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Farm families under strain in the '80s

Broadcast Date: Dec. 15, 1986

What's happening to the farm family? Mental-health experts say divorce, family violence and thoughts of suicide are some of the problems confronting farm families in hard times. Running a family farm is a lot more than just a job for most farmers. For them, the farm represents the past, the future, an identity and a way of life. In this clip from CBC Regina, a conference addresses the subject of stress on the family farm.

Farm families under strain in the '80s

• In 1992 the province of Saskatchewan introduced the Saskatchewan Farm Stress Line, a telephone counselling service for farmers facing financial, family or personal crisis.
• The Farm Stress Line was intended as a temporary measure, but as of June 2005 it was still operating.
• The line received 1,441 calls in 2001 and 988 calls in 2002. Men and women called in roughly equal proportions.


• Similar services specific to farmers are available in Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia.
• In 2000 the Canadian Public Health Agency published a report on suicide rates among male Canadian farmers in the years 1971 to 1987. The report found that the rate of suicide among Canadian farmers was no higher than that of the general male population.


• The exception was Quebec, where the rate of suicides among farmers was higher. However, the study's authors said the finding could be due to faulty data.
• Faced with diminishing farm incomes, many farm families have turned to off-farm jobs to supplement the household income. The Centre for Rural Studies and Enrichment estimates that, in 1996, off-farm sources accounted for 77 per cent of total average family farm income.


• In 2001, 24 per cent of beef farmers and 23 per cent of farmers growing grains and oilseeds (but not wheat) worked at an off-farm job for 40 hours or more per week.
• Examples of off-farm jobs (full time and part time) include driving transport trucks, hauling goods for other farmers, and (usually for women) working in shops and restaurants in nearby towns.


• "Farming is like standing in the middle of a field in a cold wind tearing up $20 bills." — playwright Dan Needles, creator of the Wingfield Farm series of comic plays about a stockbroker who quits Toronto to take up farming.

Farm families under strain in the '80s

Medium: Television

Program: Countryside

Broadcast Date: Dec. 15, 1986

Guest(s): Donnette Elder, Val Farmer, Lynda Haverstock

Reporter: Art Jones

Duration: 5:30

Last updated:
July 20, 2009