NORWICH – Herm Sherwood-Sitts is not a farmer, nor is he from Texas, but his heart is fixated on both while the worst drought in the history of the Lone Star State is devastating agriculture there.
His passion? To collect and deliver donations of hay from upstate New York to feed Texas beefers, many of which are either dying from starvation and thirst, or being slaughtered before their prime.
“They’ve lost $5.2 billion in ag down there, cows are dying; being sent to slaughter earlier. If they sell their breeding stock, it will be three to five years before they can recover. But that’s only if they can go back in business,” the Norwich man said.
With a long stretch of triple digit temperatures and only 40 percent of the state’s normal rainfall since January, Texas agriculture officials say producers in the nation's leading cattle state have sent more animals than usual to auction because there's nothing left for them to eat. Pictures viewed on television and the Internet of animals dying in the field have shocked America and beyond.
Sherwood-Sitts plan? To enlist the U.S. Air National Guard to fly loads of hay down in a cargo plane. On Aug. 1, the self-proclaimed ‘dumb ole, unemployed construction worker’ began his project by enlisting support from Cornell Cooperative Extension, Farm Bureaus and agriculture and markets departments in New York and Texas. He also wrote to President Obama and elected representatives in both states – all while soliciting farmers for donations.
He specifically contacted New York State Senator William J. Larkin, Jr. for access to the two, C-17 cargo planes located at Stewart Air National Guard Base. The base, located in the Hudson River Valley, are within Larkin’s jurisdiction.
“The thought was that by going to him first we could cut through some of the red tape,” he said.
As back-up, truckers, hay handlers, fuel companies, construction companies and farmers with loading equipment, the local airport, Elks and VFW – “everyone I could think of” – were contacted, in case the National Guard didn’t come through. Sherwood-Sitts hoped truckers from down South would be happy to pick up hay in New York rather than going back empty.
But red tape he found. Despite securing 87 tons of hay for his ‘Hay For Texas’ program, Sherwood-Sitts said he learned from officials in both states that in order for the cargo planes to be released from New York, Texas Governor Rick Perry would have to formally request them, something the recently declared U.S. Presidential candidate has thus far declined to do.
Instead of helping secure Gov. Perry’s approval for the air lifts, Texas Department of Agriculture Texas have taken matters in their own hands. They have updated their Hay Hotline with prices and sources for donated hay and transportation services to receive it.
The Norwich man said the TDA stopped talking to him over a week ago after saying they would reach out to him if they needed the upstate hay.
“I know it sounds complicated, but to me what’s complicated about filling a cargo plane with hay in New York and sending it to Texas? Land the darn plane in a rural farm area and hand out some hay. The heck with who gets credit for it ... just get ‘er done,” Sherwood-Sitts said he told most every official he contacted.
Sherwood-Sitts did receive letters of support from U.S. Assemblyman Richard L. Hanna and New York Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, both of whom reached out to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo asking the Governor to approve use of the Air National Guard for the humanitarian effort.
“Hay for Texas is a project to raise donations of hay from area farmers to assist the struggling farm families of Texas where excessive heat, drought, and grass fires are greatly impacting their livelihood. ... This critical situation will trickle down economically to any business associated with the farming industry,” Hanna wrote. The Assemblyman has yet to hear back from Cuomo’s office, a staffer said last week.
Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers is amongst a large group of local ag supporters who believe in the Hay for Texas program. It’s a question of negotiating transportation at this point, Vickers said, with individual beef farmers and farm bureau-to-farm bureau in each state laying the groundwork.
“Herm has done an outstanding job of putting this all together. It’s a small Band-Aid for the issue, but we hope that other county farm bureaus and other states get involved,” said Vickers. “A lot of people are dumping livestock, not just in Texas, but in Georgia clear to Oklahoma.”
Both Sherwood-Sitts and Vickers say farmers and ranchers in Texas are very appreciative of their efforts. Vickers was scheduled to hear back this week from members of the Van Zandt County Farm Bureau in Canton, Texas, for example, and Sherwood-Sitts is working closely with an animal rescue shelter in Brenham, Texas.
The bulk of the hay pledged for the project is from just 28 farmers, mostly in Chenango County, but also from an individual in Broome County. Sherwood-Sitts is quick to calculate that with 230 dairy farmers in Chenango County alone donating, he could have as much as 500 tons in no time.
“This is a set back,” he said, referring to the politics of enlisting the National Guard. “I was hoping to get the rest of the Northeast involved, and have the hay shipped from rural airports. People are e-mailing me now, saying, “What the heck. There’s a need for it.”
But the man is not discouraged, and he is now including Texas’ starving horse population in the effort. Sherwood-Sitts can be contacted at 334-7186.
“I would like to see if we could help out our own country for a change. I have been 25 days trying to help the farmer of Texas. In less time, we were in Libya helping rebels,” he said last Thursday. “It’s possible that we can all be eventually like Africa, with stores empty of food. I know that beef is a worldwide commodity, but I don’t want to buy my beef from Bolivia. I want to buy American.”