Four generations strong at Melbourne Royal

There may be an 83-year age gap, but that hasn’t stopped Colin Baldry and his grandsons sharing the same interest in Simmental cattle.

Carl, George, 8, Colin, 91, and Angus, 15, of Tennysonvale Simmental Fleckvieh stud at the Melbourne Royal Show cattle competition. Picture: Conor Fowler

It was a special day for Colin Baldry at the Melbourne Royal Show, with the fourth generation of his bloodline continuing their interest in cattle.

Colin, 91, started the Tennysonvale Simmental Fleckvieh stud near Illabo in NSW with son Ian back in 1988, and was joined at Melbourne by grandson Carl, who now runs the stud with Ian, as well as Carl’s sons Angus, 15 and George, 8.

The stud has been showing cattle for more than 30 years, and got its first big win at Sydney in 1995.

“We chose Simmentals because we went to a show and we were just impressed. We had other cows, but thought we’d just get into the Simmentals and see how we go,” Colin said.

“When this shed was built and they had the first showing, we brought heifers down here and in the class of 20 we won first to fourth. It made the talk of the town.”

The stud has gone from about 60 to 200 breeders very quickly after buying a couple of studs out, including buying up 40 cows from Graeme Smith at Colac earlier this year.

Tennyson have great pride on their heifers, Colin said, with the stud selling about 50 heifers and 50 bulls at their annual sale in the last week of May.

Grandson Carl, “the brains” of the set up according to Colin, said it’s “really special” to have all the generations participating, and that coming down to Melbourne is really about the kids.

“My parents and my younger brother don’t really want to show anymore, but I keep saying to them that it’s about my children. They’re meeting lots of kids, Melbourne has been really good for that … they’ve been to Canberra and Sydney, and we went to Rockhampton this year, but it’s their first time in Melbourne,” Carl said.