DAIRY industry leaders have hit a wall in their bid to seek government financial aid to help farmers through the milk- price crisis.
United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Chris Griffin said cash support had been ruled out at meetings last week with Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke and his Victorian counterpart Joe Helper.
Mr Burke was overseas and unable to confirm that the Federal Government had ruled out financial aid, but Mr Griffin said there was "no indication" from either minister that dairy farmers would receive direct monetary support.
He said the meetings were just one of many approaches to the Federal Government since the mid-season milk-price cut late last year and, given, the outcomes so far, he did not want farmers to "hang-out" for a cash injection.
"I don't want to give farmers false hope that there is cash available from the Government," he said.
Yet, he said, other assistance measures, such as boosting the number of rural financial counsellors, relaxing the Exceptional Circumstances professional advice package and introducing a parallel stream of grants, had been discussed.
A spokesman for Mr Helper said the Government was taking UDV's request for an increase in the number of rural financial counsellors and improved access to counselling seriously and looking at other ways to assist dairy farmers.
The governments' refusal to provide cash assistance follows the release of National Foods and Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative's season milk prices.
According to reports, National Foods will pay 31-34c for milk next season, excluding quality and production incentives - down from about 50c a litre last year.
One National Foods supplier told The Weekly Times his base milk price for the next three months would be 24.5c a litre, plus incentive payments.
National Foods general manager Geoff Lynch would not comment on individual farmers' prices.
"We link our price to Murray Goulburn and we pay a premium on that to make sure we are competitive," he said.
Dairy Farmers chairman Ian Zandstra said its 800 members, 250 them in Victoria, southern NSW and South Australia, would receive 40c a litre, based on 3.9 per cent butterfat and 3.15 per cent protein.
This higher seasonal price was a result of supply contracts which go through to either the end of June next year or 2011 and include a minimum price of 35c a litre. Last year, Dairy Farmers suppliers received 48c a litre. Meanwhile, Murray Goulburn has factored three step-ups into farmers budgets "if they want them in there."
MG chairman Ian MacAulay said there was a reasonable expectation of step-ups, as there were some positives in the market, but price increases still depended on a number of factors.
