Montana ranchers typically grow enough hay to supplement their income by selling it to farmers in neighboring states. This year, drought, grasshoppers, and fires left the earth scorched. That’s why one YouTube personality trucker started a movement some are calling “Hay it Forward.”
“I don’t know of any hay right now that’s available locally. I saw an ad in Nebraska to come into Montana, into the Butte area, for $370 a ton. Normally a lot of hay is traded around that $100-130 a ton range,” rancher Mike Raffety reportedly said. “We’re going to spend twice that to buy hay that we weren’t able to raise. It’s going to cost more. Yes, it’s going to be expensive.”
Enter Jaxon Allen, a rancher from Lewistown who also owns and operates Wild Wild West trucking. Allen has emerged as something of a regional personality because he posts his cattle hauling exploits on YouTube.
Ranchers JoAnn and Buck Mosby called him about potentially hauling hay from about 800 miles away near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. JoAnn had found two truckloads of Sudangrass round bales for $140 per ton. But the hardship for the Mosby family and other Montana ranchers was that hauling the hay would cost upwards of $170 per ton, more than doubling the price.
Knowing many had culled their herds due to lack of feed, Allen understood family members were already working second jobs to make ends meet. They were faced with a dire financial choice of taking out bank loans to purchase hay or sell off the remaining heads.
“They would be paying back the bank for this hay for several years to come. I mean, the cattle wouldn’t even come close to even breaking even. I mean, they’d be in the hole on that hay for some years to come,” Allen reportedly said. “The last two years have been so much division, so much strife, hatred, angst. And the best way that I found in my life to settle those things out of my way is to serve. To do service.”
Allen reached out to freight-hauling friends such as Dave Sparks, also known as Heavy D Sparks on the Discovery Channel television show “Diesel Brothers.” The Montana ranchers understood that Allen and Sparks would incur significant diesel costs over the 1,600 round-trip runs. Allen had given Mosby a reasonable quote to cover expenses and overhead. But their community member couldn’t anticipate what happened when they arrived with truckloads of hay. On top of donating the hauling expenses, Sparks reportedly slid a check across the table.
“This right here is going to cover the cost of the hay from South Dakota,” Sparks reportedly said. “And all the other stuff is donated. So, we’ve got you covered.”
With a pair of trucking celebrities behind the effort to secure reasonably priced hay to help ranchers sustain now smaller herds through the winter, Hay it Forward snowballed. T.J. Phillips of Pedal to the Metal Trucking, reportedly located Alfalfa/Timothy hay for sale. When its owner, Steve Worthing, heard about Sparks’ charitable work, he reportedly agreed to kick in a free load. Now others in the trucking and hay-growing communities are following suit. Allen’s instincts to bring others into the mix were spot-on, and Hay it Forward is a movement.
Sources: nbcmontana.com, ktvq.com
Thanks for sharing! Been a hard year for a lot of ranchers up in the north country. My hope is that it will help others want to serve their neighbors in whatever capacity during their time of need. Not just up north but anywhere they see an issue .