Kiama Rugby Club players and supporters have dug deep and raised almost $4000 for local farmers affected by drought.
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The money is being shared between a number of farmers operating in or around the Kiama district as well as to the to the Buy A Bale national campaign.
Sean Tomkins began operating a dairy farm at Croom two years ago, a time which unfortunately coincided with the onset of the drought.
“It’s been pretty hard the whole time,” he said.
“I had been managing places for a long time and i finally decided to go out on my own and it went downhill pretty quickly.”
Mr Tomkins said sourcing good quality feed was difficult, while his feed bill had doubled since he first began operating the dairy.
“The biggest challenge has been getting feed, hay has been the hardest to get.
“The cost is enormous, my pellet feed bill has gone from $9,000 to about $18,000 a month, hay has more than doubled.
“I’m just getting it wherever I can find it, at the moment it’s just little bales here and there.”
Kiama Rugby Club’s treasurer Alex Dunster said the money was raised over about six weeks.
“Kiama Rugby is an amateur sporting club and we rely on the community’s support for what we do, so it’s good to be able to get the opportunity to give back to our local farmers,” he said.
“We held a few raffles and passed the hat around at home games, we asked the supporters and players to put their hands in their pockets and support the farmers.”