Observer Reports
Local farmer Tom Trantham Jr., who gained national attention for his organization of a haylift working with farmers in Illinois and 30 other states to help farmers in other states during an extreme drought in 1986, died Saturday at age 81.
Last year Trantham received the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor that can be awarded in the state of South Carolina.
He was also well-known for his Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer, a bottling operation offering high quality milk and other dairy products directly from his own cows.
The haylift of 1986 was birthed when farmers in the Midwest contacted Trantham suggesting their strong year and good weather had left them with plenty of hay to share. The haylift brought truckloads, and train cars and cargo planes filled with bales of hay to farmers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and eastern Tennessee to sustain livestock during the drought.
Trantham continued his work for dairy farming in South Carolina throughout the 1990s by implementing the “Rotational Grazing Program,” a process to provide year-round pasture-based growing which is now used by farmers across the world.
He also served on various agricultural committees and testified before Congress and helped bring about many positive changes in the agricultural community nationwide and was named 2015 South Carolina Farmer of the Year.
The funeral is set for Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Washington Baptist Church Family Life Center, with burial to follow in the church cemetery.