The Ontario Federation of Agriculture's Lambton director is urging area farmers to check in on their neighbours and watch for changes in their mental health.
Don McCabe said stress, already being felt from a difficult planting season, is only going to increase during this year's harvest.
"Farmers don't like to talk about their business, they don't like to let on there's really a problem and when they want to talk about it, they want to use their language," said McCabe. "It's like anybody else. A chemical engineer would be much happier talking to a fellow chemical engineer about what my problems are."
McCabe said there are solutions to the mental anxieties and stresses.
"You're not alone. There's a lot of people in these circumstances. We all have to get through this together. Please open up," he said.
Lambton Federation of Agriculture has put together a video to help people initiate the conversation. You can view it here.
Speaking to county council in Wyoming Wednesday, McCabe said 10,000 acres -- including his own -- were left unseeded locally this year.
"Movement of those grains and oilseeds is going to be down to the tune of roughly 9,500 truck loads. This is a stressful situation because you're putting a $100 million dollar loss over roughly 2,500 to 3,000 farmers in Lambton County. That's a sizable hit," said McCabe.
He said corn acreage was down 50 per cent and winter wheat was down 65 per cent -- while soybean acreage was up 30 per cent -- because farmers planted it as an alternative to corn.