Farmers are calling for protections from late season milk price cuts and claw-backs, which have thrown many Victorian producers into thousands of dollars in financial hardship.
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Hundreds of farmers from throughout Victoria’s dairying regions hit the streets of Melbourne to rally in support of the Australian dairy industry and measures that would safeguard their businesses going forward.
Convoys of buses brought farmers to Federation Square in Melbourne before marching to the steps of Paliament house.
The rally included tractors, horses and one Brown Swiss cow, from throughout the state.
Despite the recent dairy support packages announced by state and federal governments, a number of farmers expressed to Stock & Land that neither addressed the real issues such as claw-backs.
Murray Goulburn (MG) and Fonterra have offered farmers lower milk prices for the next two months as a result of being ‘overpaid’ in the first 10 months of the financial year.
A Scotts Creek dairy farmer Alan Symons said a month ago he, and many other suppliers, had no idea this measure existed.
“To put an impost on dairy farmers for money we’ve already spent in a tough season buying hay and fodder for our cows, to come back and say ‘Listen, you’ve got to pay us back money that you’ve already been paid’...it’s abhorrent,” Mr Symons said.
He said MG and Fonterra should have stuck to their opening price, as some other processors had.
South-west dairy farmer Jock O’Keefe, Winslow, said for dairy farmers to remain viable a temporary levy on milk to bring farmgate prices to a viable rate was needed.
He said the proposed levy would be reviewed after two or three years.
“We’re going from one crisis to another and we can’t continue doing this,” Mr O’Keefe said.
“We need stability in our incomes to have confidence in the industry and to invest, and to be able to attract people, including young people, into the industry.”
One young woman proud of her family’s farm and its contribution to the local, state and national economy and food security is Chloe Scott.
Chloe, 16, started an online petition calling for a federal government review into milk pricing system.
As of yesterday afternoon, it had more than 159,000 signatures.
Her family at Boorcan supplies milk to global dairy giant Fonterra; who along with Murray Goulburn (MG), Australia’s largest milk processor, slashed its farmgate milk price in the past month for the entire 2015-2016 season.
The processors are making farmers pay back the money they were ‘overpaid’ in the first 10 months of the financial year.
“It’s affected my family and everyone around us,” she said.
“Farmers are the backbone of this country and we need to show them support now more than ever.”