Mind Your Head campaign prioritises farmers’ mental health
14th February 2025
There is no doubt that 2024 was a challenging year for farming in the UK and, given the added stress farmers are currently experiencing, ensuring farmers and farm workers prioritise both their physical and mental wellbeing has never been more important, said the Farm Safety Foundation team while launching its annual Mind Your Head campaign.
A recent study by the rural charity Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies) revealed that poor mental health among farmers and agricultural workers continues to be a major concern.
In the sample of over 750 farmers, nine out of 10 respondents (91%) agreed that poor mental health is the ‘biggest hidden problem’ facing the industry today.
The reality of farmers’ lives is that there are multiple reasons identified as contributing to poor mental health in the industry. The known pressures on farmers, including traditional farm stressors, contextual stressors and barriers to support, coupled with the impact of measures announced in the Autumn Budget, are leading to increased levels of stress and uncertainty in the farming community.
Hardworking farmers
Recent months have seen farmers travel from their fields to the front of the Houses of Parliament and supermarket car parks to show their frustration at the new wave of tax measures being introduced in April 2026.
Measures that are increasing levels of uncertainty and anxiety and adding serious concerns about an uncertain future for the industry and food production in the country.
The charity’s research showed that, on average, farmers worked longer hours in 2024 than they did in 2023. The average number of hours a full-time worker in the UK works per week is 36.4 hours, however, UK farmers work an average of 60 hours a week, with an alarming 44% of those aged between 41 and 60 years working more than 81 hours a week.
One in three farmers (33%) who work more than nine hours a day admit to having had an accident or a near miss in the past 12 months, demonstrating the link between long hours and working safely.
When mental wellbeing is factored in, the evidence revealed that farmers with lower mental wellbeing scores were significantly more likely to admit to working unsafely and risk-taking, something that raises alarm bells with the Farm Safety Foundation, especially as their research shows that the levels of mental wellbeing in those working in the industry have been steadily deteriorating over the past four years.
In the industry with the poorest safety record of any occupation in the UK, making sure farmers are prioritising their physical and mental wellbeing can be a matter of life or death.
According to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) 23 farm workers lost their lives in farm accidents in GB in 2023/2024. There were also 44 suicides registered in England and Wales among the farming and agricultural industry in 2022 (Office of National Statistics).
Mind Your Head campaign
This week, 10th to 14th February 2025, the Farm Safety Foundation is running its eighth annual Mind Your Head campaign. The campaign will continue to raise awareness of the various challenges facing the UK’s farming industry, break down the stigma attached to poor mental health, and sow the seeds of wellbeing and resilience in the sector.
The Farm Safety Foundation has also travelled to Carnoustie to launch ‘In Discussion With…’ a new series of roundtable events devised to learn more about the thoughts and feelings of various groups to both farming safely and looking after their mental wellbeing.
The event was the first of four roundtables planned across the UK in 2025 and gathered together some members of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs to learn about the challenges of loneliness and rural isolation in advance of the Mind Your Head campaign.
The young farmers from the Angus area were, however, royally surprised when, during the discussions, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Rothesay popped in to join the conversation.
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