Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
HELPING WITH HAY
Local farmers pitch in to help ranchers devastated by Kansas wildfires
EAST MARLBOROUGH >> On Wednesday morning, several tractor-trailers stacked with hay, fence post and barbed wire pulled into Ashland, Kansas, a welcome sight for the scores of ranchers there who lost nearly everything in recent wildfires.
“The agriculture community (in Chester County) is a tightknit community,” said Kevin Harrop, owner of Harrop Hay and Bale in Exton, who helped to organize the relief effort. “I don’t know why this hasn’t made national news. I reached out to other people and other organizations, but didn’t really get a lot of support. I’m just glad I have the opportunity to help.”
Help is what the ranchers in Kansas need, because many had insurance on their homes, but not on livestock and fence because it is so expensive. And many ranchers’ losses are more than the caps on federal insurance.
The Kansas fires, which burned more than 400,000
“I don’t think there was anyone from Pennsylvania that I know of who donated hay, and we just wanted to help out.” — James Hicks, owner of Meadow Springs Farm
acres in one county alone, are the largest in the state’s history.
“This won’t solve the problem, but at least we can help out,” said James Hicks, a Unionville High School graduate and owner of Meadow Springs Farm, who helped the cause. “I don’t think there was anyone from Pennsylvania that I know of who donated hay, and we just wanted to help out.”
The devastation from the wildfires has not only caused crippling losses to the ranchers, but will take them years to clean up. Hundreds of cows were lost – cows that go for upwards of $2,000 each at auction.
Harrop took his cause to social media and found some support. Individual donations came in. Riley & Sons donated fuel for the 1,000-mile journey. The convoy took 1,800 feet of fence post, 91 rolls of barbed wire, lumber, and truckloads of hay from Meadow Springs Farm in Kennett to Ashland.
Harrop said on Tuesday night, he pulled in to fuel up, and a man approached him and asked him if he was going to Kansas for the relief aid. “He thanked me for helping out, and gave me 20 bucks and said thank you, this is all I have,” Harrop said.
Emergency programs run by the federal Department of Agriculture, which is facing a 21 percent funding cut under President Donald Trump’s budget proposal, will help ranchers somewhat, but Harrop and others are disappointed the president has not visited the area, or given it much mention.
“I think this (relief effort) restores faith in humanity a little,” Harrop said. “We just want to help out.”
“We are talking about the opioid issue because it’s one of the things that’s going to be overseen out of his department and so we had a good lunch and a good opportunity to lay out what we need to do and what our goals are.”