He is throwing out apples because there is nothing left to feed them with. 

The apples were donated to him from the Bathurst City Community Club. 

He does a run there every week to pick up food hampers for struggling primary producers and deliver them. Last trip he got a heap of apples, which he is using to feed the horses.

“At first they were a bit wary of the apples. They didn’t know what they were,” Mr Douglas said. 

“Now they come up and almost eat them off the back of the truck they are that hungry.”

The apples are just the tip of the iceberg for what Mr Douglas has been doing to help other  farmers.

He is part of the Farmers Helping Farmers group. Over the past decade has assisted up to a thousand farmers right across the country. 

The assistance comes in the form of hay or lick blocks that are trucked to farmers doing it tough in the drought, especially those up north. 

Mr Douglas is part of the chain that gets donations of feed to where it needs to go.

But there is only so much you can give and now he too is facing hard times as the local area is now in a ‘green drought.’

“We have had 36mm rain in the last few weeks, so it looks green but there is nothing for the horses to eat. Maybe they would get a cup-full of feed if they grazed it all day,” he said.

He has about 60 horses of his own and looks after about 40 horses. These horses are from other struggling primary producers and are there on free agistment. 

“We have the core breeding stock here. The bloodlines are irreplaceable, my whole life has gone into breeding them,” he said. 

“We were doing alright but now we have hit the wall too.”

Mr Douglas began helping other farmers after he himself was helped out during the last drought.

“It started with the last drought in 2002, when this mob got in contact with me because they had heard through the bush telegraph that I was doing it tough with my horses,” he said.

“They offered me agistment elsewhere for the horses to get me through the tough times and I got involved from there, initially carting horses for them in my truck.

“I have been doing this since 2006, but in 2008 I took over more and from then to about 2016, I have been flat out with it.

“It has not involved any money, just a lot of time and effort. It is not money, it is my time.”

Mr Douglas has a $2000 phone bill sitting on his table from making calls to get feed to where it needs to get to. 

He works with many other volunteers, including Olsonns as well as major trucking firms to source and distribute the donated feed to farmers in need.

Last year the group helped over 300 families in Queensland, when Olsonns donated 200 pallets of lick blocks.

“It went a long way and helped a lot of people through tough times,” Mr Douglas said.

Just last week there was a run to Tamworth that assisted 24 farmers with about 23 tonnes of lick blocks from Olsonns factory in Brisbane.

“The largest amount of assistance I recall was following the Dunedoo fires,” he said.

“We sent 12 semi-loads of hay there as well as two semi-loads of lick boxes.”

Those wishing to help can call Mr Douglas on 4834 6055.