Drought-stricken farmers get relief via donated hay from Need for Feed charity

There’s still no rain on the horizon, but 100 drought-stricken farmers will get some relief this weekend.

More than 40 truckloads of donated hay will roll into South Australia this weekend and provide relief for more than 100 drought-stricken farmers.

Volunteer drivers from Victorian-based charity Need for Feed will deliver about 1500 bales of hay which has either been donated or purchased by cash donations.

The trucks will gather at Deniliquin on Friday night and drive through Renmark to converge on the Mid-North town of Gladstone on Saturday night. From there, they’ll distribute the hay, valued at more than $200,000, to farmers as far away as the West Coast.

Need for Feed founder Graham Cockerell will meet officials from the Department of Primary Industries and Regions of SA on Tuesday to discuss accessing money from a State Government drought relief package to help pay transport costs.

Victorian-based Mr Cockerell said this would be the ninth Need for Feed hay run into South Australia in the past 15 months.

Trucks loaded with hay at a previous Need for Feed hay run to Gladstone on March 8. Picture: Supplied

“The drought over there, it’s as bad as anything we’ve seen over our years, and we’re starting our 20th year soon, so we’ve seen a bit,” he said.

“It is as bad as western New South Wales and western Queensland back in the last drought of 2018-19.”

Mr Cockerell, son of a dairy farmer who died by suicide, said the mental health support organisations such as his could provide drought-stricken farmers was sometimes just as important as the hay.

He said some farmers were so grateful when the hay arrived at their farm they were reduced to tears.

“We usually stay for a chat and sometimes a cuppa,” he said. “I think what is probably just as important or more important than the actual feed is the mental health side of it and people knowing that somebody out there cares.

“Country life can be a fairly lonely existence and statistics prove that mental health and suicide rates in rural areas is higher than elsewhere, and the more remote you get, that probably accentuates that.”

Andrew Kitto at his farm near Gladstone. Picture: Ben Clark

“We care about what’s going on, which is why we’re going backwards and forwards so many times. We’re doing the best we can at the moment to support those farmers and we’ll get around as many as possible.”

Farmers who receive hay will also receive molasses, donated by Sunshine Sugar, NSW, to supplement the stock feed and a bag of dog food donated by Laucke Mills at Daveyston, SA.

Gladstone district farmer Andrew Kitto said the hay run would provide tremendous relief for primary producers getting increasingly desperate for rain.

South Australian farmers have traditionally associated Anzac Day as the deadline for a break in the season, but most of the state remains in drought with no forecast of rain in the immediate future.

Originally published as Drought-stricken farmers get relief via donated hay from Need for Feed charity