Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis has joined the fight to get farmers a better price for their milk and is pushing for a rise of 20 cents per litre at the farm gate.
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This follows calls from Milton dairy farmer Robert Miller for Coles to raise their price of milk from $1 a litre in store to $2.
Mr Miller is paid 50 cents per litre for milk at the farm gate, but it is costing him up to 90 cents to produce because of the drought.
Mrs Sudmalis said she was “investigating” what could be done.
“It is absolutely a call to arms for our dairy farmers because they are desperate to see a change. I have a number of local farmers who are sending their cows to slaughter because they can’t afford to keep them,” she said.
“They don’t want to depend on handouts, they want to be dependent on own right, and they can’t do that unless they get a good price for their milk.”
Mrs Sudmalis is meeting with the Agriculture Minister next week to discuss the issue.
“It causes farmers a load of grief and I am sure there has to be a better way for them to get better prices,” she said.
“They are scared that this will see the end of the dairy industry.
“There are 30 to 40 dairy farmers in Gilmore, it is one of our sustainable industries and it has been here for a very long time.”
As farmers continue to push through one of the driest winters in record, the entire state of NSW has been declared as in drought.