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As Milk Prices Decline, Worries About Dairy Farmer Suicides Rise

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As the nation's dairy farmers struggle through their fourth year of depressed milk prices, concerns are rising that many are becoming depressed themselves. The outlook for the next year is so bleak, it's heightening worries — especially in the Northeast — about farmer suicides. Agri-Mark Inc., a dairy cooperative with about 1,000 members, saw three farmers take their own lives in the past three years. The most recent was last month. It's a very small sample, but very sharp and disturbing increase. "It's tough to keep your head up with all of what's going on," says 55-year-old Will Rogers, a ruddy-faced white-haired farmer who has 75 cows on his farm in Warren, Mass. Out in his barn milking cows at the crack of dawn, as he does every single day, Rogers says farming is his calling, just as it was for his father. It's hard to reconcile such a wholesome way of life, he says, with farmers taking their own lives. "What [we] do here, this is nature's way, God's way," he says. "This is life,

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