Despite the welcome rain over the past few days, farmers in the Western District still face a few months of challenges ahead with the current ‘green drought’.
Given the current challenges and concerns, the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) will host a drought forum on Monday at 6.30pm at the Hamilton Golf Club.
The VFF are calling on all local farmers to head along and talk about the issues they are experiencing.
In attendance will be Agriculture Victoria and financial and VFF representatives, who together will listen and feed any issues back to those in charge.
Issues that farmers are experiencing include the lack of feed, price of feed and the compounding financial issues this is having on local farmers.
VFF livestock president, Scott Young will be in attendance and said it would be a great opportunity for farmers to gather and learn from one another and from the various agencies in attendance.
“It’s obviously been very dry in the west over the last few months,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of work and workshops on feed budgeting and animal welfare and managing through the conditions and we just think there’s an opportunity there for more farmers to engage and get assistance where needed.
“We will focus on a number of key issues; cashflow, water and planning for the next few months so that farmers have got a bit of a plan going forward in preparation for what could also be a dry spring.
“We will have the banks there plus rural financial counsellors, and farmers health advisors.
“There will be other VFF livestock representatives there - Bernie Free, the VFF UDV president.
Also in attendance will be Daniel Knight from ANZ, Sam Dohle from Rabobank, Kate Linden from Agriculture Victoria and Malcolm Rowe from the Rural Financial Counselling Service.
“There will also be local government representatives and water authorities in attendance,” Mr Young said.
“So, it’s going to be a great opportunity for farmers to really engage with a range of groups so they can plan for the next few months ahead.
“I would really encourage all farmers to attend and am sure they can take some valuable information away from it.”
