Letter to the editor

Dear Editor,

With Montana being #3 in the the union with deaths by Suicide. And the fact that Farmers and Ranchers are 2 to 1 more likely to commit suicide than other professions. It’s a subject that needs to be addressed. We certainly don’t want to be anywhere in the top 10 even let alone 3rd. Our neighboring states of Wyoming at #1 and South Dakota #7 in Suicide rates makes this an even scarier fact.

Also with it being calving and lambing season and Agriculture in general being a highly dangerous occupation, we need to do everything we can to try to improve our odds and those numbers.

If you utilize Montana State Fund as your workers compensation provider, then it’s important that you participate in an annual safety meeting. That being said I wanted to let you know about an upcoming event that is being sponsored by Powder River-Carter County Farm Bureau on March 21st at the Boyes Hall.

The new Ag Safety Director Dana Jansen will be presenting an Ag Safety training, which is about a 45 minutes to one hour and very interesting. She has a fresh take on the training and is very up beat.

After Dana’s talk we’ve scheduled Jess Fuhrman from QPR institute (Question, Persuade, Refer) to speak about how to recognize the signs and/or symptoms to be aware of for suicide prevention. His talk is about an hour long, and I for one am greatly looking forward to it.

I would like to invite you to come join us at 1:00pm. We’ll have hors d’oeuvres at the beginning and will conclude with an early dinner following speakers approximately 3:30. Allowing everyone to get back to calving, and lambing, without the worry of cooking.

Please consider joining us!

Darcia Patten

PRCCFB vp

Dist #5 Director