Mr Farrell is at the head of the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners organisation and he is busily planning the next adventure for the generous group. 

After another successful hay run to Queensland earlier this year, Mr Farrell has now turned his attention to Victoria’s dairy farmers. 

Mr Farrell, who has been nominated for the Australian of the Year, said it was un-Australian that dairy farmers were expected to wake up each morning just to lose $800 an hour when they go to work to milk their cows.

“We’ll probably end up doing down to Warrnambool, Geelong way for the dairy industry because they can’t afford hay, they can’t afford food,” he said. 

Mr Farrell expected the dairy support run would be held in either January or February.

That project is to donate bulls and rams to drought-affected farmers. Mr Farrell said stock agents were inspecting herd bulls in Queensland for the “Buy-a- Bull” program.

“If we can buy bulls at $3000 to $4000, we will donate them to farmers who want to rebuild their herds,’’ he said.

“There will be a category on the application form so producers can nominate what type of bull they require.

“The bulls will be delivered to Blackall saleyards and distributed into a 500 kilometres radius of Longreach, taking in Hughenden, Winton and Cunnamulla.

“It all depends where the farmers are – if we have four or five farmers in Cunnamulla, we will truck some down to them.’’

Mr Farrell said the next phase of the hay runners was to look to the future, despite drought-breaking rains in western Queensland.

“We need to start this program to get mouths to eat all that grass that is growing,’’ he said. 

“The grass is good but it only needs to be dry for six months and they are back to where they started.’

“We have triple road trains and stock crates ready to rock and roll – blokes are over the moon to do whatever part they can.

“The Hay Runners look after drought, fire and flood – we will tackle the dairy industry now to keep the dream alive for them.”