Wellbeing bank account: How dairy farmer Paul Walker deals with stress

Paul Walker runs a 300 cow, 90-hectare dairy farm in heartland Te Puke. Photo / Farmstrong

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Te Puke dairy farmer Paul Walker enjoys the land and loves his animals, but in 2005 he wanted to give it all up.

He didn't realise it at the time but Walker was suffering from burnout.

"I didn't really know what stress was and then stress introduced itself to me I guess, in the form of just not being able to cope," he told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

Walker reached a point where he felt he was in "a deep hole" and he didn't know how to escape – so he decided to escape from farming instead.

"I didn't want to farm anymore, to be honest … when you utter those words you start thinking about every other occupation that you could be doing, except for the one you're in."

Realising he needed help, Walker attended a Farmstrong workshop, which was a turning point for him.

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He soon adopted the Farmstrong idea of the wellbeing bank account.

The idea was to make regular "investments" by doing things that increased wellbeing, which helped to deal with the "withdrawals" when on-farm life got demanding, he said.

He found this method incredibly helpful, especially during times of stress when things were out of his control, such as weather events or calving.

"They're all just constant withdrawals and unless you make deposits, you're going to end up in that burnout/stress situation.

"You can't just keep withdrawing all the time."

Deposits for Walker included connecting to others, giving to the community, taking notice, learning new things and staying active.

These were also Farmstong's five ways to wellbeing, he said.

An example was a twilight cricket team that Walker set up, called "Benaud's Backyard Bumpkins". He said regularly attending matches helped him make a few deposits into his wellbeing bank account.

"Once a week every Tuesday … it was a committed team event and it made you get off the farm."

Stargazing in the morning while getting the cows in was another way to make a deposit in his account and a good example of Farmstrong's "take notice" idea, Walker said.

"Often you can get so tied up in what you're doing and you're thinking five things ahead of what you need to be doing – you forget to take notice.

"Sometimes that's as simple as looking up at the sky on a beautiful morning when you're following the cows. Or popping out of the shed and watching the sunrise for 30 seconds.

"They're just little things that make you stop and forget the thing you're thinking about doing for the rest of the day and make you enjoy what you do."

Walker was now a Farmstrong champion and helped out other farmers "under the pump".

He also shared his story in the new Farmstrong book, Live well farm well.