VFF suffers major member exodus

About 1000 farmers have not renewed their Victorian Farmers Federation membership since October last year. See the latest.

The Victorian Farmers Federation faces a cash crisis, with 1000 members failing to renew their memberships since October 2023.

Victorian Farmers Federation’s membership has fallen off a cliff, with reports of 1000 farmers failing to renew their subscriptions since October.

VFF livestock and grains leaders say staff have briefed them on the massive loss, which follows months of farmer frustration over staff and resource cutbacks, as well as a failed push to rewrite the constitution to strip branches and commodity groups of power.

The VFF’s audited annual reports state membership has slumped from 4846 in 2021 to 3962 in 2022, to 3835 by September 30 last year, with staff reporting about another 1000 have failed to re-sign since then.

The Weekly Times understands VFF chief executive Brendan Tatham briefed staff earlier this month on the membership loss, which has led to a cashflow crisis that risks jobs.

VFF president Emma Germano and her board declined to comment on the membership loss.

The VFF’s financials show it has already dramatically slashed staff costs, from $3.86 million in 2022 to $2.95m for the 12 months to September 30, 2023. The Weekly Times understands total staff numbers have been slashed from 32 four years ago to about 14 today.

It’s understood that even staff employed under government-funded programs, such as the Making Our Farms Safer scheme, have been cut. Four members of the VFF’s Making Our Farms Safer team have left the organisation over the past 10 months.

One of the outgoing staff said at one stage last year the team was being funded by money left over from the government-funded Cattle Underpass Scheme, which ultimately ran out in February.

The VFF has since been able to gain some government funding to revive the safety scheme, advertising for a senior farm safety adviser and communications officer.

The federation’s ongoing financial woes forced it to cash out the Grains Group’s $9.8m deed poll early last year, after more than doubling its borrowings from $4 million in 2018 to $8.2 million in 2022.

Former Grains Group president Andrew Weidemann said staff had been warned the VFF faced a cash crisis and that everyone needed to work on getting members to re-sign.

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Bernie Free said the situation was made worse by the VFF’s board’s decision to shift his members from paying milk levies, of up to several thousand dollars a year each in some cases, to a flat subscription of $695 (silver membership).

“They assumed they would get heaps more members by reducing membership prices,” Mr Free said. “We told them that was bollocks.”