MERRIAM: 10 years ago, Hay West helped a drought-stricken West
(QMI Agency file photo)
Drought-stricken Ontario farmers could have been forgiven earlier this year for looking wistfully westward.
Many would have been waiting for the first appearance of thunderclouds, while others would be remembering an earlier drought in a different part of the country.
Although this year’s drought in Ontario was severe, much of the province has recovered and hay stocks have been replenished with second and even good third cuttings of hay, a staple in feed programs for most farm animals.
In fact it takes about one ton of hay to feed a cow for a season, so huge quantities must be harvested and stored each year.
Because of the late summer rains that allowed for recovery of Ontario crops, many stricken farmers in the east have been able to keep most of their livestock and save their farms and agri-businesses.
That was not the case a decade ago when farmers from eastern Canada shipped huge quantities of hay westward to their counterparts who were suffering through a record-setting drought.
These hundreds of tons of Ontario hay were added to bales from other eastern provinces and sent westward in 2002 in a unique project called Hay West.
It was my honour to serve on a Hay West committee in the southern Georgian Bay region. The chairperson was Larry Miller, a prominent beef farmer and warden of Grey County at the time.
Miller, now Conservative MP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound and a former chairman of the federal government’s agriculture committee, recalled the massive movement of hay.
At the time, Alberta and Saskatchewan were faced with a huge shortage of livestock feed due to the worst drought in 133 years of recorded history, Miller said.
“Unprecedented starvation of cattle and other animals, loss of income from ruined crops and families facing possible loss of farm income and the farm itself, seemed certain,” Miller wrote in a release marking the 10th anniversary.
In July 2002 Willard McWilliams and his son Wyatt of Nava, Ont., undertook to organize a relief effort to share the abundant hay crop that was harvested in eastern Canada.
By the end of October, 1,800 farmers had given more than 110,000 large bales of hay to the project. It was delivered westward using more than 700 rail cars and 160 semi-trailer trucks.
More than 1,000 farms in western Canada received the much-needed feed.
In addition to the hay, individual Canadians donated close to $500,000 to the effort, while businesses donated nearly $400,000.
Railway companies donated rail cars and the federal and provincial governments both got involved in resolving the huge logistical issues that arose while trying to move that much hay across the country.
In our region these issues — ranging from the need to fumigate the hay before shipment to a perpetual shortage of rail cars — were threshed out in regular early morning meetings in the county warden’s office.
In Hay West, a book on the huge project, author Bob Plamondon concludes that it was more than just Canadians helping each other.
“It is clear from the commentary that Hay West was about more than feeding animals — it was about strengthening a nation.”
Miller expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote, “10 years ago we witnessed Canadian farmers join together in an effort to keep Canadian agriculture strong and prosperous.”
Plamondon’s book is dedicated to the “enduring spirit of the Canadian farmer,” which in itself is reason enough to observe the 10th anniversary of this remarkable project.