AM Minnesota Today Farm & Rural Helpline

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has developed a new Farm and Rural Helpline. That will be the topic on today's AM Minnesota Program. My guest will be Meg Moynihan Senior Advisor, Strategy and Innovation with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has also developed and scheduled a series of trainings Down on the Farm: Supporting Farmers in Stressful Times.

The holiday season is supposed to be a happy time with all kinds of special programs and family gatherings. However, for farm families in financial stress the holidays seem to make the situation even worse. You see everyone else happy. All you can think about is the bills you cannot pay.

The problem is compounded by how long we have seen low commodity prices. It has been 4 years in a row. Recently I was at the annual Variety Trials meeting at the South Central College in Faribault. They shared one graph that sums it all up. It has been 4 years in a row that 50 percent of the farmers in the Farm Business Management group in Faribault have not generated enough income to pay all their expenses!

Listen to the show below.