{"id":41682,"date":"2022-12-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=41682"},"modified":"2022-12-15T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:00:00","slug":"fire-hits-silo-at-lilac-hedge-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/12\/15\/fire-hits-silo-at-lilac-hedge-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire hits silo at Lilac Hedge Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 Having worked hard to prepare feed to see their animals through the winter, Lilac Hedge Farm workers responded last week to a new challenge, as a fire took the crucial stored feed from a silo.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those that haven\u2019t previously seen details, on Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 6) we noticed smoke coming from our upright silo that stores our winter hay for the animals and it\u2019s been a whirlwind ever since,\u201d owner Ryan MacKay posted on the farm\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been overwhelmed with the number of folks asking for more details as well as how they can help,\u201d he said, and he shared information about the incident that had left workers scrambling to replace the food.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing, harvesting, and storing feed in our silo is an all-summer-long project. We maintain hundreds of<\/p>\n

acres consisting of both our own fields as well as rented fields in 5 different towns. This year was an incredible accomplishment as it was our first year filling the entire silo, and would have been the first year that we did not have to buy in additional feed,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so sad to see all that hard work and investment go up in flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire resulted from spontaneous ignition within the stored silage. The leading cause of this type fire is low moisture silage, which can be attributed to the dry conditions this summer. The combustion happened in the middle of the silo, around 35 feet up,\u201d according to MacKay\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

The second day, Wednesday, temperatures in the silo rose from 120 degrees to 500 degrees as the fire continued to burn, according to the post.<\/p>\n

The concrete-lined silo may be able to be salvaged, but the other equipment has not fared as well. And new feed needs to be purchased for the animals.<\/p>\n

The farm quickly stepped up its timeline on construction agreements to move forward. Insurance does not cover feed, so the farm is facing costs approaching $100,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss of the silo and emergency construction is not what hits us hardest. It\u2019s our winter feed loss; the hay we rely on to nourish our livestock. It costs $3.50 per day for feed per head of cattle we have in the barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinuing our plan of wintering 150 cows here is an expense of roughly $525 per day. We estimate $90,000 in feed expense to replace the lost feed, assuming all goes well and we are able to put the cows on pasture in mid-May,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be in addition to the $50,000 outstanding balance associated with chopping the grass this summer, all of which is now lost. A fire is a farmer\u2019s worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is we are moving fast.\u201d The feed situation, although costly, was eased as other farmers and supporters pitched in, helping to bring other feed from a Templeton field to the Holden farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy team knows it is important to share our farm journey and story with those that support us day in and day out. I have incredible staff and friends with knowledge, connections, and resources to help us move ahead. My team and I have persevered through many challenges in the past, and I have no doubt we\u2019ll get through this one too. We are resilient,\u201d MacKay said.<\/p>\n

He also said he appreciated the support of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou, our faithful customers, contribute to our success every day when you choose to spend your food dollars with Lilac Hedge Farm. If you would like to further support us,\u201d he said, \u201cthere are options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those options include a GoFundMe page at https:\/\/gofund.me\/bd6e9a4b. Donations can also be mailed to Lilac Hedge Farm, 106 Bond Road, Holden, MA 01522. MacKay said folks could also support the farm by purchasing a gift card this holiday season, via the farm\u2019s online platform or in the Rutland store on Wachusett Street, or at a farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 Having worked hard to prepare feed to see their animals through the winter, Lilac Hedge Farm workers responded last week to a new challenge, as a fire took the crucial stored feed from a silo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}