WESTCOAST Wool & Livestock is a keen sponsor and supporter of rural and regional communities and one of its latest efforts centres on helping students from Boyup Brook District High School (BBDHS) to tour the nation’s capital.
The company has combined with the BBDHS Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) to encourage local farmers to donate their wool oddments and dags to help raise funds for the school’s year 5/6 camp to Canberra in December.
Westcoast Wool & Livestock Boyup Brook/Kojonup representative Brenton Tynan said it was easy for people to get involved in the Dag Drive, with every donation helping the students reach their target.
Mr Tynan said farmers could drop off any wool oddments and dry dags, with Merino wool bagged separately to crossbred wool, at the local Westcoast Wool & Livestock store, which was conveniently located in the main street of Boyup Brook.
Donations could also be collected on-farm.
The donations will be transported to the company’s Katanning store, which is the only regional Australian Wool Testing Authority-accredited wool handling and testing facility in WA, before being taken to its main wool store in Bibra Lake.
“The P&C will get paid for the total weighted donations and by-product, with Westcoast on-selling the wool component,” Mr Tynan said.
“The by-product is a unique, high-quality and weed-free pelletised sheep manure, which is produced from our dag crushing machinery and pelletising plant.”
Dags are processed through a hammermill and crushed, separating the wool from the manure before the pelletising process, which uses high heat to kill any remaining weed seeds.
The sheep manure pellets will be available for purchase from the Boyup Brook Co-Op.
According to BBDHS P&C president Sam Curran, the idea for the Dag Drive fundraiser came from parent and P&C committee member Sally Thomson, who she said had put in a lot of effort to make it happen.
“It’s such a great community initiative and one we really hope people get behind,” Ms Curran said.
“We are hoping that if it is successful, then it can be on-going to help raise funds for any future P&C events.
“We will be keeping everyone updated with a Dag Drive progress tally, which will be printed in the school newsletter.
“Having the support of local businesses such as Westcoast makes all the difference to our fundraising efforts and in turn, benefits the students at BBDHS.
Mr Tynan said Westcoast was please to be involved in the fundraising effort.
“We are more than happy to help out and this is just one of many fundraising and sponsorship efforts by Westcoast in the community,” he said.
“It’s the same in other towns around WA.
“We live and work in these communities and the company understands how important it is to give back.”
p To get involved, farmers can contact Brenton Tynan on 0459 222 318 or Sally Thomson on 0409 372 440.
