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YF&R chair challenges others in wildfire relief effort

A Missouri cattle farmer who chairs the American Farm Bureau’s Youth Farmers & Ranchers program is coordinating hay relief efforts among members for those harmed by wildfires.

Kalena Bruce, who runs a cow-calf operation with her husband in Southwest Missouri’s Cedar County was sitting next to the president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau at an AFBF board meeting in D.C. when the wildfires were raging, “We were talking about the people affected and the young farmers and ranchers affected. And how, you know, it’s hard to be a young farmer anyway!”

Kalena Bruce says he gave her the name of an Oklahoma panhandle farmer in a county that was one of the hardest hit.  She and her husband coordinated a 14-load haul and took it directly to that rancher.

Kalena then reached out to other YF&R members across the country who took up her challenge, “We decided to put it out as a challenge to other young farmers and ranchers across the nation and it’s really taken off. I’ve got young farmers and ranchers in Pennsylvania who are bringing hay down and South Carolina’s organizing as well. Iowa is going down to do a work day. And, it’s just been amazing to see.”

Kalena Bruce says YF&R is like a family and they support each other.

 

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