South Taranaki farmer Belinda Price has gone through burnout and is coming out the other side.

Now Price, who was Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year in 2021, is using that experience to help others as facilitator for the Rural Support Trust to support farmers who are struggling.

“It could be financially related, staff related, anything at all. Lots of us have done courses or lived experiences, and they’ll connect us with the right person.”

The “grey” areas of farming can all add up and cause stress and anxiety, she said.

“There are lots of grey areas. We know what’s coming in terms of climate change, but we don’t know what’s coming. What does it look like? How does it affect the business? How do we still have a profitable business going forward?

“The payout has been stressful. It has reduced by around $1, which means that all the budgets that we’d done have now dropped. It’s restricted what you can put your money on. We still have to keep people employed, look after people the best you can. There’s only so many levers you can pull.”

In 2016 they faced some issues on their farm they had never experienced before, and it took quite a while to resolve, Price said.

The situation, which they cannot discuss in detail, took its toll on their mental health.

“I was in tears. Didn’t know where to turn and Ben has had anxiety most of his life. He went to see a counsellor and got support around the anxiety. I ended up with burnout and seeing a different counsellor. It was awful.”

And recently she’s been through it again.

“I’ve had burnout in the last month, the payout drop and redoing budgets and realising you’re working really hard for nothing. All that stuff that everyone is in the same boat with, but it all just accumulated.”

She knew what was happening, so got help, she said.

“It feels heavy. Your body doesn’t feel heavy, but your mood feels heavy. It’s not you, you’re carrying this extra weight around, but it’s not who you are. I rung EAP counselling services with Fonterra. It was quite nice to talk to someone different who wasn’t in your farming space or that knew you and I could tell her everything.”

Price is a very social person, so farming during the spring is difficult for her anyway, she said.

“Because you don’t go off farm. You’re on farm all the time. Usually I’m off at a meeting, or Dairy Woman, I’m on a vet board, there’s lots of stuff that usually goes on. But nothing happens during calving time.”

“People noticed I didn’t respond to the usual group chats on social media with the girls or just didn’t speak to the people I’d normally speak to. I talked to the kids and Ben already knew something was up and he was suffering himself, his anxiety had heightened.”

She cried all the time. The staff noticed she seemed sad.

“I said diagnosed with burnout, I’m exhausted and need to do some self care, which is anything that you enjoy doing that will give you a bit of energy or put you into a sense of flow that you forget about the time.”

There are a number of places to go and get help, she said.

Since John Kirwan came out with his struggles, it’s been OK for men to talk and there are a lot more places for people to go and get support.

But Ben Price said it was hard to ask for help.

“Men don’t usually talk about things like that.”