![\"Download](\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/static\/media\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/a><\/p>\nA fifth-generation farmer, he loved farming and its lifestyle so much the government used him as an ambassador to try to attract young people back to the land.<\/p>\n
But now, after two years of drought, constant battles with governments and banks, he is in huge debt.<\/p>\n
He can no longer afford workers on his farm.<\/p>\n
The stress led to his relationship breakdown.<\/p>\n
Now he works 18 hours a day on his 400 hectares \u2014 totally alone.<\/p>\n
He can go a week without seeing or talking to anyone.<\/p>\n
Finding feed for his 900 cows is a never ending struggle.<\/p>\n
When we went to his farm to interview him, I knew it was bad.<\/p>\n
But Jason\u2019s brutally honest, stark admission rocked me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t trust myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201dSo I gave the keys to my gun safe to my neighbour. I just didn\u2019t want the temptation. It\u2019s been really low. It\u2019s been really hard. It all comes at you all at once and it gets really dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
I found tears welling in my eyes.<\/p>\n
I had to turn away.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, after a message from a friend, Jason sought counselling and treatment.<\/p>\n
He stresses help is out there.<\/p>\n
But he also stresses he is one of hundreds going through exactly the same struggle with mental health on the land.<\/p>\n
So he\u2019s launched a personal crusade.<\/p>\n
Farmers have suffered in silence too long.<\/p>\n
They must get out and talk about the heartbreaking mental health impacts of this drought.<\/p>\n
It helps them \u2014 but also the general community needs to know the full extent of it and what it means for food production and our rural communities.<\/p>\n
Making enough people care is a start to finding solutions.<\/p>\n
Listening to Jason Smith you can\u2019t help but care.<\/p>\n
He symbolises a crisis we must no longer ignore.<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14<\/a> or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n You can watch Jason Smith\u2019s full story of what it means to be a dairy farmer in Australia tonight at 6pm, live on 7 and 7plus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019d struggle to find a better bloke than Jason Smith. The 39-year-old dairy farmer from Swan Marsh, near…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,64,1165,50,6989],"class_list":{"0":"post-5502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-real-life"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114727692854860307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}