Esteemed Angus breeder Phil Collins is as passionate about the breed today as he was when he started Merrigrange Angus Stud more than 50 years ago.
While Phil, 90, handed over the reins to his four sons 18 years ago, the renowned Angus breeder and show judge is still held in high esteem within the breed, with many of the most successful studs in Australia using genetics originating from Merrigrange.
Phil is living his twilight years on the original family farm at Tennyson, north of Bendigo, where he and his late wife Gwen established the stud with seven cows in 1959.
He bought his first bull from Max Doherty, at Blighty, and a show bull from Harry Williams, at the Melbourne Royal Show.
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In its prime, the stud had more than 100 cows, and produced the Vicky family, one of the prominent Angus lines in Australia.
"We had a wonderful name for breeding top females," Phil said. "If anyone wanted a top female they came to us to buy it."
In the early 1970s, Phil and his family - sons Peter, Noel, Graham and Daryl and daughter Jennifer - began showing stud cattle on the show circuit, a move that would earn them a place in the record books.
The stud won numerous championship ribbons and exhibitor awards over more than 20 years on the royal show circuit.
At the 1986 Royal Melbourne Show, Merrigrange was crowned the breed's most successful exhibitor by a record 40 points and took out a clean sweep of all major champions.
Merrigrange collected the most successful exhibitor award at many shows through the late '70, '80s and '90s, until the stud's last show in 1996. His son Peter's Merridale Angus Stud is continuing the showing tradition.
Phil paid tribute to Ron Greaves a breeder from NSW, who judged the family's stud stock when they were fairly "green" in the show ring at a show in Shepparton.
"He was wonderful to us and taught us what we should be doing," Phil said.
Of all the supreme champion ribbons and accolades, Phil is particularly fond of a trophy the family won in the 1980s.
The Kukakunga Challenge Trophy, sponsored by the Cornell Family, Stirling, South Australia, was awarded to the exhibitor who obtained the highest number of points at any one royal show in a given year.
What made it more remarkable is that the trophy was presented permanently to the breeder who won it five times.
Phil credits the show circuit for helping the family promote their stud stock and the breed.
"We were at Melbourne one year and we had a very good heifer with a good heifer calf," Phil said.
"A bloke come up to me and said he wanted to buy her but she was not for sale. By the end of the show I ended up selling her for $17,000. Showing helped people know we had good females."