Review of the Year: Forage Aid

Livestock farmers came together after appalling weather conditions in the 2013 winter, with the help of a Lincolnshire grower.

Many producers, especially in upland areas of northern England Wales, and Northern Ireland continue to count the cost after one of the worst winters in living memory killed more than 100,000 livestock.

But the crisis also brought the industry together – with a forage aid initiative that saw farmers with spare hay and silage send emergency feedstuffs to snow-hit producers hundreds of miles away, courtesy of free transport provided by agricultural suppliers.

After watching devastating TV news footage of livestock farmers in upland areas losing hundreds of sheep during the lambing season, Lincolnshire grower Andrew Ward decided to take matters into his own hands – launching the emergency initiative that became known as Forage Aid.

The project, which started in April, rallied dozens of farmers and suppliers across the country to donate forage to struggling livestock farmers in Cumbria, Wales, Devon, Derbyshire, Northumberland and north Yorkshire.

Mr Ward sent 50 bales of his own unsold haylage to Cumbria, but he quickly realised this wasn’t enough. He contacted Farmers Weekly, used his Twitter account and spoke on local radio to appeal for help from fellow farmers, hauliers and agricultural suppliers.

To date, the Forage Aid charity has donated more than £93,000 worth of forage to about 240 of the most hard-hit livestock farmers. “I couldn’t sit back and do nothing,” said Mr Ward, who was later named Farmers Weekly Farm Champion of the Year.

For more on this topic

Overwhelming response to ‘forage aid’ appeal