It’s easy to come down with seasonally-affective disorder, or what I call “winter crazy” — anxiety resulting from constraints on what you really want to do during winter. Yup, it can be downright depressing.

• Spread manure? Nope. Govermint regs have nixed that as a source of winter-time “entertainment.”

• Go South? That used to be the grain farmer’s excuse for a Florida trip. Tried that a few years back. Got caught in a Carolina mountain snowstorm and had to turn around.

• Buy a snowplow? Global warming is making that a non-economic investment in many places — unless you can get a five-year contract plus a minimum payment.

• Join a Koffe Klutchers club? That might be bad advice, given milk and corn prices. Commiserating with other farmers might cause clenching your cup even harder.

The best remedy may be tapping noggins of farmers who’ve found ways to be hopeful, even profitable. Yup, there are some. You might have to go to a big meeting or a farm show to do it, though.

Jonathan Birdsong is a pen name for a Farm Progress editor.