A longtime contributor and innovator to the NSW and national sheep and industry, Arthur Gates, 88, has died, and his life was celebrated at the Armidale Services Club in late March.
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Mr Gates' family shared many memories and contributions he made to agriculture during his lifetime, including being an early adopter of the NSW Meat Sheep Testing Service and a force behind the New England performance livestock breeders.
Mr Gates was a city boy with an early interest in agriculture; he structured his life to achieve his ambition.
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He committed himself to community needs, and in particular, he significantly impacted the lamb and sheepmeat industry. He was a keen sportsman, had a precise musical ear and a serious interest in arts and fine craftsmanship.
He was born in Chatswood, Sydney, on January 9, 1935. Arthur was the surviving twin and weighed a little under two kilograms. He attended Willoughby Primary School, followed by North Sydney Technical High School (his preference was to attend Hurlstone Agricultural High School; however, the distance was prohibitive).
His employment began in the Rural Bank Sydney branch at age 15, followed by enlistment in National Service at the Amberley Air Base in Queensland. Mr Gates also worked in the building trade to learn new skills and took on a bread run in Lane Cove to finance the purchase of a rural property. He took on construction work on building a new Armidale TAFE College and the University of New England administration office.
Mr Gates played soccer in an Armidale team as a member of the senior representative team playing in the Acropolis Cup competition in other towns. Only two or three players were Aussie-born; the others were from European families.
In 1957 he married Joan after meeting her at a youth club in Willoughby. They built a home at weekends in Long Avenue, North Ryde. In 1958 Susan was born in Ryde Hospital.
The couple bought a dairy/milk run at Trundle and moved to the country in 1960. Rick was born at Trundle Hospital that year, while Peter was born at Trundle Hospital in 1961.
The family then moved to Armidale and leased the property, 'Millbank', at Dumaresq, and in 1964 the Pollambi Poll Dorset flock was established.
They bought their foundation Poll Dorset ewes from Keith Smith's Shannon stud. The Gates soon began weighing and tagging lambs at birth.
They took a critical step for the stud when they bought a ram from New Zealand, the first import of NZ Poll Dorset genetics into Australia. Rams were paddock sold until a sale was held under the elms at Heatherston. Later, sales were held at Guyra Showground, then Guyra cattle yards before returning to Heatherston.
In 1965 the Gates bought the property, Binnowee on Rockvale Road and built a house with timber milled on the property. In 1969 they sold Binnowee and bought Heatherston farm on Rockvale Road.
In 1969 the Gates formed their Charolais stud Romsteck. They bought Shorthorn cattle from Munro's Weebollabolla herd for insemination with the first imported Charolais semen in Australia. In 1970 the first half-cross Charolais calves were born. Luck was with them, calving eight heifer calves from 12 straws, an excellent start for a breeding programme. In 1973 they sold three-quarter Charolais cattle in a sale at St Marys, in Western Sydney. A white heifer sold for $4300. In 1974 a Charolais steer bred by the Gates won first prize at Homebush in the over 400 kilograms class.
Later, they gradually began breeding Angus cattle as Mr Gates thought they suited the Australian conditions better.
Mr Gates made significant contributions to the sheep and meat industries in many facets of production, including:
- NSW Farmers, Chair of Sheepmeat Committee
- Sheepmeats Council Australia, board member
- Meat and Livestock Australia, a valuable contributor
- Chair of the NSW Lamb Strategy team, integral in the development of the industry
- LAMBPLAN and Sheep Producers Australian Breeder of the Year
- Australian Sheep CRC, breeder advisory panel
- Australian Sheep CRC, a contributor to the Information Nucleus Flock
- 1990 Arthur received the NSW Agriculture Award for outstanding service to Agriculture
In the 1990s, Ovine Johnes disease (OJD) threatened the sheep industry, and New England farmers declared the area free of the illness. Mr Gates convinced the Farmers' group to support a coordinating committee to maintain the status. He later estimated New England farmers saved 3 million dollars per year by not having to vaccinate with the Gudair vaccine.
Mr Gates was an early adopter of the NSW Meat Sheep Testing Service and a force behind the New England Performance breeders. He actively promoted the first use of ultrasound to measure fat and muscle in live sheep to encourage other breeders to participate in the NSW Meat Sheep Testing Service. He was also active in on-farm trials with NSW DPI, specifically around genetics and carcase development.
Mr Gates understood and communicated the essential strong focus on consumer needs and ensured that lambing difficulties (due to lamb size and shape) were minimised. To help ensure lamb producers experienced fewer and fewer lamb deaths, he was an early adopter of birth weight breeding values and a strong advocate for terminal sire breeders in collecting birth weight.
He took on the challenging role of host farm for the first phase of Meat Elite. This young sire program initially formed a cooperative breeding nucleus and pioneered CT Scanning in sheep in Australia, which "identified" the Carwell gene, a gene responsible for increased muscle in sheep.
He had a long-time strong working relationship and friendship with Phil Rose from Carwell Poll Dorsets - together, they were essential to the establishment of Meat Elite. Meat Elite in a later phase underpinned across-flock evaluation in LAMBPLAN. Meat Elite continues today, about 37 years later and has been used as a model for several other sheep and beef breeding nucleuses.
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