Gippsland farmers lend a helping hand to drought-stricken West Vic with 10 truckloads of hay

When Peter Henderson’s sheds burnt down in the 2019-20 East Gippsland bushfires, it was farmers from Western Victoria who turned up with trucks of feed, no questions asked. Now, the Orbost farmer is returning the favour.

Henderson, with help from the Heyfield Lions Club, has rallied the community to help donate 10 truckloads of hay bales to farmers in Victoria’s south west, one of the regions most impacted by drought, as part of a wider relief mission from charity group Aussie Hay Runners.

The gesture is a reminder of the mateship between farmers, east to west, built on the quiet understanding that when times are hard, you back each other in.

One particular truckload from Aussie Hay Runners has thrown a lifeline to a young Cooriemungle farming family.

Dairy farmer Michael Beecher told the West Vic Brolga the semi-trailer of feed from Aussie Hay Runners arrived this week, just as he was preparing to sell off young stock to keep the rest of the herd afloat.

“The timing of the hay couldn’t have been any better,” Beecher said. “They’ve really saved us, to be honest. Otherwise we’d have to sell lots of young stock and move them on.”

He said the generosity had “bought us a bit more time”.

Beecher and his wife Katie moved from Shepparton to the Corangamite Shire’s south with their three children less than two years ago, purchasing a farm near where Michael grew up. 

He hoped the move would see him avoid the dry conditions often facing farmers in the state's north.

Instead, he walked straight into another dry spell — this time with a large mortgage, falling milk prices and no safety net. Compounding the pressure, his Melbourne excavation business collapsed during the downturn.

“We came into it at a high price,” he said. “Then with the milk price cut and the drought that came in with it, the timing couldn’t have been any worse for us.”

The farm currently runs 300 milkers and 160 young stock, but Beecher said he’s already had to offload many animals just to manage water and feed. 

The young cattle that remain have been "going backwards", and he said buying hay simply "wasn’t viable".

“It would've cost around $500 to $600 a tonne delivered just for straw,” he said. “To spend that when you’re already struggling to pay your bills — it's just not possible.”

Beecher said George Leishman from non-profit Rural Financial Counselling Services, who he was connected to via his milk processor, helped him access state government support during their toughest months, and got the family’s name on the hay run list. 

Even then, he hadn’t expected anything to come of it.

“When the truck turned up in the yard, I just thought, ‘Wow, that is great timing’.”

He recommended that other farmers who need help should access the financial counselling service.

The feed donation means Beecher can now hold onto his young stock — the future of the farm — and slowly work toward rebuilding his herd numbers to a point where the farm can service its debt.

With help from two backpackers, the Beechers are doing everything they can to keep the wheels turning on the farm. He says it hasn’t been easy, but that, “We can’t walk away now—it would just be a disaster. Plus the kids and the family have settled in here. And I do enjoy the job.”

Victoria’s historic drought

According to the Bureau of Meteorology Victoria is currently experiencing a dry period not seen in over a century.

Since February last year, most of Victoria has recorded its warmest on record maximum temperatures and parts of the state also saw their warmest-on-record minimum temperatures.

Victoria’s maximum temperature in autumn was 2.57C above average and autumn rainfall was below average for much of south-eastern Australia.

The BoM predicts that due to increasing global fossil fuel CO2 emissions there will be a continued increase in temperature “with more heat extremes and fewer cold extremes”, and that there will be a continued decrease in “cool season rainfall across many regions of southern and eastern Australia, which will likely lead to more time in drought”.

How a Gippsland idea made its way to West Vic

Orbost’s Peter Henderson, a dairy and beef farmer, had the idea of donating hay bales to drought affected West Victoria farmers at the beginning of June. 

Henderson told the Gippsland Monitor that when he received hay from West Victoria farmers in 2019-20 there had been “significant drought and then we got a bush fire that burnt us out and burned all of our hay sheds”.

“Truck after truck turned up from the Western District over to our area to help us out. I'm donating a full truckload and sending my truck over. I just wanted to try and repay the favour. It's only in a small way, from what we could round up from just a very small area.”

Henderson said the final donation was more than 300 bales, which will take up to a dozen trucks to transport.

Header image: Cooriemungle’s Michael and Katie Beecher with kids Miguel, Navy and Luie.