-21. The province’s lentil acres represent nearly 89 per cent of those across the country.

The federal agency also projected close to 2.11 million acres of dry peas sown this year. That’s down 9.2 per cent from the previous year and comprises close to 55 per cent of Canada’s dry pea acres.

Chickpea acres are down significantly in Saskatchewan, going from 252,300 acres to 142,400, according to Statistics Canada. But the province’s planted acres represent about two-thirds of what went into the ground this spring.

Dry beans are up as well, from 19,100 planted acres a year ago to a projected 26,100. That’s only 6.3 per cent of what Canadian farmers planted this year.

Faba bean acres are up in the province, going from 55,900 in 2020-21 to 61,200 in 2021-22. That’s a little half of the acres sown across Canada this year.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“The grains exploded out of the gates last night and remain double-digits higher… as forecasts turn hot and dry through mid-month,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX, said in a note to clients.

Reduced crop expectations in South America added support.

AgRural, a Brazilian agribusiness consultancy, on Tuesday announced a forecast reduction for the country’s second corn crop because of a severe drought, adding that yields are expected to touch a five-year low this season.

A rally in crude oil also bolstered crop markets by raising the prospect of stronger demand for biofuel.

Chicago Board of Trade July corn futures rose 32 cents to $6.88-3/4 a bushel (all figures US$).

CBOT July soybeans settled up 18 cents at $15.48-1/2 a bushel and July soft red winter wheat was 30 cents higher at $6.93-1/2 a bushel.

Persisting dryness in northern U.S. and Canadian crop belts could be accentuated by hot weather forecast later this week, threatening to stress much of the spring wheat crop and some corn and soybean crops.

“We could still turn this around with good weather at the end of the month and through pollination in early July, but for now, the market wants to put a risk premium back into price … just in case,” Charlie Sernatinger, global head of grain futures at ED+F Man Capital, said in a client note.

MGEX spring wheat for July delivery was 44 cents higher at $7.71-1/2 a bushel.

The Commodity Weather Group said in a daily note that stress could rebuild in over one-third of the U.S. spring wheat crop in the next two weeks, with around 15 per cent of corn and soybeans seen at risk from dryness.

— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Colin Packham in Canberra.

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But how a farmer plans his or her business — and associated risks — can help lower that statistic.

The report, titled “Healthy Minds, Healthy Farms: Exploring a Connection between Mental Health and Farm Business Management” sought to improve understanding of how business and lifestyles influence a farmer’s mental health.

“The Canadian farming population is more stressed than the rest of the population within Canada, for sure,” said FMC executive director Heather Watson.

Ontario-based Wilton Consulting Group worked with FMC to conduct the study, which found 62 per cent of Canadian farmers are categorized with mid-stress scores and 14 per cent with high stress.

Watson said the report follows other recent studies calling for improved mental health supports for farmers, including one conducted by a parliamentary committee in 2019.

“We’ve kind of always felt that business management practices must be impacted by mental health, in terms of your ability to make decisions, think rationally, handle stress and have coping mechanisms,” she said, noting that was all more anecdotal. “We hadn’t really looked at it from an analytical point of view.

“Throughout the research, we kind of had two sides of the same coin: how does mental health impact farm business’ management, and how does farm business management practices affect mental health?”

Overall, the report indicated 21 per cent of farmers regularly follow a risk management plan, while close to half – 48 per cent – do not.

There is evidence suggesting that should change, as 88 per cent of farmers who reported using a written business plans say it contributed to their peace of mind.

“When they did do a business plan, it seemed to result in doing other business practices as well,” Watson said, noting those same farmers were the ones more likely to use advisors or do budgeting.

Watson said 88 per cent of those who had written business plans could look to those plans as a “guiding light” during difficult times.

“Having business management practices isn’t going to reduce the stresses out there. Stressors are out there, whether it’s the weather or markets or whatever, but it does impact how you react to those stressors,” she said. “We found farmers who had business plans had more positive coping mechanisms.”

‘Stuck in an office’

Those who do not have a written business plan often cite their success without one as the reason why – and the thought of making a plan can be stressful.

“I’m interested to see if the context we find ourselves in today (with COVID-19) might shift that thinking a little bit, because business isn’t very good for the majority of farmers right now and it’s a completely blindsiding situation,” she said, questioning if business plans that included a worse-case scenario contingency plan may have helped farmers now.

The report found some demographic differences, with women and younger farmers
showing signs of higher stress levels. For young people, the study suggests they are generally less effective at coping with stress and less likely to practice business risk management plans.

Business planning “is not something that farmers like to do, or want to do,” Watson said. “It doesn’t resonate with them, they didn’t get into farming to manage people or be crunching numbers stuck in an office, so how do we bridge that gap?”

To better support farmer mental health, FMC says continued awareness on the importance of it is needed alongside support in improving mental health literacy within agricultural circles.

FMC also says it and the broader agriculture community need to deliver business management advice, focusing on risk management literacy as a means to face uncertainty. It also calls for more advocacy to expand farmer-specific mental health support services.

“We’re hoping that a lot of groups will look at these recommendations and actions and say, ‘we’ll do a project on that,” said Watson.

In all, the report had 24 calls to action that resulted from an extensive survey involving 1,735 farmers, 14 focus groups and 72 one-on-one interviews with farmers and industry representatives.

Watson and FMC are hoping the study can be used as a reference during the next round of policy development for agriculture.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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As a farmer himself, Ganczar knew that downsizing his own herd was inevitable. “I knew with my parents getting older, there were no plans for me and my wife to move to the farm, so this decision was going to come sooner or later,” he explains, “but you’re never prepared for it.”

Ganczar was raised on his family’s farm at Valley River, Man., a small community northwest of Dauphin. After leaving home for post-secondary studies, Ganczar, who now lives in Dauphin with his wife and daughter, began a hobby farm upon returning to the area in 2003. He was drawn to the Simmental breed and purchased his first females in the fall of 2004, hoping to build a herd of 10.

His hand-picked herd grew to 56 head by fall 2016. In terms of breeding, he focused on raising tan calves that were in demand from eastern markets. “They do very well with our management program and our feed, so roughly half my animals were white Charolais, and they’d be bred to a Simmental bull,” he says. “The other half of the cows were either red Simmental or there was a few Red Angus that were bred to Charolais bulls.” They used around 400 acres of pasture land and currently have 235 acres of hay and feed land.

Ganczar always worked full time while farming, starting out as an agronomist upon returning to Dauphin. In 2007, he began his banking career as a loans officer, and worked his way up to his current position. “My career’s taken off. It’s been terrific,” he says. “I’ve got four lenders that work under me, and we’re all busy.” His parents still live on the farm and keep an eye on the herd when he is at work. Generally, he takes two weeks off near the end of March to be on site for calving.

By early 2017, Ganczar felt that he had too many irons in the fire. “I had to be in three places at once — I had to be at work, I had to be at the farm, I had to be at home,” he explains. “Having that many animals in an intensively managed herd was just taking too much of my time, and I was starting to get a little bit burnt out.”

As the year went on, Ganczar noticed that this stress was beginning to take a toll on him. “I found myself being a little cranky and not the easiest person to work with on the farm.” He struggled with being tired, less able to focus and having a lack of patience.

This situation came to a head during the August long weekend, when he started to feel poorly during haying, and soon learned that his immune system was starting to shut down. When Ganczar investigated the cause, his doctor advised him to make a major change. “He looked me right in the eye and he said, ‘Something’s got to give. You’re passionate about your family, passionate about your job and passionate about your farm… You have to give up something.’”

Taking into consideration their home in town and his parents’ age, Ganczar and his family decided to downsize their herd to 10 head. Now he learned for himself just how upsetting this situation can be. “It’s like losing a family member,” he says. “I’m very glad that I’m able to still keep a handful of animals because I can’t imagine my life without having some sort of livestock on the farm.

“I had a lady down the road that had rented me 210 acres of pasture, and it was just the most beautiful, scenic pasture,” he explains. “Every time I went to the farm, I pulled off the highway onto the gravel road that leads to the farm. That was the first thing I’d see, those cows in the field, every day on the ridge, and it was just great. That was probably one of the things that bothered me the most. I remember pulling out of that pasture many times last fall, just being flat-out upset and sometimes with tears in my eyes because next year I knew it wasn’t going to be my cows in that pasture.”

Ganczar was adamant that he wouldn’t sell his cattle through an auction market. “I couldn’t personally watch my cows go through the ring,” he says. “Plus, I couldn’t see myself loading my cows in a trailer and taking them to the auction mart. Mentally, that was just not going to happen.” He was also concerned about finding a buyer that would manage the cows in a similar, low-stress manner.

Thankfully, the right buyers came along. “I was very fortunate that I had a local young family that was looking to expand, and it was exactly what they were looking for,” he says. “They wanted a tame herd, because they have a very young family and they want their family to be involved.”

Together, they worked to compromise on which females to include, and both parties went away satisfied with the deal. To help out the buyers with their feed budget, Ganczar was able to feed the cows before they left for their new home at the end of the year. “I had 10 acres of grazing corn that I’ve always done,” he says. “I wanted to feed the cows until December 31 so I could use up my corn and get some value out of that 10 acres.”

This deal worked out better than he could have imagined. “The fact that I was able to feed them until December 31 helped them a lot because it helped his feed situation,” he says. “My herd was going to one place. They weren’t going to get split up. They were going to be taken care of because he’s got the same type of handling values and animal welfare values that I have, and it just made the situation so much easier to handle.”

By early January, his herd was down to 11 females. “I was really expecting to be super upset the day that the last cows went. When they went, it was like the weight of the world went off my shoulders.” He’s found that his remaining cows have brought back his original passion for raising cattle. “I absolutely love farming again,” he says. “My work and clients notice that I’ve got a little more energy.”

Looking to the future, Ganczar is excited about new possibilities for his farm. “We can produce really good-quality forages on a consistent basis, and our land costs are fairly cheap,” he says. “We’re going to be doing some custom niche-marketing haying, along with some large-scale haying for some local markets.” He already has one long-term client lined up, as well as others who have asked about purchasing small square bales.

Many options to consider

When considering downsizing or dispersing your herd, seeking the proper financial advice for your situation is of the utmost importance. Ganczar learned this earlier in his career, when he first wanted to farm with his parents after high school but was unable to get the necessary financial advice. “No one at that time told me that, ‘Hey, that farm isn’t big enough to support another person from a financial standpoint,’” he says. “I’m a banker because I want to give people the advice that I couldn’t find when I was in desperate need for it back in ’97, ’98 and ’99.”

Ganczar stresses the importance of taking emotion out of the equation. “The issue with a lot of my farm producers is it becomes an emotional decision,” he explains. He often recommends that his clients speak with an agricultural consultant to assist with this. “They will look at it from a strictly business standpoint and take the emotion out, and a lot of my producers are better for doing that.

“What it boils down to, especially if you’re farming as a living — that’s your lifestyle, that’s how you make your income — it is about making money,” he says. “If you’re not making a living and you’re struggling every day of your life just to put food on the table, you really have to look at whether it’s worth it.”

Many producers, he notes, hang onto an operation or a particular program because of a family connection. For him, that connection was that his grandparents farmed this same land. “I take great pride in still being able to farm it, being the third generation. But at the end of the day I know that they’re looking down on us… (and) would rather us be healthy and happy and not be stressed all the time.”

There are a variety of options to explore when selling cattle, so it doesn’t have to result in taking them to auction. “There are young people that really want to get into this business of cattle, but maybe can’t get the capital to buy the cattle. If you can work out a deal where you can lease them and still kind of have ownership and be part of it, I think it’s great,” he says. “You can control who takes them, how they take them and where they take them to.”

It’s vital that producers talk to someone about what they’re dealing with. “There is no shame in phoning the rural stress line, talking to your banker, talking to your neighbours and friends about your situation,” says Ganczar, who has had clients ask him about his experience when considering their own situations.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed that you’re selling your cattle,” he says. “It was a tough decision, but it can be done.”

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