After a brilliant start to the Pay 4 Hay fundraiser I am literally near speechless and my English fails to express just how amazing things have gone. At the same time there is more heart-wrenching news from the drought-stricken areas.

As some of you may have seen of Facebook, on Monday we saw the incredible donation of $7000 by Beerwah Community Recycling and Iolar Operational Services to the Aggies’ Pay 4 Hay fundraiser! Along with this, we have had organisations starting to collect items on our behalf and received offers of trucks and drivers, paddocks of grass to bale, etc. So much generosity! Then to back all this good news up, the Aggies landed themselves on the front page of the local Glasshouse Country News! I honestly wish everyone could see and hear what I have, to better know how great our community is!

On the other hand, we also have continued news of what our fellow Australian farmers are going through. Speaking with my Dad just yesterday, he said, “It is now considered ‘manna territory’, as there is nothing left to feed the stock.” The photos below show my dad feeding some of the cattle with straw which is of very little nutritional value but it is all they have. In particular, he was trying to save a cow with a calf that went down due to starvation, however, this battle is likely to be lost and they will attempt to start to bottle feed the calf. Whilst I hurt hearing and seeing this, I realise that this is just part of the everyday occurrence for farmers down there. At this I can only give thanks to our farmers for having the strength to continue, praise God for blessing us with these incredibly resilient people and pray for rain and recovery.

 

We are now at $13,270.00 in funds, and urgently trying to get anything down to them now! The Go Fund Me account still remains open also, but will not show the additional $7000 donation as this saves on fees etc that would be applied if the cheque was deposited in this way.

I have also been asked for the ‘Fill It For A Farmer’ box list. I have included this here for you, and if this is something you wish to do, please just let me know if you want us to collect it.

Thank you so much for all of your support each of you has given to this!

Jade King, Head of Agricultural Science