In its second year, the awards are held across Victoria, southern New South Wales, South Australia and, for the first time Western Australia and Tasmania.

The 20 finalists named yesterday come from a field of 95 entrants, all competing for a major prize of $6000.

Winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner and Seminar to be held in Melbourne next Wednesday, June 4.

The seminar and dinner are open to all dairy farmers and will provide an inside look at some of the most profitable dairy farm businesses, as well expert views on productivity, profitability, the global outlook and successful family businesses.

Organiser David Beca, from Red Sky Agricultural, says that every entrant had their farm business performance analysed as a benchmarking exercise.

"The competition is unique in its focus on dairy business management and absolute profitability," Mr Beca said.

"We want to promote positive change on dairy farms, and the finalists this year have demonstrated outstanding performance under the challenge of high feed prices and drought conditions.

"Understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and how a farm system performs under good and difficult trading conditions, will help you develop strong sustainable business.

"This should result in reduced risk in tough times and more profit to take you further in the good times."

Dairy Australia and National Australia Bank (NAB) Agribusiness are the gold sponsors of the competition, and it is judged by Associate Professor Bill Malcolm of Melbourne University.

Finalists have been announced in each region which include Victoria’s Gippsland, Northern and South West regions; Central and South East South Australia; Tasmania; Western Australia; and the Southern Riverina in NSW.

There are also categories for low, medium and high input systems, for dryland and irrigated systems, young farmers and sharefarmers and for most improved.