Dairy Farmers Victoria on membership drive

Evan Campbell, of Yannathan, was one of three Gippsland members of Dairy Farmers Victoria who were walking the beat at the South Gippsland Dairy Expo. Photo by Jeanette Severs

Evan Campbell, Ben Vagg and Aaron Thomas were walking the beat on behalf of Dairy Farmers Victoria at the South Gippsland Dairy Expo in September.

Evan, Ben and Aaron are young dairy farmers living and working in Gippsland.

They are all also on the committee of DFV.

“We’re on a membership drive at the expo,” Evan said.

“We’re all dairy farmers and we’re all busy on our farms, but we also think it’s important to get out and talk to other people and find out the issues that worry them.”

Evan said DFV was engaging in the review into the Dairy Sustainability Framework.

“We’re collating information about how the Dairy Sustainability Framework can better meet dairy farmers needs, going into the future,” he said.

“A lot of us on the committee of DFV are in our 30s; and we have other members who are older and have more experience in the advocacy space.

“We’ve been able to make submissions about cattle underpasses, biosecurity, surplus calves.

“We’ve also made submissions to Worksafe Victoria about the changes scoped for telehandlers.”

Dairy Farmers Victoria’s key partners are Dairy Australia, Gardiner Foundation, Agriculture Victoria and Rural Bank.

DFV also partners with GippsDairy, Murray Dairy and WestVic Dairy.

“We work with them on issues relevant to dairy farmers,” Evan said.