RD201904

In the 1980s, the family-farm cri-

sis began with the worst agricultural

economic forecast since the Great

Depression. Market prices crashed.

Loans were called in. Interest rates

doubled overnight. Farmers were

evicted from their land. There were

fights at grain elevators, shootings in

local banks. Farmers’ suicide rates

soared. It was a wrecking ball for ru-

ral America.

So Mike moved back home and

opened a psychology practice. Mari-

lyn got a job as a nurse. Together,

they raised two children and began

farming corn, soybeans, oats, and hay

and raising purebred cattle, chickens,

and turkeys. Mike walks with a slight

limp—in 1990, during the oat harvest,

he lost four of his toes “in a moment of

carelessness” with the grain combine,

an event he describes as life-changing.

We are walking through the wet

grass toward the cornfield behind his

house when he cranes his head. “Hear

the calves bellering?” he asks. “They’ve

just been weaned.” We stop and listen.

The calves sound out in distressed

notes, their off-key voices like the cries

of prepubescent boys across the field.

M

ike began providing free

counseling, making referrals

for services, and coordinating

community events to break down the

stigma of mental health issues.

Joyce and John Blaske had to sell most of their farmland. But they aren’t giving up.

74 april 2019

Reader’s Digest