The charity marking 25 years of supporting the farming community as we face the challenges ahead

But the tsunami of problems in recent times, from almost biblical-proportion floods in North and South Yorkshire, to a very public assault on farmers polluting the world and destroying the soil has been tougher for some to shrug off.

Isolation is often levelled as a cause behind why farmers occupy the top position in the league table of suicide rate professions, alongside doctors.

Twenty-five years ago, when commodity prices suffered badly, Christopher Jones MBE started up the Farm Crisis Network from his farm in Northamptonshire.

Now as it celebrates its quarter century, renamed the Farming Community Network, the organisation has over 300 active members and involves 3,000 who have helped in some way.

As well as running the Farming Help helpline which is manned seven days a week, FCN has a website offering help, advice and contacts, plus a new site launched late last year called FarmWell which provides links to support and information, as well as fitness and wellness, both physical and mental.

Lisa Cardy took up the role of deputy co-ordinator of the Farming Community Network in Yorkshire last year, working alongside long-time co-ordinator Helen Benson, honoured for her work in last year’s Yorkshire Post Rural Awards.

Lisa, who previously worked as a schoolteacher and a farm secretary, lives and has worked alongside the farming community of Bishop Wilton and on the Garrowby Estate for many years.

She said FCN has more than 40 active members in Yorkshire, with volunteers who are experts in many fields and can offer guidance.

The work undertaken by the Farming Community Network and other farming help charities has gone some way to alleviating the feeling farmers are on their own.

“Health checks in livestock markets have been successful,” said Lisa. “These have put farmers into direct contact with a nurse, often for the first time, and given an opportunity to talk and assess their wellbeing.

“We are also extremely aware of promoting the Farming Community Network to everyone, as there are many who will know farmers in their area who may be under duress for whatever reason.

“We won’t tell people what to do, we’re not counsellors but we can walk through steps to take, give guidance on where there might be funding and make contact with the right support.

“If, for example, someone contacts us because they have had a Red Tractor inspection which has flagged up a list of things which are wrong with their farm, they don’t know what to do or where to go. We will link them up with one or more of our volunteers who can offer the right guidance and support.

“The range of volunteers we have working with FCN, ranges from vets to those who have worked in government agencies and know their way around the corridors of power, farmers of all disciplines in the livestock and arable sectors, financial experts from banking and accountancy, agricultural solicitors and retired estate managers. Two-thirds of the cases we handle are of a financial nature.”

Lisa said that due to the work the charity undertakes, it is also able to talk directly with government agencies on behalf of the people they are supporting.

As well as the current challenges the farming community and the country as a whole is facing, Lisa said FCN was still receiving calls relating to the floods in Fishlake and in Swaledale.

“You can be resilient and tough, but there is still help needed,” she said.

Isolation is something the farming community, unlike many others, is already used to. Lisa said the coronavirus crisis has hit at the time when the farming community is normally lambing, calving or crop drilling.

“The nature of farming is that it is an isolated occupation and sometimes that means, left to your own devices, things can play on your mind.”

Coronavirus regulations have seen a number of agricultural shows cancelled, livestock markets under restrictions, professional pickers from overseas unable to travel and these are all additional stresses that Lisa believes add even more concern to some farmers who are already struggling to cope.

“Our FarmWell website offers a great deal of information and support, but we are only too well aware that for some farmers or those in farming families who worry about the mental health of loved ones, the Farming Help helpline is most important.”

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