Did you know this about UK farmers?

Before I talk about this topic of male farmers, the facts alone paint a serious picture of what men in farming are carrying on their backs.

• 84% of principal farmers are male.
• Women make up 22% of registered farmers and 32% of the wider agricultural workforce (ONS, 2023).
• The average Farm Business Income was £41,500 in 2023/24.
• The average farmer works 65 hours a week — nearly double the UK average of 37 hours. Many growers and livestock producers push 80–100+ hours.
• Farming is also an ageing workforce:
  • 40% of farmers are over 65
  • Only 2% are under 35
  • The average farmer is 59 years old (Compared to teachers and nurses at 43, and most doctors and dentists under 35.)
• The fatality statistics are even more sobering. In the UK, the average age of someone who dies in agriculture is around 60 (55 in Wales). Over the last five years:
  • 10.5% of fatalities were children under 13
  • 5.3% were aged 18–39
  • 57.9% were aged 40–64
  • 26.3% were 65+
• 91% of farmers say poor mental health is a major problem in the industry.
• 36% report being at risk of depression.
• 42% experienced significant stress and anxiety in the past year (RABI).
• Among younger farmers, the alarm bells are even louder: 95% of UK farmers under 40 say poor mental health is one of the biggest hidden issues in farming today (Farm Safety Foundation). Longer working hours, isolation, unpredictable markets, financial pressure, animal disease, weather, paperwork, and generational expectations all hit mental wellbeing hard.
• The ONS recorded 36 suicides in farming and agriculture in 2021 — a number experts say is likely underreported.
• As of 2025, there are an estimated 96,900 farmers in the UK, but 462,000 people work in agriculture when you include partners, spouses, and workers. This is a huge community carrying huge pressure — often silently.

   

The Hidden Weight of Farming Life

When people imagine a farmer they often see a postcard: wind in the grass, a dog at the gate, a wide sky. What they rarely imagine is the private, unglamorous ledger behind that image — the sleepless nights, the phone that never stops, the tiny decisions with massive consequences, and the loneliness that comes from being the only adult responsible for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of lives that are utterly dependent on you.

Farming is not a job you leave at 5 p.m. It’s a relationship with land, animals, markets, weather and time. It’s a web of responsibilities that cannot be paused or postponed without consequences. And for many men in farming, that unrelenting responsibility turns into a pressure cooker.

A Day That Never Ends

Picture Tom: late 40s, fourth generation on the same mixed farm. The day starts at 4:00 a.m. with a birthing ewe in difficulty and doesn’t properly end until he finally collapses sometime after midnight, after fixing a broken trough, called out to check a sick cow, answering trade texts, and shifting feed stocks because of a sudden price rise. He misses his son’s football match again. He hasn’t had a night out in months. The farm runs because Tom keeps it running, but that constancy is an invisible tax on his body and mind.

Or picture Ade: in his 30s, an arable farmer. Climate shocks last year ruined a whole wheat rotation. A major customer cancelled a contract. He’s watching his bank balance more than his fields. He can’t leave for a two-day training course because the seed delivery, the contractor, and the weather all require him at the farm. He is technically “successful” on paper — equipment, acreage, bank lending — but every month feels like walking on the edge of a cliff.

The Sources of Pressure

Total Responsibility. Farmers are caretakers of living systems, animals and crops that sleep, fall ill, and die. When things go wrong, the farmer feels profoundly accountable. Animal welfare incidents, disease outbreaks, or crop losses are not abstract failures; they’re personal and moral catastrophes.

Temporal Intensity. Farming follows biological rhythms — calving, lambing, harvest — that occur on their own timetable. Seasons demand concentrated, physical work for long stretches, and there is no “take the week off” if animals need care.

Economic Volatility. Farmers live with razor-thin margins. A single poor harvest, a market price crash, or a sudden input-cost spike can erase a year’s work. This economic fragility produces chronic financial anxiety.

Climate Change and Uncertainty. More frequent extreme weather — droughts, floods, late frosts — means traditional knowledge is under constant stress. Farmers must adapt fast, often at considerable expense.

Isolation and Social Loss. Many farms are physically isolated. Neighbouring families may be busy with their own work; barns and fields are poor social venues. Social bonds fray when everyone is exhausted or absent. Men in farming report deep loneliness and that the “social calendar” has shrunk to emergencies and essential tasks.

Identity and Pride. Farming identity is often wrapped up in stoicism, self-reliance, and tradition. Asking for help can feel like failure — not just personally, but to the family name and history.

Regulation and Bureaucracy. Modern farmers navigate complex regulations, compliance checks, subsidy schemes, and paperwork. For someone whose time is consumed by seasonal labour, this administrative load is an added, soul-numbing stress.

Restricted Mobility. You can’t always travel when you want. Livestock can’t be left during critical periods; contractors must be supervised; borders and logistics constrain movement. The inability to take a break is both practical and psychological.

Loneliness, Masculinity and Help-Seeking

There’s a cultural layer on top of these structural pressures. Rural masculinities often prize toughness and emotional restraint. Saying “I’m struggling” can be stigmatized, interpreted as weakness. Several agricultural mental-health studies and charity reports have documented that farmers are less likely to seek help. This combination of isolation and a cultural barrier to vulnerability means many men keep suffering in silence until a crisis point, relationship breakdown, severe depression, or worse.

Real Consequences

• Sleep deprivation undermines decision-making and increases accident risk (driving, machinery).
• Burnout causes withdrawal from community and family, which in turn reduces the informal support that could help.
• Self-medication and alcohol use sometimes follow as a coping mechanism.
• Mental health crisis and elevated suicide risk are documented industry concerns across multiple countries. Many rural support organisations now emphasise that mental health and farm safety are two sides of the same coin.

Stories That Stay With You

• The Lambing Season Breakdown. A farmer I met described breaking down in the lambing shed after three nights without sleep, surrounded by lifeless lambs. He stayed because he believed he must. Afterwards, he felt numb for weeks and didn’t tell his partner; the shame of “losing it” kept him quiet.
• The Market Shock That Broke a Man. Another irrigator lost a contract when the buyer went bust. The farmer’s cashflow dried up. He didn’t tell his accountant or family until payments bounced. He later said the worst part wasn’t the debt; it was how quickly the isolation crept in. Support groups helped him reframe the crisis, but not before it damaged relationships.
• The Reluctant Carer. A widower in his 60s suddenly found himself raising a young grandchild. He was proud and overwhelmed. He’d never had to navigate benefit systems or parenting support. He didn’t know where to look. His pride made him delay asking for help; the delay almost bankrupted his farm.

These stories show how mental-health challenges in farming are often entangled with identity, time pressure, and shame.

What the Evidence and Experts Say

Many agricultural charities and rural health researchers emphasise three linked facts:

• Farming communities have high exposure to risk factors for poor mental health (isolation, financial volatility, physical hazards).
• Help-seeking is lower in farming populations.
• Targeted, accessible, community-based interventions — such as peer support, on-farm counselling, helplines and flexible services — are effective.

If you want to research this more deeply, look at: Samaritans’ rural mental health resources, Farming Community Network reports (UK), and academic work on rural mental health and occupational stress in agricultural communities. Books like James Rebanks’ The Shepherd’s Life and other farming memoirs give vivid first-hand insights into identity and continuity, while policy reports from agricultural insurers (for example, NFU Mutual in the UK) have also highlighted stressors unique to farming households.

How Therapy Can Support Young Farmers

Male Minds Counselling is able to support young Men (18–25) in Farming. When people picture farming, they see fields, fresh air, and a peaceful life. But young farmers know the truth: the work never stops, the pressure is constant, and there’s no “clocking off.” Farming is physical, emotional, financial, social — all at once.

For many young men in farming, the stress can pile up silently: long hours, family expectations, weather unpredictability, livestock responsibility, debt, market fluctuations, loneliness, burnout, and the unspoken pressure to “be strong.” Therapy can be a lifeline — private, practical, and without judgement.

Practical Ways Therapy Helps Young Farmers

Flexible Counselling That Fits Around the Farm

A farm doesn’t run on a 9–5 schedule. Neither do you.

Male Minds offers:

• evening sessions
• early-morning slots
• online counselling
• short check-in sessions during busy seasons

Therapy that works around lambing, harvest, milking times, or market days.

Tools for Managing Overwhelm, Stress & Anxiety

Farm stress isn’t abstract, it’s immediate and physical. Therapy helps young farmers learn how to:

• regulate stress when everything feels urgent
• manage panic or dread
• stop catastrophising when something goes wrong
• lower the mental load of constant responsibility

A Space to Talk About Family Pressure

Many young farmers are working:

• on the family farm
• under their father or uncle
• in multi-generational environments
• with expectations they didn’t choose

Therapy helps young men navigate:

• feeling trapped
• not wanting to disappoint their family
• wanting independence but not conflict
• frustration, guilt, or resentment
• sibling rivalry and inheritance pressure

Support After Crises or Animal Loss

Young farmers often experience trauma that no one talks about:

• disease outbreaks
• losing livestock
• accidents
• machinery failures
• fire or flooding
• sudden market collapse

Therapy provides grounding, reduces trauma symptoms, and stops long-term emotional damage from setting in.

Building Identity Outside the Farm

Many young men struggle with: “I don’t know who I am beyond farming.” Therapy helps you explore:

• friendships
• relationships
• self-esteem
• goals
• masculinity
• independence

Not to leave the farm, but to know who you are on it. Rural life can be isolating, especially for young men. Therapy becomes a consistent, confidential space where you don’t have to pretend you’re fine.

Male Minds Counselling: Real Support for Rural Men

Low-Barrier, Straightforward Help

Men in farming are practical. They don’t need jargon, they need strategies. Therapy focuses on:

• improving sleep
• handling early-morning pressure
• resolving family conflict
• managing burnout
• stopping the spiral of overthinking
• grounding techniques
• building resilience

Respecting Masculinity, Not Undermining It

Many young farmers say: “I don’t want to be seen as weak.” Therapy at Male Minds reframes asking for help as: strength, responsibility, and leadership. Farm culture can be quiet, stoic, and emotionally tight. Therapy lets young men drop the armour, even for one hour and breathe.

Community-Level Support: How Therapy Fits In

Although sessions are private and confidental, therapy complements rural support systems like:

• peer chats in machinery sheds
• informal talks at livestock markets
• off-season meetups
• agricultural colleges
• rural youth clubs

Therapy doesn’t replace these, it strengthens them. Just like maintaining equipment prevents breakdown, counselling prevents emotional overload turning into crisis.

Small Changes That Make a Big Difference

For young farmers, progress might look like:

• one better night’s sleep
• one honest conversation with a parent
• one strategy that stops panic during lambing
• one hour a week where you’re not responsible for everything

These small shifts create stability, confidence, and emotional resilience.

A Call for Dignified Support for Young Farmers

Young men in farming carry huge responsibilities at a young age. They are expected to be strong, calm, practical, and unshakeable. But beneath that strength is a human being who also deserves support, rest, and space to speak openly. Therapy is not weakness. It’s maintenance — of your mind, your identity, and your future. Male Minds Counselling is here for young farmers across Reading, Berkshire and surrounding rural areas. Your mind is your most important tool. Let’s look after it.

Cassim