SHOW successes and dairy industry records have been the by-product of a passion for Friesians ever since Thomas Gilmore bought a heifer and two cows for 100 guineas.
While generations of the family have made their own contributions to the dairy industry, the greatest legacy from those purchases a century ago last week can be found in the genealogy of the Holstein breed today.
Good milkers that Don Gilmore says can be traced to the Yarrawalla stud Ingolston established in 1923 by his grandfather.
Thomas Gilmore had become as a leading breeder within 10 years of the November 1923 purchase of stock at the Carter clearing sale at Marong.
He was judging around Australia and made the book 500 Victorians published in 1934, listing his hobby simply as as cattle.
Thomas had become president of the Victorian Friesian Cattle Club and a member of the national council.
He was on the committee of the Bendigo and Pyramid Hill shows. And at the Royal Melbourne Show and was about to claim a third straight champion sash with Ingolston Pontiac, the same star who had won the top prize in 1930, got pipped in 1932 before heading to a hat-trick from 1932.
“I can remember that grandma made a blanket out of the sashes won by the stud,” said Don who is about to retire from Durham Ox to Bendigo and leaving daughter Claire to continue the Ingolston stud name and bloodline as a breeder.
He says success was repeated again in 1938 and 1949 at Melbourne when Don remembers loading stock on the train at Mologa to be taken to the Melbourne Showgrounds.
Don says those early years for the Holstein stud would have seen 25 cows milked three and four times a day by hand.
When Don joined father Ken working the stud. he resumed showing at district shows from the 1960s. “We’d milk in the morning, then put the kids in the truck and head to the shows.
“Grandfather also import ed bulls from New Zealand to improve the herd he had at Yarrawalla,” he said. 
Brother Jim also joined the family’s Ingolston stud before branching out and making his own mark as a breeder and judge.
“Milking was just a job but I discovered that I had a talent for breeding cows and the ability to judge cattle,” Jim said.
“We received the prestigious master breeder award and then later a double master breeder award, only a handful had a double at the time. Holsteins became my whole life and saw me involved in everything Holstein.”
The third generation branches also ventured into other breeds.Don tried Herefords in the 1980s while Jim had success in the show ring with the Brown Swiss breed.
Thomas Gilmore had a reputation for selling his renowned milkers to any buyer.
They came from across the district and further afield. Nicholas Manlein a farmer at Korong Vale in the 1930s purchased Ingolston Trumper and less than a decade later, when time for a new milker, returned to select Ingolston Soldier.
Jim Gilmore these days often buries himself in Holstein genealogy, researching the bloodlines of today’s top milkers for the association journal.
Many can be traced back to Ingolston and share traits that saw the stud receive so much acclaim.
Sitting proudly in that line is Ingolston Gwen, credited with setting a new Australian butterfat record for a Friesian cow in 1950. On the official 273 days test, Ingolston Gwen gave a yield of 917.31 pounds of butterfat from 26,601 pounds of milk, 57 pounds more than the previous highest butterfat production test for a Friesian cow in Australia. 
Ingolston Gwen was owned by P. W. Goodfellow and Sons, of Gowerville, near Bunyip, one of the buyers who travelled to make a purchase from Thomas Gilmore.
The butterfat record came the same year Thomas Gilmore headed to Brisbane to judge Friesians at the northern city’s show. Unsurprisingly he gave the broad sash to Ingolston Barry, even if lamenting the small size of stock compared to previous years. Fast forward to the later in the 20th century and Jim Gilmore became the face on Coles butter packaging.
And in an extension of the quality tradition of Ingolston, Jim’s son Travis now has his own Ingolmore Friesian stud at Durham Ox.
Jim Gilmore says: ”If you’re chasing pedigree you will come across Ingolston somewhere. Grandpa would sell to anyone.”
“Holsteins ... it was bred in us, a family tradition,” he said.
Don Gilmore said the size of milking herds had increased this century, leaving few smaller operations still active.
“But as long as not all people want to have soy or almond milk, there will always be a need for dairy,” he said. “If you keep the operations simple you can still make a living. We did.”
In its heyday, the Ingolston dairy at Yarrawalla had its own electricity plant and a railway connecting the dairy to the piggery.
Thomas Gilmore was an early member of what today is Holstein Australia. The association was formed in 1914 and the Ingolston stud registered a decade later to make it the oldest in Australia although a few more will reach the centenary milestone within a couple of years.
Holstein cattle make up about 70 per cent of Australia’s 1.6 million dairy cows today.
“What grandfather established a century ago has had a big influence on generations of breeders and milk producers,” said Don Gilmore reflecting on the centenary of his stud.