The prime minister showed up at Smiths Falls, a minister by his side who months earlier was embroiled in scandal. Farmers in the audience waited with bated breath for a major offensive on the western drought. The federal government offered $150,000 and words of praise.

Through any other mouth but a federal Liberal’s, the words would have been something in which to take pride. Don Boudria said: "The Hay West Campaign demonstrates the very best in the Canadian spirit. – the desire to come to the aid of fellow citizens in times of trouble."

Charlene Renkema, one of the organizers in Leeds County, articulating the feelings of many farmers present said "Did they ever miss the boat."

The volunteers did an incredible amount of work, she says. "But the magnitude of this (hay aid) is too much for volunteers." Like many other volunteers she had to scale back her volunteer work and look after the needs of her own farm."

The people who can organize Hay West, could make it more than it is, and as big as it needed to be, are already in place in county ag offices and federal agricultural stations. Canadian farmers should now start asking why our governments are not organizing a drought relief movement. Why aren’t they using the infra-structure already there. Are they stupid? Or is it that they don’t really give a damn about western farmers? Or any other farmers.

Says Ron MacMillan, a dairy farmer at Lombardy: "We can put enough hay out there (west). But there’s no leadership (at the government level)."

The transport was extremely inefficient, he said. Much of the hay went out as round bales. None of it was compressed. Renkema who spent more time in rail yards than she ever wanted, says the cars carried about 60,000 to 70,000 pounds. If the hay had been re-baled and compressed, a flat car could have held 200,000 pounds.

MacMillan says the hay could have been compressed on farms before it went to the rail yards. Darrell Meagher who worked for years supervising the allocation of rail cars for the CPR in North America, estimates the cost of shipping a tonne of hay by flat car from Ottawa to Edmonton at about $250. Hay depending on quality is fetching between $120 and $180 in Edmonton.

Alberta needs about 400,000 tonnes of hay, a gigantic amount. Hay West will send 3,000 tonnes, maybe 5,000 tonnes, an extraordinary feat for an ad hoc volunteer organization.

But the harsh reality is that 60 per cent of the two million cattle in Alberta could become an endangered specie. Part of Saskatchewan is suffering the same plight. Thousands of farmers could lose their farms.

The people who started Hay West and the hundreds of others who have climbed on the wagon acting out of an understanding of the desperation of western farmers are doing what they can. The extraordinary generosity of eastern farmers put in perspective is truly extraordinary. Many of those donating hay have just come through two very bad crop years. People in Napanee and Renfrew who have undergone similar droughts and had little or no outside help are helping out.

Nonetheless, there’s a limit. "My heart’s only so big and my pockets only so deep," MacMillan said.

There are other options. A cow-calf pair costs about $150 to make the trip, according to livestock auctioneer David Carson. Renkema says she would look after 10 beef cows over winter free.

Time is running out. But this is a government that dithered so long it almost lost the nation to separatists, then responded with millions of dollars for sporting events that evidently were stolen.