WAFarmers Dairy Conference: Ray Pulford recognised for forty years of service to the State’s dairy industry

Western Australian dairy service industry stalwart Ray Pulford has won the prestigious WAFarmers Dairy Section Milk Bottle Award in recognition of more than 40 years of supporting farmers.

Mr Pulford, who has now retired to the Bunbury area, received the award from acting Dairy Section president Phil Depiazzi at the annual WAFarmers Dairy Conference at Abbey Beach Resort in Busselton last week.

Mr Depiazzi said the Milk Bottle Award was awarded each year to recognise someone who had “made a major contribution to the WA dairy industry”.

“Some outstanding people have won the award over the years, and Ray fits in well with those previous recipients,” he said.

Mr Pulford said he was “very surprised”, and “blown away” by the award, and said he had enjoyed his years working with the dairy industry.

“It’s been fantastic to me and my partners over the years, it’s a great honour,” he said.

“I’ve made a lot of friends over that journey and it’s a fantastic industry to be in — it’s been really great for me and my family.”

He said during the 40 years he’d “had his moments”, but it had been a fantastic journey and “I hope it doesn’t end here”.

Mr Pulford said in his retirement he was enjoying touring the State in his caravan, although he also keeps his hand in the local footy scene.

Mr Pulford started working with Bunbury Rural Services in about 1980 and went on to manage another rural services store in the South West before purchasing Brunswick Rural Agencies. He continued servicing dairy farmers from Armadale to Albany.

Mr Depiazzi said he met Mr Pulford when he started his dairy career in the 1980s and regarded himself as “fortunate” to have shared many career moments together.

“My first recollection of meeting Ray, apart from in the shop, was when BRS use to support the Holstein Association and use to sponsor the junior judging competition, and Ray was the guy that they sent along to do that,” Mr Depiazzi said.

He said nothing was ever too much for Ray.

“It’s been wonderful to have a guy that has so much experience in there — we really valued that experience and guidance over the years, and not just from a business sense, he’s also been a great mate to a lot of us,” Mr Depiazzi said.

“He’s made a wonderful contribution and he should be proud of what he has done for the dairy industry.”

Mr Pulford is known as somewhat of a football legend around the South West, particularly for his work as a boundary umpire in 1986, and a field umpire in 1989.

In the South West Football League he is ranked in the top six umpires of all time, with 381 games under his belt — including three league grand finals.

He was awarded a life membership of the umpires association in 2001, before retiring from umpiring in 2008, and since then has been sponsoring the Ray Pulford Rising Star Award for new umpires.