Tasmania's peak farming body is calling for federal or state intervention to ensure drought-breaking fodder is moved from Victoria to King Island.
TasFarmers' president Ian Sauer said it appeared the Colac Otway shire, which controls the Port of Apollo Bay, was blocking the transhipment of the much needed supplies.
Mr Sauer said "bloody-mindedness" was preventing 500 tonnes of fodder and 200 tonnes of pellets, donated by Lions Club charity Need For Feed, getting to King Island primary producers.
Previously Colac Otway shire banned two Bass Strait Freight (BSF), vessels, based in Bridport, Tas, from offloading livestock trucks from King Island and bound for South Australia.
Mr Sauer said the decision displayed "a total lack of understanding of the dire situation in which King Island farmers find themselves in" - a decision which was even more ridiculous as it was without any explanation.
"This is the tail wagging the dog, our understanding is the Victorian government will cover the cost of moving the feed to a viable port if needed," he said.
After the Black Summer Fire in Victoria, the King Island community sent 700 bales of hay and silage to farmers in NSW and Victoria, he said.
Those farmers now hoped to return their generosity and kindness by sending feed to the island's desperate primary producers.
"The feed bound for the island is ready to go, but to not allow the feed and fodder to leave from Apollo Bay is a disaster, a selfish un-Australian decision," he said.
"Farmers on King Island are experiencing some of the worst dry conditions in the last 100 years.
"Farmers are at their wit's end and their psychological well-being is seriously threatened, not to mention their livelihoods."
Apollo Bay was the closest mainland commercial port to King Island, with other centres unable to provide the best access for the immediate purpose of shipping critical supplies.
"We have every part of this supply chain being donated, or done at cost, Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) doing seed sampling, donated fodder through the Lions Club, land transport, sea transport, the only ones not playing ball is the port of Apollo Bay," Mr Sauer said.
Mr Sauer said either the state or federal governments should take over control of the port, to resolve the impasse.
"All of the correct protocols are being taken with biosecurity tests for weed contamination being expedited," he said.
"To hold a small, island-bound rural community to ransom for ideological reasons is tantamount to economic and social vandalism," Mr Sauer said.
BSF managing director David Harris said it was "massive bureaucratic overreach".
The hay and pellets, sourced from Swan Hill, would be loaded onto the ship by crane.
"What I have offered to the government is I will take Matthew Flinders IV up there and we will do it in three 'back-to-backs'," Mr Harris said.
"But the council has started a risk management process, which is nonsense because the wharf was built for our boat and we have been in there before."
He said the council had brought in "everyone that wouldn't know" to come in and create problems.
"It's untenable," he said.
Engineering studies of the wharf, to ensure it could take the trucks and trailers required, had given the all-clear, he said.
"Now they are inventing all sorts of other issues, even to the point where they might have to put a water treatment plant in to manage run-off from the wharf," he said.
"You know they are clutching at straws when they do that."
Need for Feed chairman Graham Cockerell said everything was in place to ship the fodder and pellets, apart from the approval to use Apollo Bay.
'We are not waiting for anything now, other than an answer from the shire," he said.
But Colac Otway shire chief executive Anne Howard said it was "wonderful" Need for Feed Australia had been able to source 500 tonnes, or about 770 bales of current season oaten hay, it could not be shipped through the port.
"A range of parties are working to find the most suitable arrangement for the transport of this essential feed to King Island," Ms Howard said.
The scale of the proposed operations could not be supported at this time.
"The Port of Apollo Bay is a local port and not a commercial trading port," she said.
"Council has received an independent engineering report that has assessed that freight movements of this scale present risks to the port's infrastructure and operations.
"Colac Otway Shire Council, as the port manager, and the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning (DoTP), as the port owner, have determined that until those risks are resolved it is not appropriate to approve the movement of this freight at this time, especially while viable options are available."
Hay and feed could be readily shipped from commercial ports across Victoria including Portland, Geelong and Welshpool.
There were a number of vessels currently operating from those ports to King Island that could accommodate the request.
Ms Howard said council understood these alternative ports may come a greater cost, however they were already well-equipped and experienced in the safe and effective movement of this freight, and with the urgency required.
"Council will continue to work collaboratively with the Department of State Growth (Tasmania) and the DoTP to support finding an urgent solution for the King Island community," Ms Howard said.