Eastern hay arrives in the West of Canada

A light sprinkle of rain fell as the first two truckloads of alfalfa-timothy hay from Ontario arrived at Merlis Wiebe’s farm northeast of Osler, Sask., on Sept. 10. They are part of Hay West, a new program from Mennonite Disaster Service to help drought-affected farmers in Saskatchewan. The initiative is a repeat of 2012 Hay East, which saw Saskatchewan farmers send hay to drought-stricken livestock producers in Ontario and parts of Quebec through MDS. “We really appreciate what Saskatchewan did for us at that time. They donated a lot of hay and we felt (we could return) the deed now that it’s dry in Saskatchewan,” said Henry Weber, an MDS volunteer and retired beef producer from Heidelberg, Ont. “It’s our Christian duty to help each other.” The program, which has been organized between the Ontario and Saskatchewan chapters of MDS, is similar to a national program, also called Hay West, that was organized by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and is shipping hay from the ...