THE drought has devastated properties in the region, but it’s not just livestock feeling hunger as a result of the big dry.
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For many farmers, working dogs are part of the family, but they are also another mouth to feed in the midst of a financially dire time.
A handful of Tamworth farmers were given a hand on Tuesday with a tonne of dog food donated by travel company Trafalgar.
Doing it for the farmers founder Sue-Ellen Wilkin said, while it mightn’t go very far, it would send a signal of hope.
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“It is going to keep them going for a couple of weeks,” she said.
“We have got families that have said ‘right, no Christmas this year’.
“Basically there is nothing and this has freed up a bit of money so they can go buy other things.”
Ms Wilkin said donations had dropped off considerably in recent months with drought support falling off most people’s radars.
“But we have managed to get enough stock for us to keep going,” she said.
“We will need follow-up and once the heat comes and the green pick we’ve got burns off, we’re going to go back to hand-feeding.”
The donation also included $10,000 worth of stock feed.
Susan Clarke has been helping on her sister’s farm for the last few months and said the donation came at a great time.
“It has been a very difficult year which is why we have come here to help, because it becomes very depressing, it is very distressing when you see your animals fading,” she said.
“One of the big difficulties on this farm is that my brother-in-law is disabled and my sister was doing all the feeding and everything.
“That is why we stepped in. Three of us came up and we have been here for most of the time for the last three or four months.”
After a bit of research, Trafalgar managing director Matt Cameron-Smith said the organisation chose Tamworth for the donation because it was one of the hardest hit regions.
“Our global CEO is very much a dog lover, he read an article about how tough it is for some farmers, they have got five to seven dogs that are on farms and often they are feeding the cattle and the dogs before they fed themselves,” he said.
“He personally has paid for this all, because what is a farm without a dog.
“We want to make this time of year a little bit easier for them.”