Commissioner replies to hay quality complaint
Drought relief effort prompts complaints
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HAY LIFT
Project Cooperative Hay Lift is being carried out by De-Go-La Resource Conservation and Development Inc., a nonprofit agency serving 16 counties.
Each truckload can contain up to 38 round bales of hay.
The hay costs $49 a bale ...
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HAY LIFT
Project Cooperative Hay Lift is being carried out by De-Go-La Resource Conservation and Development Inc., a nonprofit agency serving 16 counties.
Each truckload can contain up to 38 round bales of hay.
The hay costs $49 a bale delivered to the purchaser's ranch.
A regional hay lift to help drought-stricken ranchers has prompted complaints about the hay quality, but officials said they're correcting the problems.
"We're doing our best to make it right, and our supplier said he's going to make it right," said Gary Burns, a Victoria County commissioner who helped with the hay lift. "Most of the load was excellent, but there were some that were bad."
It is being replaced, he said.
Project Cooperative Hay Lift was carried out under the umbrella of De-Go-La Resource Conservation and Development, Inc. The nonprofit agency has organized the hay lift for the 16 counties it serves.
Bonnie Hahn in Goliad County said she was disappointed with the 34 bales of hay she and a neighbor ordered.
"We really got took on that," she said. "It's rotten."
She and her husband estimated the hay is at least two or three years old and some of it was in such bad shape it couldn't be moved. Cattle would smell the hay and walk away from it, she said.
She said she and her neighbor paid more than $1,800 for 38 bales and got only 34 bales.
"We've been in a drought situation all summer and the cows haven't had anything good to eat," Hahn said. "Then they want to send us some kind of trash like this for our cows to eat."
But not everyone is unhappy with the hay they received. Butch Upham, who ranches in Victoria and Lavaca counties, said he got his 34 bales of hay about a week ago.
"It was real clean hay, wrapped real good and tight," he said. "I have no problems with it."
Upham said he has no problems feeding it to his cattle and has even ordered a second load.
Rancher Darrell Sklar in Jackson County said he also got a bad load of hay, but it has already been replaced.
"The whole load wasn't good," he said. "I would say it wasn't this year's hay."
Sklar said he's ordered a lot of hay over the years and that happens. He said he didn't even ask for it to be replaced, but they agreed to provide a new load.
He described the new load of hay as perfect. Sklar said he doesn't blame the county commissioners involved with the hay lift, but the supplier for taking advantage of the situation.
"These commissioners are just trying to help us out of a bad situation," he said.
Burns said he looked at Hahn's hay and agreed some of it was bad.
"We've told her and her husband several times we're going to make it right," he said. "But when they signed up, we told them and they signed a release that we're not responsible for the quality."
The recent loads of hay have been good and there should be no more problems, Burns said. One supplier is only making $17 to $19 a bale on the hay, he said.
"That doesn't pay for his baling hardly," he said. "So, we're beating these guys up when they're trying to help."
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Where do I sign up for some of this hay? Sounds like a good deal to me. I can just fill out a form, put my money down and let someone else go through the hassle of finding good hay, ordering the hay, dealing with difficult truck drivers. Then, when the hay is delivered exactly where I want it, I can just whine and cry about everything I don’t like about it and call the Advocate! Sounds like a plan to me!
October 1, 2009 at 12:41 p.m.I think there might be a little confusion here. There are two "haylift" projects going on right now. They are not related. The first project that Victoria County put together is called "Haylift ll " and they are bringing in hay by train. Many people signed up and not all were able to receive hay because of the limited supply. This project was limited to only residents in Victoria Co.
The second project came into effect because many people from surrounding counties wanted in on the Haylift ll project and were turned away because they were not in Victoria Co. So after some of the County Commissioners from those counties heard about the project they wanted to see if they could work something similar for their counties. The Commissioners contacted De-Go-La, a non-profit organization that services 16 surrounding counties with a board of directors consisting of a representative for each county serviced. Mr. Gary Burns is the Chairman for the board. He agreed there was a need in the 16 counties De-Go-La services and immediately started working on a program to bring in good quality hay at an affordable cost delivered to their location.
De-Go-La is a non-profit organization and they are not making ANY profit from this , in fact it is costing them time and money to carry out this project. The Board of Directors and office staff have put in numerous hours to try to help the people in need. They have had a few obstacles to overcome. De-Go- La has never dealt with hay suppliers or trucking companies and they have found that not everyone is quite as forthcoming and honest as they are. They did have a supplier that misled them and brought in bad quality hay, but they went at looked at the hay, determined it was bad, fired the supplier and brought new loads of hay from a new source for ever person that got a bad load. It did take a about a week to resolve the issues, but they were resolved.
In the case of the customer who was very unhappy and contacted the news paper on the issue, The Hahn’s, they did receive a load that had some bad bales of hay and some good. Mr. Burns went out and looked at the hay and determined it did have some bad bales that needed to be replaced and told them he would contact this seller and bring in bales to replace the bad ones, but it would take a few days to resolve. They called the newspaper an hour later to complain. The next day they were given a full refund and all hay was removed from their property that was brought in.
De-Go-La is doing the best they can to help service the need in this area. There will be some mistakes made, but you if you just give them time to make corrections, they have done so and will continue to do so. There are some people that you just cannot please no matter what you do.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
October 1, 2009 at 12:23 p.m.That's what is wrong with the world today! People to lazy to go out and look for something themselves then gripe about what you get!! Like buying a car sight unseen, just because that good old boy said it was a good car doesn't me it runs. Then go ahead a pay him for it and sighn a release,then when you go to get it is doesn't run. Go find your own hay or what ever else it is that you want!!
September 30, 2009 at 8:47 p.m.It's too bad a friend of mine in GA was asked if she could get hay here by rail, and nobody ever told her she could get the shipment at a discount. All the county commissioners ever said was, "Get it by rail, delivered to us."
September 30, 2009 at 2:43 p.m.Her hay might've been better quality than the garbage listed here.
Those of you getting a "Second Load", why not consider for a moment that there are others that didn't get any the first time around.
There's hay for sale in Floresville - You've just got to know who to ask.