Dairy farmers, and rural communities they underpin, continue to reel from milk price cuts.
South Coast farmers will lose $133 million directly from step downs in the prices paid for their milk this financial year and around 850 jobs are likely to be lost. These are estimations from the Great South Coast Councils, encompassing six shires.
The group’s chair Cr Colin Ryan said dairy delivered a third of the economic activity across the Great South Coast and employed around 6000 people.
“It’s not just our farmers who are doing it tough – it’s the hundreds of other businesses who service the dairy industry that will feel the full weight of the current crisis.”
He said the ramifications on local economies would be huge: “It’s our understanding that we will lose around $336 million from our regional economy over the coming year – that’s a huge blow for us all.”
Cr Ryan said it was unclear how long the crisis would continue or the impacts longer-term..
In the West Gippsland shire of Baw Baw, 286 dairy farmers are losing $52 million as a direct result of the 15 per cent cut to milk payments, according to chief executive Helen Anstis.
Ms Anstis said if you extrapolated that loss across Gippsland, its 1430 dairy farms would lose between $200 and $300 million, and a total for all of the state’s dairy regions would run into the hundreds of millions or billions. These calculations were based on dairy farms’ performances last year.
She said for an average dairy herd of 300 cows, Baw Baw’s dairy farmers were believed to lose an average of $170,000 to $200,000.
She said dairy farmers were an integral part of the local community and the economic effects of the price cuts would compounded in rural communities, with flow-on effects including to a squeeze on suppliers and other businesses.
