When farms across Wales, Cumbria and North Yorkshire were affected by extreme snowfall in 2013, Lincolnshire arable farmer Andrew Ward felt compelled to help them. From Andrew’s intervention Forage Aid was born.
Forage Aid exists to mobilise the agricultural community to help farmers during times of need due to severe weather conditions. In most cases, Forage Aid supply forage and bedding donated by farmers across the UK.
Andrew Ward runs Bailey trailers on his farm, he has a long-standing relationship with the Bailey family. During the snowfall of 2013 Andrew approached Michael Bailey for our help to move straw. We were only too delighted to get involved and hauled loads to Wales using our fleet of trucks.
Since then, our trailers and haulage trucks have seen action for Forage Aid in South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Somerset. We supplied a couple of flat trailers to help move bales onto livestock farms during the flood disaster of 2014 which devastated the Somerset levels.
For Michael Bailey helping Forage Aid is a matter of principle: “The UK farming community is a close-knit bunch, no farmer likes to see another in real hardship because of a natural disaster. When Andrew first approached us back in 2013, we were keen to do our bit.
“We’re deeply rooted in farming; go back a couple of generations our family farmed the fields in Lincolnshire. Giving something back is important to us, if a call comes in from Forage Aid, we’re ready to help where we can.”
For more information on Forage Aid: https://forageaid.org.uk
