THE crew from the Hawkesbury Hay Runners are inviting the community along to a charity banquet at Hawkesbury Race Club to raise money for struggling farmers.
Dan Naethuys of the hay runners - a registered charity group - said while we have seen more rain over the past week, many farmers are still struggling.
“In the short term it’s made no difference at all, because it doesn’t rain ‘stock feed’,” Mr Naethuys told the Gazette.
“Everyone thinks it rains and that means the drought’s over, but it takes months [to grow crops].”
He said a lot of farmers are still offloading their sheep because they can’t afford to feed them.
“Thousands and thousands of them, down south,” he said.
“I know Griffith Saleyards are selling around 20,000 sheep per week, because they’ve got no feed for them.”
He said to make matters worse, water has hit “record prices”, meaning many farmers can’t afford to buy water to irrigate their crops.
“As long as we need hay, a lot of farmers will hold back [planting seeds] because it’s too expensive to buy water to water them.”
Mr Naethuys is based in Glossodia, and works in the farming supply industry, at a company that sells fuel for crop dusters out west.
“Not that we’re getting much business this year,” he said. “There’s not much work for crop dusters, because there’s no crops.”
The Hawkesbury Hay Runners Charity Banquet will take place at Hawkesbury Race Club, 1 Racecourse Road, Clarendon, on Saturday, November 24, from 6.30pm.
In addition to dinner, there will be trivia, auctions, games and entertainment to raise money for the Hay Runners to send bails of hay out west to farmers in need.
Tickets: 0438 767 994 or www.facebook.com/hawkesburyhayrunners.