The Aussie Hay Runners convoy parked up at the Bingara Showgrounds ahead of unloading on Saturday. Image: Sue Fabish

WHILE much of New South Wales is abuzz with positivity following recent general rain which looks set to continue into next week, some areas are still doing it tough.

They include the north-west slopes and New England, where short days and cold temperatures are preventing feed from jumping away, despite 30-50mm or more of rain in the past three weeks.

After a volume destocking ahead of winter in both regions, most livestock producers are feeding hay, grain, and/or pellets to their core breeders and young stock, and a delivery made last weekend is helping to fill the feed gap.

Bound for Bingara

Put together by Aussie Hay Runners, it brought more than 60 truckloads of Victorian hay in total to drop points at Bingara, Ashford and Gravesend on Saturday.

The Aussie Hay Runners convoy of more than 60 trucks carrying hay from Victoria heads towards Bingara for the King’s Birthday weekend 2026 drop. Image: Aussie Hay Runners

AHR founder Linda Widdup, from Carlisle River in south-west Vic, was the driver of the operation, and makes it all sound easy.

“We work with the NSW Government; we put a run together, they approve us, and they give us a fuel subsidy,” Ms Widdup said.

“We look at where the need is, we get on to a Lions Club, and we go from there.”

That means finding willing carriers who will donate their time, which on this run was the best part of three days, and hay is procured to fill the available transports.

“Ours mainly came out of south-west Victoria from a little place called Swan Marsh; they had oaten and pasture hay, and we got some big squares of oaten hay out of Beeac.”

AHR has an affiliation with the Traralgon Lions Club, which made Gippsland an additional source of hay for the run.

“Seven or eight utes and three fully laden semis went to Ashford, we sent eight trucks to Gravesend, and the rest went to Bingara.

“We rocked in, and there were 200 farmers with little trucks, big trucks, utes, and trailers.

“That tells me how desperate the situation is.”

Fernlee Station, Ashford, was the northernmost point for the Aussie Hay Runners 2026 King’s Birthday weekend drop. Pictured in early March 2026 on Fernlee Station are cows and calves, which have been on supplementary feed for months. Photo: Susannah Simpson

On the route up through Narrandera and Dubbo, Ms Widdup said the nature of the traffic showed the severity of the season on the slopes and tablelands of northern NSW.

“The only thing on the road with us were cattle crates going south, and hay trucks going north.”

Little rain in lead-up

Tingha graziers Peter and Beth Sandral worked with AHR to help identify the best points for hay drops, and the people who would most benefit.

As northern NSW sales manager for Cylone Fencing Australia, Mr Sandral has seen the difficulties of the season for clients, and his own property, Sandstock, has not escaped.

The Gwydir and Inverell shires typically have summer-dominant rainfall, but had very little in December and January, and ensuing months were worse.

Tingha grazier Pete Sandral. Image: Regional Development Australia Northern Inland NSW

“We didn’t get a drop of rain in February through to April,” Mr Sandral said.

Rain started falling last month.

“We got in the mid-30s to 40mm, but it gets cold in the winter where we are, and we’re in for some hard yakka over the next couple of months.”

Based on the dryness of summer and early autumn, Mr Sandral sold close to two-thirds of his breeders into the slaughter market as yardings swelled across the wider region.

“There were record numbers of cattle sold all through northern NSW; at Dubbo, Moree, and Inverell, every saleyard broke records.”

“I would have sold 200 cows; we’ve got 70 or 80 now, and I weaned the calves very early, down to 120kg.”

“I weaned early and sold the mothers.”

The Sandrals have been feeding out Summit Milling, Guyra, pellets and hay in recent months to supplement the “green drought” that rain in the cold months has brought.

He hopes the AHR hay will help recipients get their livestock through winter in good order.

“Hay can give them that boost in protein and energy they need, because the viability of paying $500 a tonne for hay delivered doesn’t stack up.”

Of the hay donated by AHR, Mr Sandral said: “It’s not a hand-out, it’s a hand up; if they can get to the other side of winter with cattle in better condition, that’s a good thing.

“Because we had so little feed going into winter, that’s when cattle can really lose weight.”

Mr Sandral’s compulsion to work in with AHR came out of his own situation, soon after he relocated in 2018 to Sandstock from the Rand district in the southern Riverina.

“I was burnt out in February 2019, and a group of my old mates got together and sent me up six truckloads of hay.

“I wanted to pass the karma on, and so I got involved in Aussie Hay Runners.”

Flood opens door to freight help

Ironically, it was minor flooding in and around Bingara last year that has made its Local Government Area, the Gwydir Shire, eligible for a transport subsidy from the NSW Government for drought feed.

It covers the cost of fuel if the fodder goes into LGAs where the NSW Rural Assistance Authority recognises significant damage has been done by events such as floods, storms, and bushfires, but not drought.

“Bingara was an interesting situation, because last spring it had flooding.

“We worked out we couldn’t get funding for drought, but the flood damage made them eligible so the RAA would ‘pony up’ the money for the trucks.”

Part of the Aussie Hay Runners convoy arrives at Fernlee Station, Ashford, the June 2026 run’s northernmost distribution point. Image: Susannah Simpson

Ms Widdup said the reimbursement for fuel from the RAA makes hay runs into NSW possible, particularly when they take hay from Victoria to just shy of the Queensland border, as was the case with Saturday’s Ashford drop.

She also acknowledged valuable support from Australian country music stars and multiple Golden Guitar award-winners Adam Harvey, Amber Lawrence, and The Wolfe Brothers in promoting the AHR cause.

Support from the Bingara Lions Club, which put on lunch for the Aussie Hay Runners drivers while the hay was transferred to recipients, was also acknowledged.

“The Bingara Lions Club did a great job with the barbecue; they cooked something like 300 sausages, fed everyone, and the trucks were gone by half past one,” Mr Sandral said.