IT was as if Lake Boga’s Scott Bruton had never been away last weekend, when Rochester staged its first Great Northern Agricultural Show in three years.
The driving force behind the family’s Roly Park Shorthorn stud swept into town with a strong team and walked away with his standout 18-month-old bull Roly Park Mr Sydney sashed Grand Champion Bull.
Add that to the swag of class ribbons collected on the day and Roly Park was right back where it belonged – in the winners’ circle.
When Mr Bruton took over Roly Park from his uncle and aunt following their retirement and dispersal, he set out to redefine the brand with the stud name and a single heifer.
He was still at school, headed for an electrician apprenticeship – he’s still a full-time sparky – and was in the livestock seedstock industry.
Today he has built Roly Park Shorthorns into 50 breeders and an impressive show and sale track record that has his stud punching well above its weight.
The highlight to date is the Reserve Junior Interbreed Champion Bull prize at the Royal Melbourne Show in 2018, followed by grand champion broad ribbons at the royal shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
The young sire will now headline Roly Park’s team at Deniliquin, Euroa, Cohuna and Sydney before being his star lot at the shorthorn national show and sale at Dubbo on June 13 and 14.
Mr Bruton set a stud record sale of $16,000 at Dubbo last year for a bull that went to a commercial beef cattle enterprise in NSW.
Roly Park also sells bulls privately from its Lake Boga base.
“At the Sydney Royal in 2021 we exhibited a purebred shorthorn steer that won his class on the hoof and took out the virtual taste test award which is based on the MSA eating quality assessment,” Mr Bruton said.
“Also in 2022 we were awarded champion carcass at the Swan Hill carcass competition.”
Turning two cows into 50 breeders (and counting) is no mean feat, even when working with the breed that built the business.
According to Shorthorn Beef, the breed has the oldest registry in the world, with the first shorthorn cattle first arriving in Australia in 1825. Barely 65 years later they accounted for 50 per cent of all temperate cattle and 100 per cent of cattle in the difficult northern climate.
“It literally is,” Mr Bruton said, “the animal on which the Australian beef cattle industry was built, and on which Australia was settled.”
