Although farmers’ lives vary greatly around the world, all farmers share a basic human drive that I call the agrarian imperative: producing necessities for life, mainly food, clothing, shelter, and renewable fuels.  A 70-year-old Illinois farmer told me recently at a birthday party for a mutual friend that my agrarian imperative theory validated his choice to farm more than anything else he has learned from reading Farm and Ranch Life columns for 13 years. 

As I bring writing Farm and Ranch Life to a close, I can’t think of a finer tribute.  Thank you, new Illinois friend.

My recommended successor, Darla Tyler McSherry, will provide new perspectives for all agricultural producers about life issues that accompany being a farmer, rancher, or agricultural worker, along with family and community matters.  

Her experience includes growing up and still assisting with harvest on a north central Montana grain farm, marrying a husband who is now deceased, serving as a health program administrator, creating the Ask In Earnest website, and regularly speaking and writing about challenges to farmers.  

There are several reasons why I am ceasing to write Farm and Ranch Life, even though it has been a highlight of my life.  I dealt with many topics and tried to not repeat any subject unless new research findings and additional insights occurred.  

Nearly all of my 650 articles were original.  As I write my third book, I am drawing heavily on selected topics from various columns to develop a textbook about agricultural behavior health that is suitable for anyone to read.      

On November 1, 2024, my second book became available.  I wrote Meditations on Farming: The Agrarian Drive, Stress, and Mental Health to appeal to a wide audience, from academe, to the general public, in order to explain why people farm, as well as the history of behavioral healthcare of farm people from the Farm Crisis of the 1980s to now.  

Meditations on Farming took 13 years to write.  It reports on longitudinal research about what works to assist farmers manage stress, as well as what I learned from serving my fellow farmers for 45 years.

My farm friends tell me that Meditations on Farming appeals to farm families because I write from the perspective of a farmer, as well as clinical psychologist.  There are many stories, all true, which explain lessons I acquired from cattle and horses, as well as about fishing, land stewardship, and finding our purpose in life.  

Like my first book, Excellent Joy: Fishing, Farming, Hunting, and Psychology, my latest book is fun to read, with humor, and experiences from the school of hard knocks.  Both books are available from online book merchants, such as Amazon, and from bookstores.  

Purdue University Press, the publisher, can offer Meditations on Farming at a discounted price on their website: www.press.purdue.edu.  

The Purdue University Press folks were a super bunch to work with.  I learned much from them that will make my next book easier to write.  

Another matter that figured into my decision to end Farm and Ranch Life articles is that PSA-type cancer has reappeared, and I need time to aggressively undergo radiation therapy on a daily basis for the next couple months.  I have been free of cancer since 2002, when I underwent a prostatectomy.

PSA-type cancer is a sneaky rascal that can reappear in tissues other than the prostate gland of males.  This time it found three lymph nodes in my pelvis, but my prognosis for eradicating the metastatic cancer is good, my doctors say.

So, it’s time to say goodbye for now.  You readers have helped me with your thoughts and recommendations, for which I thank you.  Your feedback has been consistently positive and encouraging.

I also offer my appreciation to the editors and publishers of the agricultural newspaper you are reading.  We have become friends over the past thirteen years.  

In the future, I may submit occasional articles to your newspaper about important issues concerning the behavioral welfare of farm people. 

My best teachers who prepared me to write Farm and Ranch Life and Meditations on Farming are the farmers, ranchers, farm laborers, and farm families to whom I provided psychological services.  I probably learned more from you than you learned from me, or maybe we both learned how to understand ourselves and others.

So long for now.

Dr. Mike Rosmann grew up near Harlan in western Iowa and returned to Iowa in 1979 after resigning from the faculty of the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia so that he and his wife could raise their two children on a farm.  His behavioral health work was instrumental in Congress approving the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, which is part of the current Farm Bill.  Currently, he lives with his wife of 52 years, Marilyn, at Pella, Iowa.  And yes, every Farm and Ranch Life article had to “pass the Marilyn test” before sending it off to the newspapers.  Dr. Mike’s email address is: mike@agbehavioralhealth.com.