Quantifying Stressors Among Iowa Farmers
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Since 1905, the Department of Agricultural Engineering, now the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE), has been a leader in providing engineering solutions to agricultural problems in the United States and the world. The department’s original mission was to mechanize agriculture. That mission has evolved to encompass a global view of the entire food production system–the wise management of natural resources in the production, processing, storage, handling, and use of food fiber and other biological products.
History
In 1905 Agricultural Engineering was recognized as a subdivision of the Department of Agronomy, and in 1907 it was recognized as a unique department. It was renamed the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering in 1990. The department merged with the Department of Industrial Education and Technology in 2004.
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1905–present
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- Department of Agricultural Engineering (1907–1990)
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- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (parent college)
- College of Engineering (parent college)
- Department of Industrial Education and Technology, (merged, 2004)
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Abstract
In order to identify events/activities that are particularly stressful for farmers/ranchers, a farm stress survey based on the proportionate scaling method was mailed to a stratified random sample of 3,000 Iowa farmers by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The participants were asked to compare 62 life events and farm activities to a marriage (assigned a baseline rating of 50), decide if it was less stressful or more stressful, and then assign a stress rating between 1 and 100. As expected, the most stressful events were the death of a spouse or child. Other high-stress events were disabling injuries, foreclosure on a mortgage, divorce, machinery breakdown during harvest, and loss of crop to weather. Mean stress ratings varied by age, marital status, and type of farming enterprise. Farmers between the ages of 40-59 and 60-79 had the most items with high stress levels. Females had more high-stress items than males. Divorced farmers had fewer high-stress items than other respondents. Farmer's whose primary focus was raising horses had more high-stress items than other farm types. Significant outcomes of this study go beyond the specific mean stress ratings of the events and activities. The results indicate that farm stressors can be quantified using the proportionate scaling method and that the impact of the stressor is based not just on the event but is also dependent on the characteristics of the farmer (e.g., age, gender, marital status, etc.).
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This article is from Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 14, no. 4 (2008): 431–439.