Advice from a membership volunteer
Ernie Welch shares his thoughts on the importance of bringing new farmers and agriculturalists into the Farm Bureau family.
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As the granddaughter of a Hardin County farmer, Jami Dellifield knew that agriculture didn’t easily make room for mental health care.
“We pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and nobody talks about hard things – it’s a pride issue,” said Dellifield, a family and consumer science educator with OSU Extension in Hardin County. But when she started in her role six years ago, she quickly realized that the office needed to do much more to help farmers seek care for the mental stress of their 24-hour-a-day jobs. So, she set to work.
As a result of that outreach, Dellifield was recently awarded the first Yvonne Lesicko Perseverance Prize, established to honor Lesicko’s work at the Ohio Farm Bureau that helped create the state’s Got Your Back coalition to combat farm stress. The prize, known as The “Y” Prize, was set up after Lesicko’s unexpected death in 2020. Its goal is to reduce the stigma around mental health issues.
Dellifield, who suffers from anxiety but wasn’t diagnosed until she was in her 30s, is part of what she calls a “small but mighty” group of Extension educators who are passionate about helping farmers understand that “it’s OK sometimes to not be OK.”
Higgins, farmer Brandon Fullenkamp and farmer and Ohio Farm Bureau State Board Trustee Nathan Brown at the Young Ad Professionals leadership conference
earlier this year.
They give presentations to commodity groups, talk with FFA chapters, help social workers-in-training understand the stresses of farming and develop programming for 4-H. They pass out resource cards with mental health information at public functions and partner with state agencies to create coalitions that address the issue. They also teach officials from banks and other lenders to recognize when their clients may be suffering from mental health stress, as well as educate themselves through state and national programs such as Mental Health
First Aid.
“The goal is more awareness and education to destigmatize mental health problems,” Dellifield said. “This problem was always around but it just wasn’t talked about. We excused it away, using language like ‘They’re down in the dumps.’ Now we’re recognizing it’s a diagnosis and people are realizing it’s OK to take medicine for a behavioral health issue.”
Dellifield, who lives in Ada and has two college-age children with husband David, said most farmers are receptive to the information and sometimes share stories of their struggles.
“When you give people a place to share where they feel safe, it becomes less taboo and more commonplace,” she said. Often they don’t realize that spending more time alone or having four beers instead of two or not engaging in community activities can be signs their mental health is stressed, Dellifield said.
Having collaborated with Lesicko on the Got Your Back campaign, Dellifield said it’s a special honor to receive the first “Y” prize.
“I was lucky enough to have worked with Yvonne and I am humbled to receive a prize named after her,” she said. “I do a lot of other things with Extension, but to me this permeates so much of what we do and how we do things. This is what I’m passionate about.”
My first recommendation in your journey is to start out with a local farming friend or mentor along with joining an organization like Ohio Farm Bureau.
We’re just so thankful for the Farm Bureau and the foundation for helping put this together. And of course, the Boyert family for the vision they had with this grant. It’s jumping us forward 10 years. It’s unbelievable.
I could not have done it without the resources I have found through Farm Bureau.
It wasn’t until I joined the Wilmington College Collegiate Farm Bureau that I truly saw how my passion could translate into leadership, advocacy and a career.
The issue of property taxation remains as one of the biggest challenges our members face today. Ensuring agricultural property is valued for its agricultural potential and not development is critical to the continued success of Ohio agriculture.
Through the Select Partner program, we became educated in farm insurance and weren't just selling policies. It became more and more clear why farmers need an advocate like Ohio Farm Bureau.
So many of the issues that OFBF and its members are advocating for are important to all Ohioans. I look at OFBF as an agricultural watchdog advocating for farmers and rural communities across Ohio.
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