Hay Insurance

Hay Insurance

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Jim Hamsher of Prairie City Is a good Samaritan who responded to the catastrophe that was a result of the Canyon Creek Complex fire in Oregon. As we all know so well at this point, farmers and ranchers suffered massive losses including grazing allotments that were burned up. So the challenge confronting livestock owners is getting their cattle fed. In response, Jim put up a Facebook page called “Hay for John Day” and asked for donations of hay from people who were more fortunate and had hay to give. Jim’s efforts were a giant success and he now has 540 tons of hay that he intends to donate to those who need it. But he’s got another problem. “It is just so wonderful. It just seems like the Lord has brought all of these donations in. But the other day, I was sitting there fretting about how I was going to come up with hay insurance because I have probably $100,000 in hay donations gathered up. And with hay, you never know, when it comes in from so many different places, you don’t know whether you might have a wet bale in there that could start the whole stack on fire. The problem I was having is getting insurance because most of them did not want to write a policy while there was still an active fire in the area. I was worried about how to pay for the hay insurance. 15 minutes after I am worrying about it, two different individuals call up wanting to make cash donations. You see, I don’t know how long I am going to have to store the hay down there because a lot of the ranchers don't have any sheds. Lots of them lost the bridges into their place. I might have to store the hay all winter long. Then all of a sudden these cash donations came in so that will help out paying for the hay insurance.
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