Why Mango is a regular at his local cattle sales
MANY know his face, but not many would know his name.
Dennis Green is more commonly known as Mango around his hometown of Grafton.
An active member in the community, he makes sure he is at the saleyards rain, hail or shine.
“I don’t sell cattle every week but I’m always there. I’ll always go, that’s my day off,” Mr Green said.
“I might pick up a couple of head or something.
“You’ve got to be there to see what’s going on.”
Mr Green runs charolais and angus cattle on his property just west of South Grafton.
“I like the angus because when I sit at the sale I watch the prices for the vealers come through. They’re always at the top, and the charolais are next I reckon. The charolais grow into bigger bullocks,” he said
“You’ve gotta have what the people want to buy, what they’ll pay the most money for.
“I rear vealers. And when the price isn’t real good on vealers I grow them out and keep them for bullocks.”
Mr Green was born and raised in the Grafton area, originally working as a blacksmith.
“I was a blacksmith all my life. My grandfather and father were blacksmiths,” he said.
“But I always had cattle since I was a kid. We had dairy cattle as well and I was reared on a farm. I’ve always had some cattle and been around blokes who have a lot of cattle.
“I’ve been retired from blacksmithing for 10 years. I’m just doing what I do now. I go around fixing troughs. You’ve got to keep an eye on them, water is so dear now.”
Mr Green is well known around the town for his involvement in the community.
“I’m involved in the pony club here. They’ve got steers and I’ve gotta look after them,” he said.
“I’ve been on a lot of different committees and things over the time. That’s why nearly everyone in the town knows me. And if they don’t know me they’ve heard of me.”
Mr Green said he acquired the nickname ‘Mango’ when he was playing football as a teenager. It has stuck since he was 16 years old.
“When I was a young fella I used to eat a lot of mangoes,” he said.
“So they used to call me that and it’s stuck with me ever since.
“My proper name, not many people know it, other than my wife!”
He said the season in Grafton had been nothing to complain about.
“We’re a lot better off than those fellas out west,” he said.
“We haven’t had a real bad drought for a lot of years here. We got 60mm here about two weeks ago.
“Up until then it was starting to get a bit dry. But we always seem to get a bit when we need it.
“But it needs to go further west to make the cattle prices really good.”