NORWICH – Herm Sherwood-Sitts is not a farmer, nor is he from Texas, but his heart is fixated on both while the worst drought in the history of the Lone Star State is devastating agriculture there.

His passion? To collect and deliver donations of hay from upstate New York to feed Texas beefers, many of which are either dying from starvation and thirst, or being slaughtered before their prime.

“They’ve lost $5.2 billion in ag down there, cows are dying; being sent to slaughter earlier. If they sell their breeding stock, it will be three to five years before they can recover. But that’s only if they can go back in business,” the Norwich man said.

With a long stretch of triple digit temperatures and only 40 percent of the state’s normal rainfall since January, Texas agriculture officials say producers in the nation's leading cattle state have sent more animals than usual to auction because there's nothing left for them to eat. Pictures viewed on television and the Internet of animals dying in the field have shocked America and beyond.

Sherwood-Sitts plan? To enlist the U.S. Air National Guard to fly loads of hay down in a cargo plane. On Aug. 1, the self-proclaimed ‘dumb ole, unemployed construction worker’ began his project by enlisting support from Cornell Cooperative Extension, Farm Bureaus and agriculture and markets departments in New York and Texas. He also wrote to President Obama and elected representatives in both states – all while soliciting farmers for donations.

He specifically contacted New York State Senator William J. Larkin, Jr. for access to the two, C-17 cargo planes located at Stewart Air National Guard Base. The base, located in the Hudson River Valley, are within Larkin’s jurisdiction.

“The thought was that by going to him first we could cut through some of the red tape,” he said.

As back-up, truckers, hay handlers, fuel companies, construction companies and farmers with loading equipment, the local airport, Elks and VFW – “everyone I could think of” – were contacted, in case the National Guard didn’t come through. Sherwood-Sitts hoped truckers from down South would be happy to pick up hay in New York rather than going back empty.

But red tape he found. Despite securing 87 tons of hay for his ‘Hay For Texas’ program, Sherwood-Sitts said he learned from officials in both states that in order for the cargo planes to be released from New York, Texas Governor Rick Perry would have to formally request them, something the recently declared U.S. Presidential candidate has thus far declined to do.

Instead of helping secure Gov. Perry’s approval for the air lifts, Texas Department of Agriculture Texas have taken matters in their own hands. They have updated their Hay Hotline with prices and sources for donated hay and transportation services to receive it.