'Bullets are cheaper than hay': Victorian farmers feel forgotten amid drought

In a shearing shed surrounded by browning fields at Briagolong in East Gippsland, a small group of farmers meets to discuss their growing concerns about the lack of rain.

Outside the skies are grey — but the clouds are just a tease.

Property owner John Freeman says the farm has had less than a third of its average annual rainfall.

Just 178 millimetres have fallen so far this year. Usually that number would be up around 600 millimetres.

Jim Coleman tells the meeting he's looking to de-stock, with his property running short of water.

"I've seen a few droughts come and go but this one would have to be almost the daddy of them all," he says.

Old timers concur, saying in this part of the state, conditions feel worse than the "worst" drought many can remember back in 1972.

Today's meeting has been organised by local Nationals MP Tim Bull to brief Liberal Leader and would-be premier Matthew Guy on the drought that's gripping the region.

Beef farmer Greg Dunsmuir says conditions are the driest he can remember.

"I've sold between a third and a half of my stock," he says.

"By the end of the month I'll have fed them close to $100,000 worth of feed.

"I've just been keeping them going, just hoping it would rain."

Earlier the Opposition Leader visited the Bairnsdale sale yards, where hundreds of cattle are being offloaded by farmers looking to cut costs.

Well-fed animals are still fetching a healthy price, but farmers say smaller animals are going cheap.

Mr Guy says the government needs to consider rates relief for those in drought-affected parts of the state.

The Andrews government has put forward a $5 million drought assistance package, but some farmers feel it falls well short of what's being offered to drought-affected producers in New South Wales.

"I feel like Shannon Noll's 'What About Me?' is playing behind us," jokes one farmer.

"Right now bullets are cheaper than hay."