VFF's commodity council withdrawal 'silly stuff' says dairy boss

In the latest turmoil surrounding the VFF, the board has announced it will "cease its membership or provide notice of resignation where required," to national groups representing dairy, horticulture, sheep and goats.

In March last year, VFF president Emma Germano questioned the payments to the ADF.

Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett described it as "silly stuff".

"We are all here for one thing, and that's the betterment of farmers," Mr Bennett said.

"Beating each other up in this manner is unbecoming and it's the last thing farmers want to listen to."

He said the issue had become "way too personalised".

"We all have challenges from time to time, but we have to work through them," he said.

"Life is full of challenges, if we revert to war on every challenge we have, we won't get anything done."

Meanwhile, ADF has moved out of the VFF owned Farrer House, where it has rented space since mid-2022.

ADF was paying $60,000 a year in rent to the VFF, Mr Bennett said.

"That's more than a round of sandwiches, isn't it," Mr Bennett said.

It comes as ADF takes the VFF to the Supreme Court, to recover an estimated $500,000 in levies it says are owed by the state body.

"The whole idea of being in Farrer House was to have a closer working relationship, was it not?," he said. "But it's not as close as it could be, eh?"

He said ADF, which was also facing financial constraints, would initially use Dairy Australia's meeting rooms.

"It's not cheap, renting in town - when you are a representative body, you can't just have an email address."

UDV president Bernie Free said dairy farmers had agreed to allocate money to ADF.

"They decided the UDV membership would pay extra and that money would go direct to ADF - that decision has not been rescinded the policy council and it has not gone to a dairy conference," he said.

"That is the way the constitution says it has to happen."

It was the same for other commodity councils, he said.

"This is going completely outside the constitution - and the board needs to understand they cannot keep operating outside the constitution," Mr Free said.

The members' views had not been taken into account, he said.

"There is not been any disclosure, to the membership, that there is not any money and if you want to be represented at these levels, these are the sort of costs you will have to endure," he said.

VFF Grains Council vice-president Ryan Milgate said on social media membership of Grain Producers Australia cost members less than $1 a week for members.

"It's buying us a seat at the table on all sorts of issues, like biosecurity, the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), which is quite a hot topic at the moment, and oversight of the Grains Research Development Corporation," he said.

"You can't just pull out because you perceive you are getting poor representation, there needs to be an alternative put up first."

VFF commodity group leaders had no idea - "zero clue" - it was about to happen, he said.

"Elected representatives found out at the same time as everyone else," Mr Milgate said.

"It has catapulted the conversation on national representation on all commodities, there may be issues, but we are a membership organisation and the solutions need to be driven by the members, not from the top down.

"There might be some legitimate concerns, but it needs to be done the right way - the people who are paying the subscriptions are the ones who have the right to have the say where that money goes."

Sheep Producers Australia chair Andrew Spencer said the organisation worked daily to ensure a productive and profitable national sheepmeat industry.

"Our role is to advocate for a sustainable and profitable future for the Australian sheep industry," Mr Spencer said.

"We will be working hard to ensure that Victorian sheep farmers continue to have a strong and relevant input into the critical national sheepmeat policy issues."