MORE needs to be done to encourage younger people to pursue opportunities in the dairy industry, a south-west advocate says.
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Farmer Power chief executive officer Garry Kerr met with Crossley dairy farmer Chris Gleeson, Western Victoria MP Stuart Grimley and Leader of the Derryn Hinch Justice Party, Derryn Hinch on Wednesday to discuss the south-west dairy industry.
They visited a number of dairy farms discussing the job farmers do, how complicated the work is, how much financing goes into running a farm and the hours they work.
Mr Kerr said getting young people to want to work on farms was a key issue.
"We can set up a process of training type schemes for unskilled workers so young people from schools can go out, go through and learn the process and get a qualification," he said.
Mr Kerr said if youngsters worked their way up to a dairy hand, they could go to a farm with a certificate in hand and the skills behind them.
"We've got an ageing population in our dairy farmers and they're not getting any younger," he said.
"A lot of the experienced farmers are looking forward to the day they can sit back and have someone look after their dairy farm and run their farm for them, then maybe, at the end of the day, they buy the farm and the farmer can retire.
"At the moment we've just got a big hole and it's not getting any better - we've got to make that happen."
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The call comes after the state government last month announced a $1 million trial that aims to fast-track vulnerable and unemployed youths on to south-west farms.
Mr Gleeson said the younger generations in the south-west were not stepping up having seen their parents go through three hardships.
"The generational farmers are gone because they've seen how hard their parents have worked for little money," he said.
Mr Gleeson said farmers had endured the global financial crisis in 2008, droughts in 2012/13 and then the dairy crisis in 2016.
Mr Hinch said he was surprised to discover how much it cost to run a farm.
Mr Gleeson said the minimum cost for a dairy farm operation was $6.5 million for 300 cows and 500 acres of land, machinery, equipment and feed.
He said the dairy industry needed help and farmers needed their brands to be protected.
Mr Grimley said farmers needed a voice in parliament.
"They have a great voice in Farmer Power which is really good but they need a voice and representation in state parliament but also advocacy to federal parliament as well," he said.
"There's a desperate need out there for help and assistance."
Mr Kerr said more politicians needed to meet farmers to understand the issues they faced and discuss how they could help them fix it.
"Until we do, regional Victoria is going to wane," he said.
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Lillian Altman
Lillian is an experienced journalist who joined Warrnambool Standard in late 2021. She has a particular interest in writing stories on the arts and culture, health, education, breaking news, police stories, as well as human interest and profiles.
Lillian is an experienced journalist who joined Warrnambool Standard in late 2021. She has a particular interest in writing stories on the arts and culture, health, education, breaking news, police stories, as well as human interest and profiles.
