Fire-hit farmers offered seed support

Several initiatives have been established to connect generous croppers with farmers in need.

Seed Rescue SA – driven by Walco Seed Cleaning’s Kurt Walter – has been inundated by producers offering 5000 tonnes of seed since the website was set up in the days following the fire.

“Any normal person wants to try and help out as much as they can,” Mr Walter said. “It made me think, what would actually help these farmers?

“I got my network of contacts to help me make a website in a couple of days.

“We’re overwhelmed with how many people are offering seed that they’ve got, but so far there’s not a lot of feedback coming from the people who need seed.

“Not too many people are looking to donate grain, but they’re more than willing to help out. The farmers still want a cut for all their hard work, of course.”

He said many fire-hit farmers had so much to deal with that seed was not a top priority yet.

“They don’t have to worry about seed until March at the earliest, so they’d rather get their fencing done and try and stop drift in their paddocks, which is fair enough,” he said. “The guys who have lost houses, sheds and machinery would be busy dealing with insurance companies, so seed won’t be front of mind at the moment.

“The reason we wanted it up-and-running so quickly was because while farmers are still harvesting, there is more opportunity for them to hang onto grain if people need it.”

One farmer offering to loan wheat seed to affected growers is Daniel Nuske, Black Hill.

He said he felt great empathy for Lower North farmers, and wanted to help out since he still had grain on-farm.

“You see the terrible footage and it makes you appreciate the season you’ve got, even if it could’ve been a lot better with a kinder spring," he said. “We’re still reaping and our paddocks aren’t blowing away, so we’ve got a lot to be grateful for.

“It makes it a lot easier to see the good that’s near you when you see others a lot worse off.

“We’re a little bit unique in our area – we’ve got a fairly large program so we’re usually a bit slower than some other areas. I know there’s a lot of stuff that could’ve been good seed that’s gone into the system, but we were in the position of still having Mace wheat growing on vetch stubble.”

Grain Producers SA is also coordinating a register of suppliers and farmers in need, with the Pinery Fire Seedbank to cater for growers who wanted to donate or sell seed.