Australian of the Year nominee Brendan Farrell has launched his latest project to donate bulls and rams to drought-affected farmers.
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Mr Farrell, the founder of Burrumbuttock Hay Runners, spoke at The Henty Machinery Field Days about his newest charitable project, Buy-a-Bull.
He also flagged a delivery of 500-600 trailer loads of hay planned for Victorian dairy farmers early in the New Year.
Mr Farrell, of Stanbridge, said stock agents were inspecting herd bulls in Queensland for the Buy-a-Bull program.
“If we can buy bulls at $3000-$4000, we will donate them to farmers who want to rebuild their herds,’’ he said.
“There will be a category on the application form so producers can nominate what type of bull they require.
“The bulls will be delivered to Blackall saleyards and distributed into a 500km radius of Longreach, taking in Hughenden, Winton and Cunnamulla.
“It all depends where the farmers are – if we have four or five farmers in Cunnamulla, we will truck some down to them.’’
Mr Farrell said the next phase of the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners was to look to the future, despite drought breaking rains in western Queensland.
“We need to start this program to get mouths to eat all that grass that is growing,’’ he said.
“The grass is good but it only needs to be dry for six months and they are back to where they started.’’
Mr Farrell said Ray White Narrandera and Wagga had come on board to also source rams from the Riverina for the project.
Freight for the seedstock has already been donated.
“We have triple road trains and stock crates ready to rock and roll – blokes are over the moon to do whatever part they can,’’ he said.
