Farmers and ranchers in southwest Louisiana are trying to put their lives back together following Hurricane Laura. They are getting some much needed help from their neighbors in the Lone Star State.
Deep in the heart of southeast Texas, Nick Cart and Ronnie Brown are busing loading up hay, not for their own cattle but livestock in Louisiana. Cart states, “We’re loading hay to bring to Louisiana for some cattle that are stacked up on some high ground, until the producers can get down south and survey their fences and what not.”
“It could have very well been right here. So, I’m happy to donate whatever I can and help those people out over there with whatever they need that I have,” Brown adds.
Cart is the Region 3 field inspector for the Texas Department of Agriculture. He remembers the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in this area of Texas in 2017.
So, with donations from Texas farmers and ranchers, hay and help are on the way. Cart is also taking posts and other fencing materials, donated by M and J Fertilizer of Winnie, Texas.
Buryl Baty, a Louisiana rancher, notes, “They have to have hay and feed. The people from Texas have been helping us a lot.”
Getting the materials to the cattle in Calcasieu Parish is a challenge itself. Road and ranches still covered with debris and downed power lines.
So, this delivery from the folks in the Lone Star State is not just building material, but love and friendship.