The meeting coincided with rallies in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Wauchope aimed at bringing the plight of the dairy industry to public attention.

Terara dairy farmer Tim Cochrane is unaffected by the price cuts for now, but is concerned farm gate prices may drop when his contract ends in December.

“The local representatives are looking for the support of our local member with the issues dairy farmers are facing,” Mr Cochrane said.

“As a local dairy industry we are asking for some sort of protection from the international global milk crisis that’s happening.

“Our biggest message to Anne was to stop one dollar milk and our biggest message to locals is to buy branded milk as it adds value to the supply chain.”

Berry dairy farmer Rob McIntosh is behind the push for consumers to buy branded dairy products.

“The reality is we are concerned about the impact marginal dollar a litre milk has had in the market place,” he said.

“Currently we’re trying to promote the idea of the public buying branded milk in order to put the best money back into the industry for product development and particularly for generating back to farmers, so we can get a sustainable price and look towards a better future.”

Member for Gilmore Ann Sudmalis hopes local producers can tap into the $555 million milk rescue package announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce on Wednesday.

“We’ve got two prongs of attack here, one is to look at strategies of raising awareness and look at the actual contracting situation and two is to look at the package Barnaby Joyce has announced today to see how we can best maximise that for people in our region,” Mrs Sudmalis said.

“We need to help our local dairy people because in two or three years time if we don’t help them now, we wont be able to buy any local milk at all.”

Mrs Sudmalis said the impact of the global milk crisis was profound on Victorian farmers.

“This is causing an extraordinary amount of grief to some of our dairy producers, some to the point where they know they can’t cope with this,” she said.

“We don’t want that flow-on effect coming up here and it has the potential to do just that.”