Three leaders in one place

For the first time in memory, the three main dairy farmer representative bodies are being led by western Victorian farmers.

Producing 23 per cent of Australia’s milk, western Victoria is the nation’s leading dairy region, ahead of Murray (21 per cent) and Gippsland (21 per cent).

With 66 per cent of the nation’s milk being produced in Victoria, it’s not surprising that the power point for industry representation is in the state, but it’s rare for all the leading dairy groups to be led by farmers working within a 100km radius.

Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett hails from Pomborneit near Colac, United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Bernie Free is from Winslow, north of Warrnambool, and Dairy Farmers Victoria president Mark Billing is from just outside Colac.

Despite the regional dominance, all leaders stress that they represent their entire farming bases and that they continue to connect with all regions.

Bernie Free said it’s a coincidence that the leaders all live in western Victoria, but he’s not surprised.

“This is the region with the most potential,” he said.

“It has the largest volume of milk coming from one shire (Corangamite) in all of Australia and the second largest, Moyne, is right next to it.

“There are lots of reasons why leaders should come from here, but there are lots of reasons why leaders should come from other parts of Victoria and the rest of Australia.”

Bernie said he believed the region’s current influence was inspired by policy concerns.

“Western Victoria led the charge over the inadequacy of the policy framework in the Dairy Plan and its lack of outcomes and direction, so I think that’s where it started,” he said.

He describes the role as interesting, challenging and rewarding, but also frustrating.

“It makes no difference in getting federal and state politicians to the region and to get them to understand the real issues facing people,” he said.

Mark Billing said industry leadership often moved in cycles.

“I think it goes in cycles, and at the moment we have a concentration of leadership in the south-west, but Gippsland had UDV and ADF presidents at the same time in the past,” Mark said.

“I don’t think there’s any particular reason for it, but it has come more to the fore in the past 12 months with the drought conditions in south-west Victoria.

“We all have our different leadership styles.”

Mark said it was important to keep abreast of issues impacting all regions.

“I’m just coming back from an industry dinner in Gippsland. We need to have our eyes open to what’s going in other parts of the state, but also nationwide.

“In the main, the issues are the same, but there are regional vagaries that you need to be across.

“For me, that means a fair bit of travel because I prefer to talk to people face-to-face and hear their stories and distil that down in a message to government and others in our industry.”

Ben Bennett has had two terms in the national role and said it’s about representing all areas.

“It’s a bit of a coincidence and luck of how it goes, but a huge portion of Australia’s dairy is here in the south-west,” Ben said.

“The south-west is pretty passionate about the industry, which is quite healthy.”

However, Ben said that having local leaders didn’t mean favouritism for the south-west.

“I don’t know if there’s any advantage,” he said.

“I don’t know how much cut through we’re getting with the government.

“They have a task force and they haven’t even got a dairy farmer on it, let alone an agronomist or nutritionist, who are vital people.

“There are issues in every region — buybacks in northern Victoria, Gippsland is now in a green drought which is what south-west Victoria was 12 months ago, South Australia has endured it for three years, and everyone has depleted fodder.”

Ben said rain in early June eased some anxiety for farmers, but they would have to endure more difficult times during winter.

“We’re not going to have decent feed in front of the cows until late August,” he said.