'It means so much': Donated feed delivered to farmer who faced shooting 1200 sheep

A northeast NSW farmer, who said he was facing having to put down 1200 sheep due to the devastating drought, has received help from southern neighbours.

Les Jones, from Goolhi, west of Gunnedah, made headlines when he told The Daily Telegraph he was facing having to shoot his flock of sheep after being unable to afford feed for the animals in the drought-affected area.

However, the Lions Club Need for Feed Disaster Relief delivered a convoy full of feed from Victoria for the sheep to the Jones family on Saturday, along with a number of other farmers.

It means the Jones’s stock will stay alive.

Mr Jones’s wife, Laura, was in disbelief.

“When they turned up today I couldn’t believe that they came all the way from Victoria that they travelled all these days to get here just for us,” she said.

“And that means so much.”

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Mrs Jones previously told the Daily Telegraph her husband faced the prospect of having to “dig a big hole” to bury the carcasses of their sheep.

The sheep were also reportedly too gaunt to get on a truck, with many of them starving and weak. Ten sheep a day were dying of starvation on the Jones’s 670ha property.

The crippling dry spell is the worst drought in more than 100 years.