Milking it for its worth

Milk runs in his blood and while Boyanup farmer Brian “Whale” Green dabbled at something different, he always knew he would be suckled back to the dairy industry.

Driving out to the 36-year-old’s 200ha farm just north of Boyanup, it is not hard to see why.

If not the luscious, vibrant green grass glistening with the morning dew or the almost deafening silence that comes with county life, the fact the dairy farmer is having success in an industry on the brink of crisis makes it clear.

As the photographer and I drive up the long gravel driveway to Whale’s working quarters, distracted by the emerald horizon, I see the burly farmer jump on his quad bike to come and meet us.

He is the quintessential farmer – gum boots splattered with mud and flannelette shirt rolled up to his elbows.

He laughs when I ask what name he prefers to be called and says for as long as he remembers he has been called Whale and he loves it.

It was while enjoying the sport he loves as a young boy that the nickname came to fruition.

“I was playing hockey on the old sand turf when I was six,” he says.

“I fell over and the coach yelled ‘you looked like a beached whale’ and it stuck.”

While some may take offence to such a comment, seeing the funny side attests to Whale’s comical character.

And just as hockey runs in his family – Whale now plays for the Boyanup Hockey Club where his father Reginald is a life member – so too does dairy farming.

The land he now owns has been in his family for 80 years.

“Pop started down in Margaret River then got given a bit of land up here, now we’re stuck with it,” he jokes.

Growing up in Bunbury and spending two years at the WA College of Agriculture in Harvey (which he says was “awesome” and “way better than normal school”) it was inevitable Whale would follow in his grandfather’s and father’s farming footsteps.

However, it was not without hard work and trying his hand at something different.

“I gave it up about 10 years ago and said I’d never do it again,” he said.

“Farming put pressure on the family and that pressure got a bit high, so my brother and I took off mining. But it’s one of those things, you don’t realise you enjoy it until you leave it.”

He describes his family as close-knit, with his father and mother both living on the farm and helping Whale produce grade one milk for Harvey Fresh.

He says while the dairy industry is “definitely worrying” at the moment, he will just keep doing what he does best.

“It’s something you’ve got to be wary about, but we’ll just keep producing good milk and hopefully they still want it,” he said.