A group of disaffected Victorian farmers have formed a breakaway representative dairy body .
The group, Dairy Farmers of Victoria, comprises most of the current United Dairyfarmers of Victoria policy council, which is part of the Victorian Farmers Federation.
The new president, Mark Billing — who also remains president of the UDV — said the farmers were unhappy with the lack of resources available to the UDV under the VFF umbrella, and want to establish a model similar to one operating in South Australia, where the dairy farmers have an independent body which still works with the broader farm advocacy group.
Mr Billing has met with the VFF and hopes they will agree to a co-operative model, but is prepared to go it alone if that doesn’t work.
He said Victorian dairy farmers contribute about $1 million annually to the VFF and dairy does not have a dedicated staff member within the organisation.
He said the lack of resources made it difficult to effectively lobby on issues like the Murray-Darling Basin water recovery plans, which were critical to irrigation dairy farmers in northern Victoria.
Among the 11 foundation members of the new group are northern Victorian farmers Ann Gardiner, Craig Emmett and Nathan Shannon.
Mr Billing said the disaffected farmers had been developing the group for about six months, had created a constitution, been allocated an ABN and opened an account.
While some financial contributions had been made, he said they weren’t actively seeking subscriptions until they had determined how the relationship with the VFF was going to work.
VFF president Emma Germano said the VFF had no capacity to stop the creation of a new group, nor would they want to go against the will of anyone who wanted to start an organisation.
“I suggest it is an opportunity in this constitutional review we are doing to consider how the UDV operates,” Ms Germano said on ABC Country Hour.
“Everyone would agree we need a strong, unified voice and we are in discussions with Mark about how we can move forward given concerns that have been spoken about.
“But it’s very early days in understanding ... the model that Mark and others are putting to the VFF.”
Asked about the lack of commodity policy officers, Ms Germano said they had asked farmers what advocacy they needed and in a survey, more than 75 per cent said cross commodity issues are what are important.
She said the old model had led the organisation into debt, loss of members and losing influence with government.
Asked about the loss of revenue if they lost dairy farmers, she said the VFF had its own resources to support it, if it experienced a membership loss.
Mr Billing operates a 400-cow dairy business at Larpent, near Colac, with his wife Sam Simpson, and supplies dairy processor ACM.
He is a former deputy chair of WestVic Dairy and a former director of the Bonlac Supply Company, served on a Fonterra advisory body and has also been a CFA group officer.
The VFF annual conference was being held on July 24 and 25 as Dairy News Australia went to print.