A two-part virtual workshop hosted by Nebraska Extension’s Women in Agriculture program in September will focus on managing and working through anxiety.

“Breaking Down Anxiety: Tools to Help You Live a Less Anxious Life” will hold its first session from 1 to 3 p.m. CST Sept. 8. The second session is scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m. CST Sept. 29.

The workshop will be facilitated by Ashley Machado, a mental health consultant who works primarily with agricultural professionals and their families.

“Sometimes anxiety can feel all-consuming, like you’re on a train you don’t want to be on and you don’t know how to get off,” Machado says. “Other times, it can feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but you keep getting stuck on a hamster wheel.”

The workshop will discuss how anxiety shows up, why it can be a reaction to uncertainty, and offer advice for developing skills to manage anxiety and its effects.

Machado is an advocate of rethinking the ways that we support mental health in the agriculture industry, and specializes in breaking down big ideas and deep feelings into simple, actionable strategies.

She applies 15 years of experience to helping individuals and organizations in agriculture to develop the tools they need to maintain good mental health and operate and live fully.

Machado holds a bachelor’s degree in human development and a master’s in social work with an emphasis in clinical mental health. She grew up in the dairy industry and now lives in California with her husband, a rancher and almond farmer.

The workshop will be held via Zoom, and participants should plan on attending both sessions.

Registration is $20 per person and can be completed on the Women in Agriculture website, wia.unl.edu.

Grazing conference

Do you want to learn more about grassland conservation, invasive species and grazing management? Make plans now to attend the 2022 Nebraska Grazing Conference on Aug. 9-10 in Kearney at the Younes Convention Center. 

A field tour kicks off the conference from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Aug. 9 at the Cottonwood and Linder Waterfowl Production Areas located near Bertrand. Topics include conservation and grazing livestock management. There is no fee to attend the field tour.

Sessions on Aug. 9 include speakers presenting information on grazing lands topics related to conservation, collaborative adaptive management and old world bluestem, a relatively new invasive species in Nebraska. On the evening of Aug. 9, there is a banquet with Steve Kenyon from Alberta, Canada, as the featured speaker.

The conference will conclude Aug. 10 with sessions on grazing systems and wildlife management. Sponsor and exhibitor booths will showcase new programs, equipment and products to conference participants.

More specific information on the conference is available on the website of the Center for Grassland Studies at grassland.unl.edu.