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Hay Bale Donations Sustain Farmers Burned By Wildfires

Cattle are herded into a sale arena at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)

Ranchers on the Great Plains are recovering from wildfires that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres of cattle country last month.

In the vast plains of western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, ranchers have devised a system to make sure the cattle that survived the blaze still have enough to eat. Farmers and ranchers from around the country routinely donate bales of hay and volunteer to distribute it to ranchers in need.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Bernie Smith, a rancher and volunteer firefighter on the Oklahoma-Kansas border, about the informal network of hay donation that sustains ranchers after wildfires.

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