Dairy Farmers Victoria launched as United Dairyfarmers of Victoria board collapses

The launch coincides with the resignation of 10 of the 12 members of the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria policy council and president Mark Billing, Colac, effective from this morning.

"For some time now, there has been an increasing level of disquiet that the Victorian dairy industry's position was not being articulated or heard under the current structure," Mr Billing, the new DFV president, said

"Many of those charged with representing dairy farmers spoke of their frustration."

He said the mass resignation of policy council members sent "a resounding message" to the VFF.

It comes during months of strife in the peak farming lobby group, with persistent calls from grain growers for an extraordinary general meeting to spill the board, presidential and vice-presidential positions.

The calls have been rejected as "defective" by the VFF board.

It also follows the resignation of three board members during the August annual conference.

One senior UDV member said the move had the potential to cut the VFF's funding by 25 per cent.

Mr Billing said the VFF collected $950,000 a year from dairy farmers, but was only returning $10,000 to the UDV budget.

He said many new DFV members had not been part of the UDV, while others had cancelled their subscriptions.

"We have been buoyed by the level of support across the industry that we have received over the past weeks as discussions regarding the establishment of DFV deepened," he said.

"Over two-thirds of the issues and concerns raised by dairy farmers are primarily related to the dairying sector, and we need to be able to take up these issues and concerns without being shackled or restrained.

"But we know we have to build a value proposition very quickly to attract members to support the work that we can do much better than under the current situation."

Victoria is the largest dairy state by far in Australia, with about 3000 farms, or 60pc of the Australian industry.

Mr Billing said budgets had been done and now a recruitment drive was underway.

"Our plan is to have staff in each region, there are three regions in Victoria, and a chief executive," he said.

He declined to comment on who the chief executive might be, apart from saying he had been "working in the background, doing a huge amount of work for us".

He said it was hoped to appoint a chief executive within 12 months.

Initially members would pay a flat $500 foundation subscription, with a new levy, at a price to be determined, to be introduced from January 1.

The UDV levy is currently $800 per 1 million litres of milk produced, collected by the processors and passed onto the peak body.

Mr Billing said the future of the UDV was entirely up to the VFF.

"When I was president of the UDV, I was completely hamstrung," he said.

"One of the ironic things is we have had people approaching us over the last couple of months wanting to be members of DFV.

"There have been no staff for the UDV and very-little support to me as president.

"It's been really frustrating."

He said UDV members had been trying to sit down with the VFF board since before the August conference.

"They have been effectively ignoring us, so we couldn't wait any longer," he said.

He left the door open for DFV to pursue links with the VFF.

"We will seek to work closely with the VFF across a wide range of whole-of-agriculture matters," he said.

"Having a strong relationship with the Victorian state farming organisation remains very important.

"DFV will seek to associate, affiliate and cooperate with other associations or organisations having similar objectives.

"With this in mind we will sit down with Australian Dairy Farmers to determine how we work together for the betterment of Victoria dairy farmers and the national dairy industry."

UDV vice-president Bernie Free, Winslow, said he was still waiting to meet with VFF president Emma Germano and the board to discuss how the organisation intended to tackle the formation of the new group.

"I have just spent the last two weeks, with emails back and forth, and all I can get is a social meeting with Emma, to become 'friends' with her," he said.

He said the request was not for an "official" meeting.

"There is the potential for 25pc of their revenue to disappear and they won't even talk to the vice-president of the UDV and how they are going to tackle that," Mr Free said.

He said good governance and accountability dictated an organisation should talk to disaffected members "whether you like what they are doing or not".

He said he wanted to sit down with the board and discuss what it was going to do.

"Whether we fight this new organisation, or what we do, and go back to our members and find out what they want," he said.

He said the first process was to discuss future strategies, "but I can't get that meeting".

The VFF has been contacted for comment.