MFA, Parker McCrory help with hurricane relief

Cattle producers in central and southern Georgia affected by Hurricane Helene in late September have received some much-needed help from Missouri, thanks to MFA Incorporated’s Feed and Farm Supply divisions, Parker McCrory Manufacturing and Chuck Miller, president of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

Miller picked up 2 tons of feed on Nov. 6 from MFA Agri Services in Versailles, Mo., and delivered it to members of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association. Simultaneously, five pallets of electric fencing supplies were shipped to the area as a joint donation from MFA’s Farm Supply Division and Parker McCrory in Kansas City.

For Miller, the plight of his fellow cattlemen down South had hit home, and he said his leadership role gave him the platform to help.

“I called the immediate past president of Florida Cattlemen’s, Pat Durden, right after the hurricane hit and asked him what they needed. He said Georgia needed supplies worse,” Miller said. “We had a tornado here five years ago and lost a lot of fences, trees and cows, and that’s nothing compared to what some of these folks are going through. It’s heart-wrenching. I felt like I had to do something.”

Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $6.46 billion in agricultural and forestry losses across Southeast Georgia in a stretch from Valdosta to Augusta and over to the East Coast. Taking such a direct hit from a hurricane was unusual for the area, said Kasey Jackson, young farmer advisor in Toombs County, Ga., which was in the path of the storm.

“We have never experienced a hurricane like that before. They’re usually tropical storms and slow down a good bit by the time they get to us,” Jackson said. “It was something we weren’t prepared for. You can’t understand without seeing with your own eyes just how horrible it is.”

The Georgia Cattlemen’s Association helped distribute the MFA feed to producers in need, and Jackson helped coordinate the delivery and distribution of the electric fencing supplies at the Toombs County Ag Center in Lyons, Ga.

“It was very much appreciated and will be a tremendous help,” she said. “All the people who came to get them were so grateful. They kept asking how much they owed, and I’d say, ‘Nothing! These are donations.’”

The desperate need for fencing, in particular, was something that had not been addressed with other donations, Jackson said. Parker McCrory and MFA Farm Supply teamed up to send Parmak solar energizers, polytape, pigtail posts and T-post insulators to help producers contain their cattle, especially in areas where electricity was unavailable due to storm damage.

“Even people close by don’t realize how hard we were hit,” Jackson said. “There were animals wandering around everywhere because so much fencing was damaged. A lot of the donations coming in were water, food and hay, but this was the first donation of fencing I heard of, and it was something we absolutely needed.”

With a long road of recovery still ahead, Miller encourages anyone who wants to help further to visit the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association website at ncba.org/producers/
disaster-relief-resources.

Caption for top image: Chuck Miller, Missouri Cattlemen’s Association president and member of MFA Agri Services in Versailles, picks up 2 tons of MFA feed to assist livestock producers in Georgia affected by Hurricane Helene. Miller delivered the feed to Georgia Cattlemen’s Association members, who distributed it to producers in need. 

Caption for bottom image: MFA teamed up with Parker McCrory to ship a donation of electric fencing supplies to the area, where producers like brothers Mitchell and Kyle Pittman are rebuilding storm-damaged infrastructure.

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