Your legacy won’t be determined by your ability to keep your multigenerational dairy or pass a profitable operation to the next generation – but by the lives you touch. These are essential things to remember as we face an especially demanding season.

Ultimately, eating isn’t about hitting an ideal – it’s about giving your brain and body what they need to handle life’s demands. Learn how to create a balanced diet to help optimize energy and health.

Feed. One of the most frequently analyzed pieces of the dairy business. But how about your own ration? If you’re like many in agriculture, your own nutrition falls far down the list – and the cows consume a more balanced diet than you.

Want to reduce your stress hormone levels, improve your cardiac function, reduce inflammation, improve sleep, slow down neurodegeneration and become more resilient? There’s a simple solution, backed by research, and it’s a practice you can do in the barn, office, truck or at home: practice gratitude.

Jackie Sanford, Heather Lifsey and Becky Heim found that balancing these roles with their responsibilities on the farm and careers required creativity, resilience and a willingness to lean on others. Their journeys reveal not only the struggles of caregiving but also the profound strength it takes to navigate this path.

Social interactions are on the list of ways to beat chronic stress. Your social network helps provide space, perspective and emotional support. Humans need humans, just as cows need cows. Togetherall is a global network of peers, backed by licensed clinicians, designed to provide a nationwide safety net of confidential and on-demand support to farmers, ranchers and their families.

Stress often accompanies change because humans aren’t naturally adept at it. Since change is constant in our business (and lives), it is wise to identify how you can control your reaction to it. Katie Coyne knows this all too well. She is a well-known showmanship judge, owner of Mill Wheel Show Clinics and former Progressive Dairy editor.

I’ve heard from several dairy farmers that they don’t know how much longer they can hold on. I’ve watched families struggle to keep a dream alive at the demise of the family. And I’ve seen individuals suffer because they didn’t think there was life after dairy farming. Now seems like the right time to illustrate a story of a dairy family who overcame greater challenges than most of us will ever face.