The meeting, arranged by a group of southern farmers, will be held at the Gore Town and Country Club on Monday at 1pm.
One of the organisers, Allan Richardson, said the group had agreed on a vision and six core objectives, to be outlined at the meeting, that it believed needed to happen to ''get the industry back on its feet''.
He expected a ''massive'' turnout.
Both Mr Richardson and fellow farmer Richard Slee had some formal communication with meat companies Silver Fern Farms and Alliance Group last November, before both co-operatives' annual meetings.
The aim of that farmer initiative was to bring the two co-operatives together ''and start talking'', to give farmers ''something positive'' going into the meetings.
While communication was cordial, ''nothing of substance happened'', Mr Richardson said.
From there, Gerry Eckhoff stirred ''a great response'' from throughout the country with columns outlining his thoughts on what was wrong with the meat industry.
A meeting was held in Tapanui several weeks ago and representatives from Silver Fern Farms, Alliance Group and Blue Sky Meats were invited to give an industry perspective, Mr Richardson said.
Yesterday, Mr Eckhoff said the meeting in Gore would be ''no talk fest'', rather it would be hard, punchy stuff and farmers were ''absolutely determined'' to get some results from it.
''There's a coalition of the willing to borrow that phrase from the Gulf War,'' he said.
There was no problem with farmers coming together - ''we're all on the same hymn sheet'' - but companies throughout the country needed to be part of the coalition in whatever structure was finally reached.
Speakers at the meeting include Hamish Gow, professor of agribusiness at Massey University's College of Business, Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly and ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie.
While it was southern farmers organising the meeting, it was a New Zealand-wide problem and all farmers needed to unite, Mr Richardson said.
He was expecting farmers to travel long distances to attend the meeting.
Last week, Beef and Lamb New Zealand's economic service mid-season update estimated farm profit before tax for the 2012-13 season would fall 54% on last season, due to sharply lower lamb prices and widespread drought.
Speaking at Beef and Lamb's recent annual meeting in Wanaka, chairman Mike Petersen said a simple merger of the two co-operatives, as suggested by many, was not enough. But he called on companies ''to address this area once and for all''.
''Farmers are increasingly demanding change away from the status quo. We have been told that even if there is not one dollar for farmers for a period of time after an industry reorganisation, they need to see some options on the table to give them confidence for the future.
''If we do nothing, nothing will change. If you are happy with today's profits, then do nothing,'' he told farmers.