Outagamie County Extension program helps farmers make healthy decisions

These are difficult times for farmers. Low milk prices and high costs of production combined with trade sanctions have forced some farmers and their families to make difficult choices.

Extension Outagamie County’s upcoming Taking Care of You Farm Families program on April 25, May 2, 9 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. aims to help farmers by giving them the tools they need to make healthy choices.

Sarah Grotjan, Agriculture Extension Educator in Outagamie County says, “All too often, farmers tend to put the farm first. To remain healthy, you must think about yourself and your family’s well-being first.”

In addition to learning how to cope with stress, farmers will also get a chance to create support systems with like-minded people.  

“You will become stronger and feel better about yourself, the farm, and the future,” says Grotjan.

This 4-session community-based program will include strategies to:

• Increase awareness of how stress affects our body, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
• Learn to manage how we respond to stress with our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
• Cultivate positive emotions to improve our resiliency to life’s challenges.
• Nurture ourselves to improve the health of our body, mind and decision-making
• Learn from and finding opportunities in life’s challenges.
• Live life in line with what we value; recognizing the interrelatedness of various dimensions of our health and achieving a healthier balance between them.
• Create a network of farm families to share and understand the unique challenges in farming.

This four-part program will take place at Center Town Hall in Appleton. Visit the Extension website at https://outagamie.extension.wisc.edu/ or call 920-832-5129 for more information and to register. Resources will be available and educators will be on hand at each session to help with farmers.

Grotjan states, “With a healthy mind and body, difficult decisions become easier to conquer.”