Who advocacy bodies should talk to and what they should talk about

Former Federal Agriculture Minister and Australian Farm Institute chair Simon Crean said advocates needed to rethink what agriculture stood for.

"Don't just treat yourself as agricultural commodity producers, you are producing a trusted brand around the world," he said.

"And it's trusted because of the capability and skill and the land management techniques that we have here."

Arguing advocates should take a more holistic view, Mr Crean said that at $18 billion, red meat was "the largest manufacturing sector in the country".

"You've got to make your pitches to more than just the agriculture minister," he said.

"You've got to get to the prime minister down to trade ministers, which I'm sure National Farmers' Federation (NFF) does, but also the industry minister ... you're going to drive the basis on which you reinforce the importance of what the white paper on agriculture seeks to achieve.

"And that is seeing this as essential to the whole economy, not just the farm sector."

NFF president Fiona Simson pointed to meetings with ministers associated with drought, trade and environment, all within a week.

"There's a whole heap of different ministers that we have to engage with," she said.

"And it's really, really critical that we can actually do it in terms of a unified voice so ... we do tend to focus on the policy committees, which is where our members are engaged.

"It's those issues that we really do need our members' engagement and through them to the farmers."

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Asked why media often focused on friction within the industry rather than policy, Australian Dairy Farmers chief executive David Inall said, "I think in any of these issues, there's the human side that becomes almost more interesting".

"Certainly, when there's any rumblings in our organisation, which always happens from time to time, they tend to get attention, it becomes newsworthy," he said.

"We do what we can to, obviously answer the questions, but to pivot that into opportunity for reform or improvement.

"We talk a lot as an advocacy organisation about setting policies ... and we can grab a policy and, if the government asked a question, we can respond and say, 'This is our policy'.

"How do we grab all those pieces and turn it into solutions and strategies for farmers to actually be more profitable and manage risk? That's the part we're missing."