Gilbert honoured by industry

Mr Gilbert, who has a long association with the dairy industry, said he knew and worked with Mr Higgins for many years.

“He was excellent to work with and always had the SA industry at heart, so I’m pleased and honoured,” he said.

The award is presented annually for exceptional service to the dairy industry.

Mr Gilbert started his dairy career in NSW, working on a Sydney-region Camden Park Estate dairy as assistant manager. From there he joined the NSW Department of Agriculture as a district livestock officer, based in the southern area near Finley, NSW, looking after about 220 dairy farms.

He made the switch to SA in 1993 when he was approached to be the Dairy Vale Co-op field services manager in a case he described as the “right move at the right time”.

Once he and wife Jacqui arrived in SA, Mr Gilbert made a point of meeting as many people as possible.

“Because the industry is so small in SA, it works in a cooperative way,” he said.

From there, Mr Gilbert worked through Dairy Vale’s various restructures and mergers, including the Dairy Farmers Co-op, National Foods and the eventual Lions Dairy & Drinks.

He was also involved with a number of boards, including the government-instigated SA Dairy Industry Development Board, set up to promote the dairy industry in SA. Here, he succeeded Mr Higgins as the third, and final, board chairman until its conclusion in 2010.

He was also on the board of the Fleurieu and Adelaide Hills Rural Counselling and Information Service – a precursor to the Rural Financial Counselling Service. 

One achievement he is particularly proud of is the work he and others put in to introduce a quality assurance approach to disease control, including bovine johnes disease.

“It’s still an outstanding example of a voluntary approach to disease control,” he said.

He said another highlight was working with Dairy Vale to introduce daily milk component testing in SA.

“As part of that we had a milk quality payment; we were the first in SA and the second in Australia,” he said. 

He was also part of a push to establish a joint central milk testing facility at the Flaxley Research Centre, to provide an independent laboratory for all processors.

In his retirement, Mr Gilbert is “keen to ride out on firetrucks” as a member of the Meadows Country Fire Service, while he maintains his connection to the dairy industry as an independent director of the DairySA board.