The council will vote on Tuesday to help dairy farmers who might be having trouble paying their rates.

While the council vote is not to lower rates or offer discounts, the motion aims to encourage dairy farmers to speak with shire officers and make individual arrangements regarding rate payments. The shire would also take extra steps to promote support services for dairy farmers, including financial management services and wellbeing counsellors.

However councillor Jim Doukas said it was his understanding that if farmers could prove genuine hardship, the council would “go easy on them” by waiving debt collection fees and interest on repayments.

According to council figures, Moyne Shire has 363 dairy farms with an average herd size of approximately 300 cows and it is believed the recent milk price drop “would cause a $67.155 million direct impact to farm-gate dairy sector output in Moyne Shire”.

“Communication is critical and farmers need to be aware of the support services that are available to them in these challenging and stressful times,” the report to council stated.

“This level of milk price reduction … will cause flow on impacts to Moyne’s wider economy.”