7:30 am –3:00 p.m.
RM 101 – Fence Posts Talking to Each Other – Ron Hanson, University of Nebraska

Preventing Family Failures

There’s a lot of stress in the cattle industry — from drought to farm policy to cattle prices. Those stressors carry over into family life, affecting marriages and family relationships, said the University of Nebraska’s Ron Hanson during the Cattlemen’s College Wednesday, Jan. 29. Sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, the Cattlemen’s College educational forum was held in conjunction with the 2003 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in Nashville, Tenn.

"Four years ago my phone started ringing, and it hasn’t stopped," Hanson said, adding that producers are coming to him to ask if they should keep trying.

Producers exiting the business are a reality of life. "That cannot be stopped," he said. "The real tragedy is that many farm family relationships will be destroyed during the process." Business failures become family failures.

Communication is key to preventing these family failures, Hansen said, adding that farmers are notorious for not wanting anyone to "know their business." Bottling it up inside can lead to a feeling of isolation and depression, he warned. However, knowing you’re not alone in facing these problems can begin the healing process of a stressful situation.

Key to communication is listening, Hansen said, pointing out that often we get so absorbed in our own problems that we fail to really listen. We become "fenceposts talking to fenceposts."

In personal relationships, Hansen reminded producers that if an individual perceives there to be a problem, there is a problem. The problem will exist until the perception is changed, so the key to solving the problem is changing the perception.

Hansen reminded producers that it’s not the disagreement that ruins marriages and relationships, it’s how you handle it. You have to learn to have disagreements without being disagreeable.

— by Shauna Rose Hermel