How dairy farmer Matt Goodwin keeps calm for calving

South Canterbury dairy farmer Matt Goodwin. Photo / Supplied

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The busy calving season can be a stressful time and difficult on both the body and mind of a dairy farmer.

Sometimes the pressure feels overwhelming and can lead to a farmer "catastrophising" their situation.

South Canterbury dairy farmer Matt Goodwin knows all about catastrophising after he signed up for the online course, Know Your Mindset, Do What Matters, developed by the Agriwomen's Development Trust, with support from Farmstrong.

"It was a good course, I really enjoyed it," he told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"It was actually the title that struck me first, I thought, that sounds like quite an interesting course."

During the course, experts explained to Goodwin how the brain can override everyday thoughts, which can lead to catastrophising.

"So in really stressful situations ... our brain may exaggerate the stress that we're actually under and blow it out of proportion.

"It was something I had never heard of before and they explained it really well and that probably opened up my eyes a little bit to dealing with stress."

Just knowing that your brain was catastrophising was a great technique to combat the effects, Goodwin said.

"You can question your brain and go, oh well, actually - is this a big deal?"

Getting away from the farm was also helpful in mitigating stress.

"It might even be for half a day or a few hours - I go fishing.

"Just get away and realise it's not the end of the world."

It was not always an easy task to get away from the farm during calving, so Goodwin advised farmers to be mindful of their stress levels at this time.

"I think you've got to be really careful in those six or seven weeks."

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However, he reckoned it was also important to challenge "the old mentality" that a farmer had to be on-farm every day during calving and if it was possible to take a break, they should go for it.

Goodwin also made use of Farmstrong's Fit for Calving Exercise Programme which contained a series of videos to help farmers prevent strains and injuries during the physically-intensive season.

He kept his fitness levels up by heading to the heated pool in Timaru and swimming a few laps as well.

"I can go in there and smack out a couple of km and even in the middle of winter, you know when it's dreary days, I quite like going to the pool."

Maintaining a good level of fitness also came in handy for Goodwin's other passion - hunting.

"If I want to go away and maximise my day's hunting, I've actually got to be quite fit to enjoy it."

The next Know Your Mindset online courses take place on Tuesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 9.

Find out more and sign up here.