A 4 klm truck convoy with 31 trucks of donated hay has left Melbourne and is making its way to the Clarence Valley.
National Aussie Hay Runners have 31 trucks, with 1000 bales of hay, pallets of hard feed for all livestock which will be distributed to over 200 primary producers and hobby farmers next weekend.
Spokesperson for the convoy, Aussie Hay Runners founder, Linda Widdup said, “their mission is to restore hope to flood impacted farmers in the Northern Rivers Region as previous hay runs have provided endless community spirit and support.
For this trip we have partnered up with Feed For Friends, a community-led team of volunteers. They are on the ground and have been since the beginning of the floods providing critical stockfeed and supplies to farmers that were flood impacted in the recent Northern Rivers Floods”.
Feed For Friends’ are currently supplying up to 8500 head of cattle, horses and farm animals throughout the Northern Rivers.
On Monday the 28th of February 2022, the Northern Rivers was hit with the worst Floods on record. The apocalyptic nature of this natural disaster has severely impacted, displaced and destroyed the lives of 1000’s of people, businesses, farms and infrastructure in the Northern Rivers region”.
Spokesperson for Feed For Friends Sally Power said “to date Feed For Friends have supported farmers in the Northern Rivers region for three months and are finding that the challenges are growing.
Flood #1 wiped out the homes, businesses and animals.
Flood #2 wiped out the land, leaving not much more than flood mud behind. The pasture has now become nutrition deficient, the constant rain is ruining all chances to grow sustainable pastures and creating relentless issues for the animals to live on and to top it off the cold snap has made things even more difficult.
The Northern Rivers farmers need our help more than ever. Our farmers are deciding to close down their businesses because the fight has become too hard. If we don’t step up now and help them we are all going to see the impacts”.
The hay run is in conjunction with Rotary Club of Melton and Rural Assistance Authority who are supporting the run with fuel subsidies for the carriers.
BACKGROUND
Aussie Hay Runners mission is to restore hope to flood impacted farmers in the Northern Rivers Region. Previous successful hay runs has provided endless community spirit and support.
Aussie Hay Runners organised two emergency hay runs, stockfeed and produce to Dunedoo back in December 2019 and March 2020.
The team behind it all is Linda Widdup from Carlisle River, Phillip Garrett from Colac and Tammy Cooper from Pakenham.
The first run was kickstarted when Linda came across a facebook post showing what was happening with the drought affected farmers. She knew straight away she had to do her bit to help out.
At first, Linda thought she would just load up her own ute for of hay and produce and get on the road to Dunedoo. The ball got rolling very quickly and within a short period of time the team at Aussie Hay Runners had trucks full of donated hay travelling to Dunedoo.
The situation was heartbreaking, the farmers were not able to access any water, all the water was going up to the cotton farmers in Qld.
Farmers were desperate, 5th generation farmers were selling their animals because they could not provide water or feed for them. The situation was dire, they were selling their heritage.
The hay run was a success and provided much needed assistance to many farmers.
A couple of years later, another hay run is underway to provide critical stockfeed to the farmers that were flood impacted in the Northern Rivers.
This all came about by a lovely couple Raelene and Daryl Cook asking Linda if another run was going to be organised up north. They already had a truck of donated hay to offer. Without hesitation, the team has jumped on board and back into organising another run.
The huge truck convoy is currently underway with 31 trucks already confirmed and the list is growing daily. A huge outpour of support from our local Victorian farmers and community have come together once again to make all this happen. We are departing Victoria on the 7th July and will be arriving in the Northern Rivers on the 8th July.
AUSSIE HAY RUNNERS FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/aussiehayrunners
FEED FOR FRIENDS FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/feed4friends