BlazeAid pays hay transport costs for Victorian farmers struggling with drought
Road trains laden with hay are travelling thousands of kilometres to keep livestock alive in southern Australia amid ongoing feed shortages.
Drought-stricken farmers are transporting fodder from as far north as Bundaberg in Queensland to feed their animals.
But Victorian farmer and BlazeAid founder Kevin Butler said freight costs were prohibitive.
"It's doubled in price and it's still skyrocketing even further … the big issue is freight," he said.
BlazeAid is offering to cover the fodder freight bills for cattle farmers doing it tough.
The disaster relief charity is helping to organise the loads of hay and farmers are encouraged to arrange collection points in their area.
The Victorian government has announced a range of support options for drought-affected farmers but has not committed to subsidising fodder.
Agriculture Minister Ros Spence told the Victorian Country Hour earlier this month that "fodder subsidies don't work."
"The first thing that happens is they drive up price and then that doesn't help farmers' cash flow," she said.
But Mr Butler said farmers were in "dire straits" and that freight assistance made sense.
"So if the government won't do it, then BlazeAid will do it," he said.
Mr Butler said feeding animals was the biggest concern at the moment.
"[Farmers] are just not going to sleep at night because they know their cows are starving and they don't know where the next bale of hay is going to come from," he said.
"I just can't sit by and hear about all these [breeding animals] getting their heads chopped off and I certainly can't sit by and see my fellow farmers going broke."
Recent rain has turned brown paddocks green across many of the drought-affected areas, but feed for animals is still scarce.
John Davison, who runs an agriculture business and small farm at Sugarloaf Creek near Seymour, is coordinating the BlazeAid freight support.
He said livestock owners would have to truck hay in well into spring.
"It's nice to keep the moisture in the soil, but because of the cold temperatures we won't get growth," Mr Davison said.
"What we can classify this now [as] is a green drought.
"The paddocks may look green … but you won't get any higher than an inch [of grass].
"There's so many ongoing issues now — farmers are selling their breeding stock.
"If you think you're living in the metropolitan areas and it doesn't affect you, eventually it will, when you start to go buy lamb and beef and see the prices go up.
"It will take a couple of years to get back up to the [breeding stock] level we're at now."
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