Hay East comes to Lanark County

Jeff Green | Nov 01, 2012

Maberly farmer and Lanark Cattlemen’s Association member Gordon Patterson is not shy about approaching governments for support. When it comes to supporting local farmers in covering cost of transporting hay from western Canada to cover the shortfall caused by a drought this past summer, he has been downright aggressive, and creative.

He has approached all of the eight municipalities in Lanark County to support a fundraising event in Almonte this weekend. Knowing that township councils never want to part with taxpayers' dollars (he sat on council for 16 years himself), Patterson and his cohorts from the Lanark Federation of Agriculture and the Lanark Cattlemen’s Association have asked each council to provide a cake for auction instead.

“I know that at least one of them, Drummond North Elmsley, is going to bake one, and I hope the rest of them do as well,” Patterson said, “or else I’m going to push for Drummond North Elmsley to take over the rest of them altogether.”

Money raised at the Lanark Hay East Fling (to be held at the Almonte Civitan Hall on Saturday night -November 3 - starting at 7 pm) will be used for one of two purposes.

It might used to help subsidise the long haul transportation costs for hay that has been donated from farmers in Saskatchewan. That cost is 3 cents per pound, bringing the cost of the oversized (5’ by 6’) round bales to $100 a bale for local farmers.

However, Patterson said that local MP Scott Reid and Agriculture Minister Gordon O’Connor have been invited to the Hay East Fling, and rumour has it O’Connor might bring a financial commitment to cover transportation costs from the federal government.

“I don’t know anything for sure,” Patterson said, “but I told Scott Reid’s assistant that I’m expecting them to come with pockets full of money.”

If the federal government comes through with money, the money raised at the Fling will go to transporting hay from Smiths Falls, which is where most of the hay is being delivered, directly to the local farms where it is needed.

Patterson said that he was able to bale up about 50% of a normal hay crop this summer, which was ok for him because he had extra hay on hand from other years. Others grew as little as 35% of the normal crop and some of them had little or no hay in the mow to begin with, so they are faced with downsizing their herd if they cannot find some extra hay for the winter.

A first shipment of hay came in on Wednesday (October 31) and part of it was dropped off in the parking lot of the former Sharbot Lake retail centre (at the junction of Road 38 and Highway 7) to be transported up Zealand Road to Willis Armstrong Road, the horse farm of the White family.

The Hay East Fling is a free event in Almonte. It includes beef on a bun, music from some of the finest Ottawa Valley country musicians, silent and live auctions for dozens of items, and a live dessert auction. In addition to the township cakes, there will be other desserts as well. All of the money raised will go to the Hay East program, because all of the costs related to running the event, including all the food and other items, have been donated.

Even Gordon Patterson is getting into the act, donating a maple syrup pie. But not to worry, Gordon only made the syrup. His wife Beverly is making the pie.