NAVAN, Ont. – Every farm family knows that great ideas are often born
around the kitchen table.
The conversation at Wyatt McWilliams’ kitchen table the morning of July
17 is a prime example. Wyatt’s wife, Sharon, already had left for work
and the father-son team that farms 450 acres of crop and hay between
them usually gets together in the mornings to talk and plan.
That morning, father Willard had watched the television news and saw an
item about the plight of livestock producers in the drought area of the
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Prairies.
He and Wyatt had mingled with western farmers at agricultural fairs and
Willard had some experience selling horses to the West.
“I know those people,” he said later.
It had been a great hay harvest in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
Everyone had surplus hay and yet there were scenes of barren prairie
fields and farmers forced to liquidate herds.
Wouldn’t it be great to find a way to help those farmers, he mused to
Wyatt at the kitchen table? We have hay and they don’t.
Over the next hour Hay West was born, the plan to move donated hay from
Eastern Canada to the West. The McWilliams decided they would donate
enough hay for one rail car to go west.
Calls were made to neighbours and the promise of donated hay grew. Then
calls were made to local politicians for help, media got onto the story
and within two days, there was enough hay available for several dozen
rail cars.
“We knew we had the hay but we needed to get it there,” said Wyatt. “It
became frustrating trying to organize it.”
A little more than a month later, the Hay West campaign was a national
phenomenon. Railways were donating cars, the federal government had
decided the hay had to be fumigated and had vowed to pay to do it,
calls were coming in from across Ontario, Quebec and into the Maritimes
to donate more hay, governments and private companies were pledging
funds to pay costs, western hay lotteries were being organized and
Wyatt McWilliams was a national figure.
He and the Hay West campaign were winning praise from national
politicians and western farmers alike.
“Wyatt McWilliams is a Canadian hero,” enthused the Ottawa Citizen
about the farmer who lives within the boundary of the national capital.
“He won’t admit it. He doesn’t want to be known as a hero. In fact, he
barely wants to be known at all.”
Yet by late August, McWilliams had adapted well to the role, talking to
a visiting reporter between telephone calls, getting ready to attend a
noon luncheon sponsored by a local restaurant for Hay West volunteers,
attending rallies and photo opportunities in Ontario and the West and
using the incident as a way to promote agriculture.
“We had the feed and they had the need,” he said in an oft-used line.
“This has helped raise people’s awareness of the needs of agriculture.”
McWilliams, 44, has been doing that for years.
In addition to his hay and horse operation, he has offered a travelling
agricultural awareness show and petting zoo to events around Ottawa for
many years. He organized a party for one of then-prime minister Brian
Mulroney’s children at 24 Sussex Drive.
This year, he moved from offering a travelling ark of animals to
organizing an on-farm experience of animals and farming for groups
visiting his eastern Ontario farm.
“People have to know more about farming if they are to appreciate where
their food comes from.”
Before the Hay West campaign, McWilliams was known locally as the
farmer who made it into the Guinness Book of World Records by
organizing a 50-horse hitch to haul a wagon through the streets of the
1995 Navan fair. He now has an on-farm museum with the specially made
harness, wagon and videos of the event.
But in the late summer of 2002, the Hay West campaign became
all-consuming. He worked in the volunteer office paid for by the
government, fielded hundreds of calls from farmers wanting to donate
hay, media wanting to get the story and politicians wondering how they
could help.
“It has been more than a full-time job,” he said. “But it shows people
the need on the farm, it helps farmers, it raises the profile, it
connects those in need with those with feed – and it is the right thing
to do.”
The McWilliams have been frustrated by the bureaucratic delays, the
need to fumigate, and the lack of money and rail cars to ship hay west.
Mainly, they hope that the hay available can get to where it is needed.
“I know what we can do will not resolve the situation or feed all the
cattle,” said McWilliams, a graduate of a local agricultural college
and the fifth generation Canadian McWilliams farmer since the family
patriarch emigrated from Ireland.
“But we can help. And we can show that farmers from across the country
help each other.”
