Local chair for Dairy Tas
• Kate Gofton is the new chair of Dairy Tasmania.
November 23, 2022
Tonganah farmer Kate Gofton has been inducted as the new chair of Dairy Tasmania. She joined the board in 2020 and has been deputy chair for the last year.
Together with her husband Rodney they run their family farm Riverdale Dairies, with a herd of 600 milking cows over their two properties spanning 600ha.
Mrs Gofton said she is excited to step into the new role and continue the positive promotion of the Tasmanian dairy industry.
“One of the things I’m pretty passionate about is making sure the rest of our country understands the significant contribution that our state is making on a national level,” she said.
“It would be great [for Tasmanians] to have more of a voice in terms of the strategic direction of Dairy Australia and the industry in general.
“We don’t want to see the Tasmanian industry decline in terms of milk production because that’s obviously the trend nationally. We want to maintain the level that we’re at.”
She said she would also like to promote the diverse employment opportunities that are available within dairy to young people and the education sector.
Another initiative Mrs Gofton would like to establish is some agricultural awards for the North-East.
“I like to celebrate what people are doing well and I think the North-East has some fabulous stories to tell and people who we should be recognising who are just doing their job every day and have been doing it for a long time,” she said.
“One of my ideas is to instigate something like that that puts the agriculture industry in the spotlight and recognises their achievement.
“And once again getting people to realise how significant the agriculture industry is for our local economy because if we didn’t have it, our area would be in all sorts of trouble.”
Mrs Gofton is also a board member of Primary Employers Tasmania.
She said local Cheryl McCartie, who was the Dairy Tasmania chair in 2014/2015, has been an inspiration to her.
“She was certainly the trailblazer as far as I’m concerned so it’s nice to continue on that leadership,” Mrs Gofton said.