Allan Leepart is always getting calls from people doing surveys or
trying to sell him something he doesn’t want.
So when the Porcupine Plain, Sask., ranchers’ son told him that a woman
had called to speak to him, but left no message, he didn’t think too
much about it.
Luckily for Leepart, the unknown caller was persistent, because rather
than wanting to sell him something he didn’t want, she wanted to give
him something he very much wanted.
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And when they finally got in touch with each other a couple of days
later, Leepart got the good news.
He was a winner in Saskatchewan’s hay lottery and the proud new owner
of 15 tonnes of free hay, courtesy of his fellow farmers in Eastern
Canada.
“I’ve never won anything in my life,” he said last week with a touch of
wonderment in his voice.
Leepart figures the free hay will feed three mature cows through the
coming winter.
And while that certainly won’t solve all of the problems facing his
100-head operation as a result of this year’s drought, every little bit
helps.
“If you think of it in the long term, if I had to sell those three
cows, then next year I won’t have those three calves to sell, which
cuts about $2,100 off my income,” he said.
“That’s one fuel fill at haying time, to fill my gas tank and my 500
gallon diesel tank. It helps pay the haying expenses next year.”
Leepart is one of some 160 producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan who
will benefit from the generosity of eastern Canadian farmers, the two
national railways, the federal government and hundreds of volunteers.
Two lottery draws in Alberta have produced 130 winners, while another
25 to 35 Saskatchewan producers will also get hay, depending on how
much eventually arrives.
As this week began, 187 rail cars had arrived or were en route to the
Prairies, carrying roughly 14,000 bales of feed from Ontario, Quebec
and the Maritime provinces.
Hay West co-chair Pierre Brodeur said in an Aug. 12 interview from
Ottawa that farmers have committed enough hay to fill another 200 cars.
“If the generosity of the railway does not end, we’ll carry on,” he
said.
“Everything is based on donations of hay and also railway transport.”
However, that seems unlikely.
Canadian National Railway spokesperson Jim Feeny said the 97 cars
shipped free of charge by CN have cost the company nearly $500,000, and
there won’t be any more.
“I think we’ve been very generous by any standard,” he said. “We’ve
been very happy to be part of this humanitarian effort, but there is a
limit to how much free transportation we can provide.”
A spokesperson for Canadian Pacific Railway, which had shipped 90 free
cars, also said there are no plans for more.
Meanwhile, an agricultural group in Thunder Bay, Ont., is collecting
hay from Lakehead area farmers to ship to the Prairies.
Thunder Bay Agricultural and Equestrian Corp. spokesperson Christine
Costa said the group hopes to ship about 500 bales.
They will go to farms with fewer than 100 head of cattle and be based
on individual need. No more applications are being accepted.
As of last week, the group had not sorted out the logistics or timing
of the shipments. Farmers won’t have to pay for the hay but may have to
pay for transportation if free truck or rail shipments can’t be
arranged.
