THE levy poll looms, yet farmers haven't heeded the call, writes SIMONE SMITH

By the middle of next month, farmers should have voted in one of the most important ballots for their industry.

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But it appears many don't care about having a say on the future.

Dairy Service Levy Poll voting packs arrive this week, and Victoria's levy poll roadshow gets started at the Leongatha RSL this morning.

The next few weeks, as the roadshow travels across Victoria, will be telling.

Whether dairy farmers vote for the industry-recommended increase of 10 per cent or choose to scrap the organisation altogether - it will indicate how much they care about the direction of their industry.

Australian Dairy Farmers president and Dairy Service Levy Poll advisory committee chairman Chris Griffin denied apathy surrounded the upcoming vote, despite some small turnouts at levy poll meetings in other states.

"The dairy industry has been really positive about the industry, I don't think there is apathy no," he said.

"I would like to think that there are a lot of people who will vote this time, what we want is a critical mass to indicate to government, give government a good indication of the feeling of the industry."

Mr Griffin said there had been "a high level of recognition within the industry for an industry services levy" at recent meetings he had attended.

"(That) indicated to me the industry does need research and development," he said.

Dairy farmers have until the middle of next month to choose if they want to vote for a 15 per cent increase, 10 per cent rise or have no Dairy Australia at all.

The omission of a status quo option infuriated some farmers, enough for a 100-signature petition to be presented at the Dairy Australia annual general meeting last November.

While the lack of options has been described by some passionate farmers as "blackmail", it is difficult to tell if this would be enough to make them vote to scrap Dairy Australia altogether.

The dominant issue of the last levy poll in 2007, where more than 50 per cent of levy payers voted, was the future existence of Dairy Australia.

That is the discussion in some circles now, but it could easily have been avoided in favour of talk about Dairy Australia programs and more specifically, what is needed by farmers.

But the "give it an increase or you don't have it" approach seems to have scuttled this discussion and turned some levy payers who would otherwise have voted for the status quo into "no" voters.

Then there are those producers who cringe about shelling out any money to Dairy Australia and think there are more important things that need to be addressed.

As one farmer said: "There is no sense worrying about the genetic improvement from stock when you have no farmers left".

While there are quite a few people with an opinion on what should happen, many don't want to make their views public.

There have been a few in the dairy industry who have said they would vote for the 10 per cent increase.

For most farmers it's not that they will all vote "no" - many hadn't thought about voting - it's just that drought, the 2008-09 milk price crash and a European debt crisis are still at the forefront of minds.

Even many dairy farmers in northern Victoria, who have tended to sing the praises of Dairy Australia generally more than other Victorian dairy regions - due to flood and drought-support services - have been reluctant to nominate more money to be taken from their milk cheques.

Meanwhile, Dairy Australia's response to a petition asking for it to disclose the salary of its managing director was the centre of discussions yesterday.

Dairy Australia chairman Max Roberts said he had had a "constructive" conversation about what was best for the dairy industry with the petitioner, former dairy farmer and now accountant Kevin Ashworth of Koroit.

Mr Ashworth collected 174 signatures calling for the salary to be disclosed.