It’s easy to feel a little over the ‘R’ word in reference to Resilience, according to Professor Jacki Schirmer, lead researcher on the Regional Wellbeing Survey team at the University of Canberra.

“I think ‘resilience’ has almost become a bit of a swear word. Everyone’s talking about investing in it, but no one seems quite sure what it really means.”

Professor Schirmer, who has been running the Regional Wellbeing Survey throughout Australia since 2013 defines the ‘R’ word as the ability to cope.

“A resilient person or business is one that’s able to cope with really challenging times when they happen. It doesn’t mean you experience no impacts from a challenge – it means you can cope with it and you can recover your quality of life, wellbeing or business performance within a reasonably short time of the challenge happening.”

“Take drought as an example and being resilient to drought. Ideally, you want to have strategies in place that mean that when the drought is happening, you can cope pretty well.”

“You’re going to have days where you’re finding it challenging, but in general, you’ve got a strategy where you know you can get through to the end and get back to things being pretty good.

“But resilience also goes well beyond that, because to be resilient, we don’t just want to cope when something’s happening, we want to put in place strategies that let us adapt our lives or our business so that the impacts of that event are going to be lessened next time it happens.”

Professor Schirmer has found there are many factors that contribute to resilience and for farmers – what makes a person and a business resilient often overlap.

“To be resilient, both the personal resilience of the farmer and the resilience of the farm business need to be considered, as they are deeply interconnected and difficult to separate.”

“One challenge with resilience is that many people focus solely on personal resilience without linking it to business. Farmers don’t have that luxury—they must consider both simultaneously. So, when we talk about building farmer resilience, it’s essential to consider how personal resilience supports business resilience, and vice versa.”

For an individual to be resilient, it’s important to have access to various ‘resilience resources’, according to Professor Schirmer. “One obvious resource is financial resilience. Ideally, a resilient person would have a financial buffer to draw on during challenging times. This could be savings, a debt facility with a bank, or investments that can be liquidated if necessary.”

“However, this ideal is increasingly difficult to achieve, especially with the current cost of living crisis in Australia. We’re seeing more people reduce their insurance coverage or shorten their savings buffer from three months to just two weeks.”

“While financial resources are important, they’re not the only resilience resources. Social networks, for example, are often overlooked but are critical for resilience. Maintaining strong social connections is as important as financial security in building resilience.”

To learn more about wellbeing and farmer resilience, listen to our podcast with Professor Jacki Schirmer on DairyPod.