Sweet relief from fellow farmers

When disaster struck Tom and Marty Walsh’s Northern Rivers farm in the form of an accidental fire on February 12 – destroying valuable two-year-old plant cane due to be harvested this winter – their first thoughts were of salvaging it as stockfeed.

To retain its value as fodder the crop had to be cut and distributed immediately – no mean feat in the cane crush off-season.

The local harvesting co-operative pulled gear out of sheds and set up plants, the handful of cane trucks owned by the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative that are kept registered in the off-season were set to task, and haulage operators came in from holidays.

The Richmond River Cane Growers Association and NSW Farmers hit the phones to put together a list of cattle producers in desperate need of feed and the fodder started rolling to about 20 properties within days of the fire.

The donated 600 tonnes of fodder has gone to beef operations around Armidale, Walcha, Guyra, Inverell and Warialda.

In some districts, demand was so strong among farmers, who have been paying for fodder to be shipped more than a thousand kilometres, a ballot was held.

Among those cattle producers, Tom and Marty Walsh and the NSW sugar industry are nothing short of heroes.

NSW Farmers chair Walcha District Council Sonia O’Keefe said the generosity, quick-thinking, co-operation and community spirit of all involved was incredible and heartwarming.

“What the cane people have done for fellow farmers here is incredible, especially in the face of what is a disaster on their end,” she said.

“Even from our end, some farmers whose name was pulled out of the ballot said draw again, there are others more needy,” she said.

“Everyone in this story has put others first and it makes me so proud to be a part of that sort of a community.”

The Walshes, who farm 485 hectares of cane across five properties around Woodburn and Wardell (with Marty being a fifth generation cane grower), said the fact the ruined crop could help others made the disaster a bit easier to swallow.

Tom Walsh was on his tractor about two kilometres away when he saw the fire in the middle of one of his farms. He was able to mow down a patch of cane on the fire’s edge to create a break and stop the fire long enough for the rural fire service to bring it under control.

The threat of fire in cane crops across the North Coast is currently very serious given the dry conditions.

The Walshes have insurance but the cane had been “looking beautiful” and given strong sugar prices, it was a big loss. About 25 per cent of this season’s crop was lost.

Angus breeders Warren and Sharryn Lasker (pictured) described the 22 tonnes of cane fodder they received as a "Godsend".

In 40 years, they have never before seen the creek that runs through their 280-hectare property, "Endsleigh Park", near Armidale, dry.

They are sending calves away and buying in straw - which is all they can source - from so far way it costs more for freight than the actual product. All this while watching the level in their last dam quickly drop.

The donated coastal fodder will bridge what was shaping up to be a desperate gap before the effects of 40 millimetres of rain last week can be felt.

But it meant so much more to the Laskers.

"Everybody here is so depressed, the drought has made things so hard. To know somebody we haven't even met is thinking about us and willing to be so generous makes such a difference," said Mrs Lasker.