A third Murray Goulburn director quits

Dairy producer Murray Goulburn has lost another director in the wake of its big profit downgrade and cut to the farmgate milk price.

A third director has quit the board of Murray Goulburn in the wake of the dairy co-operative's big profit downgrade and its cut to the price it pays farmers for their milk.

Murray Goulburn on Tuesday said supplier/director Duncan Morris had resigned, effective immediately.

Mr Morris had been a director since 2013.

"I have an accounting practice with many dairy and rural clients as well as my own dairy farm, and I now want to focus more time on those operations," Mr Morris said in a statement.

Earlier in May director Keira Grant, who was only appointed to the board on March 14, 2016, quit.

Murray Goulburn chairman Philip Tracy said it was unfair to expect Ms Grant to work in the difficult stakeholder environment resulting from the downgrade and milk price cut, given that she had only recently joined the board.

Ms Grant was to stand for election by shareholders at the annual general meeting slated for October.

A day before Ms Grant's resignation, director and dairy farmer Max Jelbart resigned because of ill health. He was elected in 2012.

The resignations follow Murray Goulburn's big downgrade of its annual profit forecast in late April, which cost the jobs of Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou and chief financial officer Brad Hingle.

The co-operative also cut the price it expects to pay farmers for their milk over the rest of 2016.

Mr Tracy has said the Murray Goulburn board has a lot of work to do to win back the support and confidence of its supplier/shareholders.

Units in Murray Goulburn's listed entity, the MG Unit Trust, were down one cent at $1.125 at 1025 AEST.


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Source: AAP


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