CLINTON Baulch likes selling cars but loves breeding cattle.
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The principal of Clinton Baulch Motor Group put another side of his character on display on Tuesday when he opened his Jaclinton Hereford stud at Illowa as part of this year’s Beef Week.
Mr Baulch’s father was the stud groom at the Woolbull Hereford stud near Cobden and Mr Baulch grew up showing cattle.
He said he became a car dealer by accident but always had a love of cattle.
In return for doing unpaid work at the Woolbull stud as a teenager, the stud gave him 20 frozen embryos to help him with his dream of one day having his own herd.
Mr Baulch was milking cows at Simpson at the age of 23 when he was offered a job at a Ballarat car yard where he was buying a car for his wife.
That progressed on to a career in the motor trade where he drew upon his love of dealing with people, but his dream of being a beef breeder never left him.
When he and his family moved from Bendigo to take over Gleeson Motors in Warrnambool in 2007, he soon after established Jaclinton and had the 20 embryos implanted in cows, 20 years after he was given them.
He first developed a commercial herd but is now focused on building up the Jaclinton Hereford stud,
“I love the breeding side of it. You breed something and you get a result at the end,” Mr Baulch said.
“We try to breed the best seed stock using semen from throughout the world.
“We breed on Breedplan figures.”
Mr Baulch said the stud was a great counterpoint to his work in the motor trade.
“This re-energises me,” he said of the stud.
“I love the outdoors and getting my hands dirty.”
He said he was fortunate that his 12-year-old son Thomas also had “the bug” for breeding cattle.
With Thomas and nine-year-old daughter Indiana also involved in the stud, breeding bulls with a quiet temperament was a high priority, Mr Baulch said.
The Baulch family’s association with the Woolbull Hereford stud has also borne fruit with Clinton’s sister, Jocelyn Williams, running a Hereford stud, the Tee Jay, with her husband Tony near Woolsthorpe.
It was also among the 56 beef studs throughout the south-west that put bulls on display this week as part of Beef Week.
A total of 220 studs covering 24 breeds will open throughout Victoria and southern NSW during the nine days of Beef Week that concludes on Thursday.
Most of the studs will hold sales in the forthcoming weeks.