By Tom Tabler, PhD
Professor, Extension Poultry Specialist
University of Tennessee Extension Service/Animal Science Department
Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center
Spring Hill, Tennessee
In March 2025, egg prices reached an all-time high of $6.23 per dozen due to the ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak. By March 2026, the poultry industry had made progress in replacing lost flocks, although HPAI outbreaks still occurred regularly.
With egg prices now closer to normal, news media attention is focused elsewhere. However, we must not forget the toll that HPAI continues to take on producers’ mental health.
HPAI devastation continues
A look at USDA’s website that tracks HPAI detections (Confirmed Pathogenic Avian Flu in Commercial & Backyard Flocks | APHIS) indicates that commercial broiler, turkey, table-egg, duck, pullet and breeder flocks, along with backyard flocks, live-bird markets and upland game-bird flocks have all been recently affected. Even with heightened biosecurity, no flock is totally safe, and over 205 million birds have been affected since the outbreak began on February 8, 2022.
The constant concern of an HPAI outbreak has been an issue for every poultry producer (commercial, backyard and game bird) for over 4 years now, with no end in sight. In addition, in March 2024, HPAI was diagnosed in dairy cattle, spreading to 1,088 confirmed cases in 19 states.
Livestock farming was never easy, and HPAI adds to the mental health stress that producers live with every day.
Rural mental health challenges
Livestock operations are typically located in rural agricultural areas that often have a shortage of health care professionals, especially those capable of treating mental health disorders. This shortage makes it difficult for farmers to find a practitioner to address mental health challenges, including suicidal concerns.
It’s important to note that there are differences between people who grow up on a farm and those who grow up in town.
I grew up on a small farm in west central Arkansas. Town, for us, was a small rural community (population ~3,200 folks back then) about 5 miles to the northwest. Many of us who grew up on farms or in isolated rural areas tend to have — how shall I tactfully put this — unique demographic characteristics; distinctive, culturally related behaviors; and health disparities different from our townsfolk cousins.
Hard day’s work
It has been my observation that this disparity between country and city has only widened over the years. Poultry and dairy farming is difficult work that is 24/7/365, and most folks today aren’t interested in working a schedule with long hours, harsh environments, tough working conditions and low pay. As a result, there is a large immigrant workforce in the US that performs much of the hard manual labor on farms, fields, orchards, etc. Mental health concerns and treatment options are an even bigger issue for this migrant workforce.
Farmers are known for not complaining when it comes to aches and pains, especially when the aches and pains are mental. Personally, I tend to think this is even more pronounced in the immigrant workforce population. Farming is physically demanding, emotionally taxing and, depending on circumstances, terribly isolated and occasionally lonely. Farm life is often hard, even harder when you’re tired and lonely.
Throw in extreme weather, labor shortages, volatile markets and the stress of running a farm, and you have one of the most high-pressure and dangerous jobs in existence. No wonder studies indicate that farmer suicide rates are two to five times higher than the national average,1,2 and mental health concerns like anxiety, financial worry, depression and burnout are so common in this demographic.
Who’s farming now?
Even though the average age of rural farmers is 58.1 years old,3 I don’t think that farmer suicide and mental health concerns are issues only for old white guys. Although male, Caucasian farmers make up most folks in farming in the US, the demographics of farmers are changing as more women, people of color, new farmers and younger individuals are increasingly represented in the workforce.4,5
Case in point: 36% of all farm producers are female, 56% of all farms have at least one female decision maker, 11% of farmers are veterans and 25% are new farmers.6
I’m the first to praise life in rural America. However, speaking from experience, it can be lonely, secluded, isolated, detached and forlorn. Again, farmers are strongly reluctant to seek mental health care. Fear of stigma and discrimination is a significant consideration, as small rural communities offer little chance to keep private things private.7,8 As so eloquently described in the lyrics to “Midnight Girl/Sunset Town,” “everyone knows when the neighbors cough” in these small, tight-knit communities.
In addition, most farmers have a tough persona and do not see mental health concerns as issues requiring outside assistance but more as a matter to endure and tough out on their own.
The ongoing HPAI outbreak means that increasing numbers of farmers and poultry company executives are facing difficult and overwhelming decisions about where to go from here after an HPAI break. But just because these decisions become more common as the outbreak drags on, it doesn’t lessen the mental anguish folks feel or the attention they may need.
Catch more flies with honey
At the nagging insistence of the assistant dean of what was then the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at the University of Arkansas, I took a human relations course in my last semester as an undergraduate. It was far from my favorite class but, in hindsight, one of the most valuable.
Why ask, pray tell? Because we learned “human relations”: how to “relate” with “humans” (particularly in difficult situations), think before you speak, put yourself in someone else’s place and consider what someone may be going through. The class taught the value and the need of empathy, sensitivity, compassion, consideration, kindness, sympathy and tenderness for others, subjects not typically on the mind of the average 22-year-old.
I learned that you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar. I always try to remember that, especially when dealing with folks in a tough spot.
That being said, a human relations class can teach you how to recognize when someone may be in trouble, but I’m not sure it can teach you how to respond. You may not know that until you are in the moment, and then you may just have to wing it and do the best you can. Each of us handles adversity differently, but I’m proof that the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Poultry growers dealing with an HPAI outbreak (or other disasters like a tornado, flood, hurricane, etc.) are in a tough spot physically, but the mental stress can be even more challenging and devastating. Those of us on the outside looking in must always be aware of this.
Be mindful of the pain and struggles these growers are dealing with and recognize the importance of “human relations.” Understand how valuable a little kindness and consideration can be to someone going through a hard time, even if it’s just holding someone’s hand at a kitchen table or sitting on a pickup tailgate listening to someone let off a little steam. It’s not always important what you say or do; simply being there, and caring enough to be there, is enough.
Peaches and barn cats
I offer a nugget of wisdom here that I can’t take credit for, but I do find valuable in dealing with HPAI. Donnie Smith, former president and CEO of Tyson Foods, has a unique perspective on corporate structure. I use that same unique outlook in everyday life to set my own moral compass and maintain my mental health.
Instead of seeing typical corporate pyramid structures with the stars at the top, Smith sees peach trees. And who are the stars on a peach tree? That’s right — the peaches. Smith sees himself at the bottom of the tree, as the roots that bring in resources and provide stability, support and structure for the stars.
Why will this same philosophy not work with everyday mental health? Farmers are a close, small, tight-knit community, much like peaches on a tree. If we all made it a priority to nourish and provide resources, stability, structure and direction to those peaches, couldn’t we lessen many of the mental health challenges facing rural America? The sooner the better. Otherwise, to paraphrase Cormac McCarthy, “By the time you figure it out, it will be too late.”
We will still be dealing with HPAI into the foreseeable future, but even if your flock is affected, don’t let that lead to mental despair or something worse. Don’t think that there isn’t anyone who will understand or listen, because there is.
Personally, I’ve had many long, weighty and meaningful conversations with a menagerie of barn cats over the years, and every cat has listened to what I had to say. An upside to these conversations is that you get to do most of the talking.
There’s nothing wrong with asking for help or offering help if you’re concerned about a friend or neighbor. If the stress of HPAI or even everyday farm chores is affecting your happiness or mental state, I humbly ask you to please consider talking things over with someone (or your barn cat). There are plenty of folks, including the suicide prevention hotline, 988. Plus, I have connections with a few barn cats that will listen to you.
But don’t wait too long to do it! I was not the biggest fan of the Coen brothers’ 2010 remake of “True Grit,” but it has grown on me over the years. The older version of Mattie has a final line that I think is appropriate here: “Time just gets away from us.” That is truer than most folks realize until it is too late.
Keep that in mind, friends, and remember that those of us in rural America can use all the peaches we can get!
References
- Ringgenberg W, Peek‐Asa C, Donham K, Ramirez M. Trends and characteristics of occupational suicide and homicide in farmers and agriculture workers, 1992–2010. J Rural Health. 2018;34(3):246-253. doi:10.1111/jrh.12245.
- Steelesmith DL, Fontanella CA, Campo JV, Bridge JA, Warren KL, Root ED. Contextual factors associated with county-level suicide rates in the United States, 1999 to 2016. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(9):E1910936.
- USDA-NASS. USDA releases 2022 Census of Agriculture data. News release. 2024. Available at: USDA releases 2022 Census of Agriculture data. Accessed: March 19, 2026.
- Steelesmith DL, Fontanella CA, Campo JV, Bridge JA, Warren KL, Root ED. Contextual factors associated with
- Reed DB, Claunch DT. Risk for depressive symptoms and suicide among U.S. primary farmers and family members: a systematic literature review. Workplace Health Saf. 2020;68(5):216507991988894-248. doi:10.1177/2165079919888940.
- Ibid
- Judd F, Jackson H, Fraser C, Murray G, Robins G, Komiti A. Understanding suicide in Australian farmers. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2006;41(1):1-10. doi:10.1007/s00127-005-0007-1.
- Bjornestad A, Brown L, Weidauer L. The relationship between social support and depressive symptoms in midwestern farmers. J Rural Mental Health. 2019;43(4):109-117.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
