With south-west Victoria enduring its driest winter on record, Aussie Hay Runners are transporting 992 bales of donated hay to help struggling farmers in the Dreeite, Beeac and Colac areas.
AHR has secured high-quality hay from as far away as Inverell in northern New South Wales, Katandra in central Victoria and Rainbow in western Victoria, valued at $117,800 in total.
The charity said that Colac and the surrounding areas have been “extremely generous” with donations of hay and fodder to help farmers in other areas since 2019, and now it was their turn to give back to them.
Linda Widdup, founder of AHR, told Big Rigs that some of the hay was distributed yesterday, with more going out today and the remainder on Thursday, with 31 trucks on the road altogether.
“We’ve had an unbelievable response from the famers and the locals so far,” she said.
“It’s been awesome.”
If you’re a farmer in south-west Victoria in need of hay, it’s not too late to get some of the allocation.
For Dreeite, contact Neil Cook of Cooroke Rural Fire Brigade on 0428 239 867; for Beeac, ring Simeon Garde on 0418 593 078; or for Colac ring Phillip Johnston of Colac Lions Club on 0438 426 211.
“We’ll get our numbers together, we’ll cross-check them to make sure we’re sharing out the hay as best as we can, and give people a call once we know what we’ve got on the ground,” Widdup said. “Then we’ll allocate the hay out the next day.”
AHR is calling out for more donations to help farmers in need.
“There are other areas desperate for help and our logistics team are working hard, planning and scheduling – there are just so many farmers needing help in so many areas, so if you can, please make a donation.
“100 per cent of your donation will be used to purchase hay.”