At 76, Tony Practico still starts every morning in the family dairy shed.

While he may not be putting cups on the cows like he once did after years of hard work have taken a toll on his shoulder, the Greenbushes farmer said being there was what mattered most.

“I am not retired,” he said.

“I still go to the dairy every morning. My kids are doing the work, not me, but I am with my family and that is my life.”

That lifelong commitment to farming and family was recently recognised, with Mr Pratico receiving WAFarmers’ 2026 life membership award in Albany.

The award is one of the organisation’s highest honours and recognises decades of service to the dairy industry and the Lower South West.

Mr Pratico said he was surprised and humbled when he found out he had been nominated.

“I was suprised there were enough people who thought I had done enough to receive life membership,” he said.

“It was very special, they only give out one a year so for that to be me, was a real honour.

“What blew my mind was the number of past general presidents who were there to support me. It was a fantastic night and so special to have the people I’ve worked with for many, many years there.”

Mr Pratico grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Greenbushes, which he bought from his parents in the early 1980s.

Over the next 20 years, Mr Pratico and his wife Pam built the farm into a major dairy operation, buying neighbouring properties and expanding their herd to about 300 head.

Mr Pratico became involved with WAFarmers in the late 1990s and later became dairy president, taking on the role during one of the most difficult periods in the State’s dairy history.

The WA Dairy industry was deregulated in 2000, a time Mr Pratico said placed enormous pressure on producers and families.

“People’s circumstances put them in difficult positions,” he said.

“A lot of those who left would have liked to keep milking, but it just wasn’t possible.

“Every day you milked cows, you went further back. You were making no progress at all, and that was the period we all went through.”

Outside the dairy industry, Mr Pratico has served as a Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes councillor since 2002 and has contributed to several community groups including the Warren Blackwood Alliance of Councils, RoadWise committee, Bushfire Advisory Committee and Youth Advisory Committee.

However, for many people from Kojonup to Donnybrook and down to Windy Harbour, he is best known for his ice-cream van that he brings to community events.

One of his proudest memories came during the 2002 drought, when he and Pam took the van to several schools in the Wheatbelt to bring some joy to farming families doing it tough.

“The president of WAFarmers contacted me and said the Wheatbelt was doing it tough and asked if I would go,” Mr Pratico said.

“He offered to pay me, but I said no. Money would have spoiled it.

“We told the children at the schools, ‘mum and dad are doing it tough on the farm, and it affects you children too, so we thought we would come and share an ice-cream and let you know we are thinking of you’.

“At one school, the children lined the driveway to see us off ... it still brings tears to my eyes.

“It was one of the best moments of my life.”

Mr Pratico said the friendships and respect built through farming, local government and WAFarmers has stayed with him for life.

“You do not always have to agree with everybody,” he said.

“But over my time, I’ve made friends all over Australia.

“It is not about who is right and who is wrong. It is all about respect.”

WAFarmers congratulated Mr Pratico on the award, saying his contribution to the organisation, the dairy industry and the Lower South West community had been significant and long-lasting.