Dairy Farmers Victoria holds first forum

They may be the new kid on the block but Dairy Farmers Victoria has edged closer to becoming a recognised industry player.

Dairy Producers Victoria held its first conference last week in a major step for the group. Picture: Zoe Phillips

A Victorian dairy lobby group edged closer to becoming a recognised industry player after holding its first forum last week in Melbourne.

And Dairy Farmers Victoria forum convenor and committee member Benjamin Vagg said the group was hoping more members might join after its success.

DFV currently has about 100 members from 50 dairy businesses and Mr Vagg said the goal was to boost this quickly.

There were about 80 people at last week’s event.

One of the sessions at the forum was designed around talking to forum participants about how they would like the organisation to operate.

“We want our members to tell us how they want us to engage with them, how they want us to develop policy and how they want information given back to them,” Mr Vagg said.

“We are trying to be flexible, we are listening and we want to be able to represent dairy farmer interests.”

He said the DFV had already gained credibility by having committee members participating on state and federal groups, showing that the group was being taken seriously in representing the interests of the industry.

But the push was now on to increase membership, and to capture some of the dairy farmers who may be looking for a voice that was “not just for cross commodity issues”.

“We always knew it was going to be a hard slog in terms of the legacy feelings for the existing lobby groups (United Dairyfarmers of Victoria, Victorian Farmers Federation) but we feel like we are gaining members for all the right reasons,” Mr Vagg said.

“Victoria is the largest dairy state in Australia and if we are not leading the issues (dairy) then we are not helping our colleagues in other states.

“But we feel like we are getting cut through.

“We are all volunteers trying to win by our deeds and acts.”

Mr Vagg said DFV maintained it was not trying to compete with the VFF/UDV but was trying to fill a void “due to a serious lack of industry representation”.

DFV will soon seek feedback from current members as well as potential members on an appropriate membership fee. It currently costs $500 per farming business for a foundation membership. This compares to the average cost to belong to the UDV, which is believed to be about $1400.

Last week’s forum covered issues such as the milk price outlook, fertiliser efficiency and member involvement in the organisation.