To be held on March 24 at the RACV Club in Melbourne, the program will include an event dinner on the evening before with the cost of $50 for each event (dinner and forum).

Convenor Cathy McGowan said the Forum would build on the success of two Women in Dairy workshops held in the past year.

Women at those workshops called for a national forum where they could get together to discuss the changes in the dairy industry and how they could be managed.

The forum will seek input from dairy women in areas including:

* leadership;

* education and training opportunities;

* policy making;

* farmer organisations; and

* on farm.

“It is a forum for women to have their voices heard and a plan to be prepared about different aspects of the industry about,” she said.

The Victorian dairy industry in particular was already a long way in front of other rural industries in the way women are involved – It’s miles ahead of anyone else,” she said.

Speakers will include social researcher Dr Sally Shortall from Dublin University, Ireland; dairy consultant Karen Baum; GippsDairy chief executive Danielle Auldist; Professor of Social Work at Monash University Margaret Alston; West Australian dairy farmer, Challenge Dairy board member and Dairy West chair Jacqui Biddulph; and dairy farmer and former Dairy Australia board member Sarah Crooke.

It is being sponsored by Genetics Australia and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under its Australia’s Farming Future program.

Ms McGowan said the forum would be a unique opportunity to connect with industry leaders, to have input into a national women in dairy leadership plan, to meet inspiring women from all dairying areas of Australia, and to learn about the issues facing the future of the industry in Australia and overseas.