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Area farmers do their part to help western Neb. fire victims
WYNOT — When a neighbor is in need, Nebraskans step up to help — even if that neighbor is 370 miles away.
That's how Wynot area farmer Filip Burbach and a dozen or so of his friends and acquaintances felt, anyway.
Burbach organized a convoy of 13 semi loads of hay bound for wildfire- ravaged ranchland in southwestern Nebraska.
The fires — among the worst in state history — tore through pastures, fences and buildings, leaving ranchers with little to feed their livestock.
“It was a tough situation to hear about,” Burbach said. “I was talking with one of my buddies and we said we feel so bad for those folks out there. They don’t have anything. They don’t have any feed, nothing like that.”
So Burbach got to work. What started with just a couple of loads quickly turned into a fullscale effort. Within days, he had lined up 13 truckloads carrying 20 to 30 bales each, along with a trailer filled with cattle mineral and fencing supplies.
“At first, I had two loads lined up and all of a sudden it just blew up,” he said. “People just wanted to help.”
The convoy left Cedar County at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, traveling roughly 370 miles to a Garden County ranch north of Lewellen.
The donation came at no small sacrifice. “This isn’t exactly coming at a slow period,” Burbach said. “We’re all calving cows right now, but we’re willing to drop a whole day’s time and diesel fuel to go out and help our neighbors out west.”
Many of those donating hay may ultimately need it themselves if the skies don't open up here soon and drop some much needed precipitation on the area.
“Even when you look at the weather we’re having right now, people are still willing to donate their feed,” Burbach said. “We’re dry as a bone right now, but people are still willing to give. What if we don’t get any rain — we won’t have any pasture. Doesn’t matter.”
The effort drew support beyond Cedar County. Irene, S.D., farmer Kenny Wapniarski joined the convoy after securing a hay donation from a Volin, S.D., producer.
“With everything going on in Nebraska and the world today, our food supply is pretty low,” Wapniarski said. “With all the pasture ground burning up right now in Nebraska — Nebraska feeds a lot of people — they need as much hay as they can get.”
Jody Koch also stepped in, volunteering his time and trucks to haul a load donated by Justin Heikes.
“If this happened to us, I know people would step up, so we want to do the same,” Koch said.
For Burbach, the response has been overwhelming. “It’s been unbelievable. It really has,” he said. And the effort may not be over. Burbach said he is already working to organize another trip, though a shortage of available trucks remains a challenge.
“We’d send even more hay out, but we just can’t find the trucks,” he said. “If people want to donate, I’m more than happy to make another trip out there. They’re going to need all the help they can get. There are hundreds of miles of fence burned up. You name it, they’re going to need it.”
Burbach encourages anyone interested in donating hay, supplies or transportation to contact him directly.
