Palestine, Texas is roughly 265 miles east of Glen Cove in Coleman County. But, on Thursday morning, the city and tiny community were united by a common bond of neighbor helping neighbor.
Through efforts by Coleman County Farm Bureau and Anderson County Farm Bureau members, 84 round bales of Coastal hay and 6 tons of cattle feed were trucked from Palestine, Texas to Glen Cove. The hay and feed will be used immediately by cattle producers in the Glen Cove area who lost grazing, equipment, their own hay supply and, in some cases, their homes in the big wildfire in March.
“This goes to the individuals who were burned out in the Glen Cove area, they lost all their hay, their grazing, and this will help them continue in business until maybe we can get a good rain,” said Keith Phillips, president of the Board of Directors of Coleman County Farm Bureau.
The connection between the two counties is a result of Phillips visiting with Ted Britton, Anderson County Farm Bureau President, at a Texas Farm Bureau Presidents Conference last month in Waco.
“Their (farm bureau) board does a project where they put shoes on kids before school starts. I thought it sounded like something my wife (Donna) would be interested in, I introduced her to him and the rest is history,” Phillips said. That meeting about helping kids get new shoes before school starts turned into the effort seen in Glen Cove Thursday morning.
Britton heard about the wildfire affecting the Glen Cove area.
“I called a special (Farm Bureau) board meeting, our board showed up and I explained the situation, relayed the email Miss Donna had sent to us explaining some of the hardships, loss of home, loss of cattle, loss of hay, loss of equipment. When I expressed that to our board, they were immediately on board to help,” said Britton.
Anderson County Farm Bureau board members and people in and around Palestine who heard about the story, started donating cattle feed, hay and even money to pay for the trip to take two truckloads of hay to Glen Cove.
One of those who trucked in the hay was Braden McInnis, one of the largest farm operators in Anderson County and who, with his wife Jordan, were named the winner of Texas Farm Bureau’s 2019 Outstanding Young Farmer & Rancher competition. It wasn’t his first time to help farmers affected by wildfires.
“We helped in 2017, we went to the northeast part of the Texas Panhandle. All of that actually came about through Texas Farm Bureau as well. Like Ted said, we’re a big network in agriculture, whether it’s ranching or farming. Wherever there’s somebody in need, if we’re able to do so, we like to help,” said McInnis.
Braden said the hay he brought to Glen Cove was part of a Fall cutting of Coastal hay grown in Anderson County.
The other truck of hay was hauled by Willmott Farms, Inc. Britton, who owns a feed store in Palestine, provided a portion of the cattle cubes with help from the feed rep and other donors.