Loretta Hall said one word came to mind as she and husband, John, watched the semi loaded with 21 bales of hay approach their cattle ranch in northwest Texas.
“Hallelujah!”
The donated load traveled 900 miles from Fulton County, and just in the nick of time.
Located in the Texas Panhandle, the Halls’ 150-cow ranch hadn’t seen an inch of rain in 10 months. John said he tried to conserve as much hay as possible as demand is high in his drought-stricken area, as are prices.
“I just thought that we would try to ration what we had to the bitter end as long as we could,” he said. “And we were at the bitter end.”
Prepared but saddened at the thought of selling off some of their Braunvieh herd to make ends meet, the Halls said God intervened with an anonymous donor.
Several weeks ago, a Fulton County Farm Bureau member with a surplus of hay approached Shelley Sweatman, Fulton County Farm Service Agency executive director. Knowing the devastating impact of wildfires and drought in other states, the farmer hoped Sweatman could coordinate a donation to a farm in need.
And the connections began.
Sweatman, through the cattle circuit, knew of Randy Allgood, a Texas cattleman and nationally known cattle judge. With Allgood’s involvement in cattle showing, he knew of the Halls, well known for being big sponsors and supporters of youth cattle programs.
The wheels were also turning in Illinois. In a quest to find transportation, Sweatman reached out to farmer Chris Schick in Clinton, who has employed truck driver Darrell White of Peoria for the past seven years. White said it was a no-brainer when his boss asked him to make the trip.
Fulton County Farm Bureau Manager Elaine Stone also solicited donations for fuel, raising $1,400 in just an hour, thanks to the FCFB Board and individual directors, West Central FS, and Compeer/Macomb.
With the round bales loaded, White set out on the 14-hour drive Tuesday afternoon, March 21, and delivered the hay Wednesday.
“They are just beautiful people,” White said of the Texas couple. The Halls invited White to spend the night at their house and made him dinner. “We talked and [John] told me some of the stories about what he does for the kids with the show cows. ... It was a good visit.”
Allgood has known the couple for about 20 years, and said between their efforts working with youth and the challenges on their farm, they were the perfect choice to receive the hay.
“They’ve given so generously, even to the point that it’s a financial hardship on them,” he said, adding the Halls often transport kids to and from shows, haul their animals and pay for entry fees and lodging when the participants can’t afford it.
“John’s a big, rough, rugged cowboy that you would think would be real hard, but he’s got the kind of heart that when you start getting kids involved, he just melts,” Allgood said.
Faced with either fixing their home’s furnace this past winter or buying feed for the cattle, they chose to feed their animals, Allgood added.
John, 63, and Loretta, 74, said the donation will buy them some valuable time, especially if they receive rain within the next month.
“There’s just not any words to tell [the donor] how grateful we are,” Loretta said. “That he would do that for somebody he didn’t know. How do you say thank you for somebody that’s just given you a new lease on your breeding program that you’re not going to have to sell, that you’ve been working on for 30 years?”
Sweatman and Stone said the donor insisted on staying anonymous. Most of the players involved with getting the donation to Texas either downplayed their role or credited someone else for being the “hero.”
Sweatman said she was just the coordinator, “getting good people in touch with good people.”
Since they were told of the donation, the Halls have been able to breathe a little easier.
“The difference in John’s demeanor since Randy told us this hay was coming has been like night and day because he has been stressing about how we were gonna get through the rest of the year,” Loretta said. “He’s been a little easier to live with since then.”
Tammie Sloup writes for FarmWeek. This article was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.