Born in 1751, he was the second son of Charles Colling (1721–1785) by Dorothy Robson (d. 1779), and succeeded his father in the occupancy of a farm at Ketton, near Darlington, in 1782, shortly after a visit he paid to the well-known breeder, Robert Bakewell.

'It is generally supposed that the great lesson that Charles Colling learnt during the three weeks he spent at Dishley was the expediency of concentrating good blood by a system of in-and-in breeding.

This bull had been mated whilst at Ketton with cows afterwards famous called Duchess, Daisy, Cherry, and Lady Maynard.

One of Hubback's daughters produced in 1795, by another celebrated bull called Favourite, a roan calf, which grew to be the famous Durham ox.

A still more famous animal was Comet, born in the autumn of 1804, which 'Charles Colling declared to be the best bull he ever bred or saw, and nearly every judge of short-horns agreed with him' (Bates, p. 16).

Others belong to Mr. John Thornton of 7 Princes Street, Hanover Square, W., and Mr. H. Chandos-Pole-Gell, Hopton Hall, Derbyshire.

A testimonial was presented to Colling by forty-nine subscribers in the shape of a silver-gilt cup inscribed, 'Presented to Mr. Charles Colling, the great improver of the short-horned breed of cattle, by the breeders whose names are annexed, as a token of gratitude for the benefit they have derived from his judgment, and also as a testimony of their esteem for him as a man.