Jancourt East, VIc, farmer Case Taylor said last week’s mass power outage affected her and her husband Caleb “in a big way”.

“We were an hour into milking when the power went out therefore 40 cows were stuck on the platform for five hours,” she said.

“When it came back on we got them off, cleaned up a bit, started milking again, got the first lap on and the power went out again.”

Mrs Taylor said the power outage came at a financial loss to the farm.

“When the power goes out we lose milk as the milk in the milk can drains out onto the floor,” she said.

“We have to pay workers to stand there and wait to see if it comes back on. Also that night my husband Caleb and I didn’t finish milking until midnight and Caleb had to go back down at 3.30am and start again.”

Mrs Taylor said the farm was hit by power outages “a bit but not like that”.

Strong winds brought down trees and branches onto powerlines overnight on Thursday.