Hay Continues To Move West

Hay is continuing to be shipped to the Prairies through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's Hay West Initiative.

"It's been going quite well from the perspective that supply and demand are both certainly very strong," said CFA President Mary Robinson. "We have producers in western Canada, who have been very pleased with the hay they've received. We've had a couple of hiccups as I think anyone would expect for something of this magnitude and we've got lots of hay in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces to move west. The challenge right now is securing funding to offset the transportation costs, because obviously the transportation costs are extremely high."

CFA is operating on a break-even basis under this initiative, with hay being purchased from Eastern and Central Canadian farmers and resold at cost to recipients.

"The big thing is making sure that we've got the money to get hay in the hands of the producers who need it. We're prioritizing people who have water for their animals and have breeding stock. Trying to respond to that as effectively as we can," added Robinson.