David Blair Coates: a career of contribution to the northern Australian cattle industry

Rob M. Dixon

doi:10.1071/AN24290

ANIMAL SCIENCE REFLECTIONS (Open Access)

Next Contents Vol 65(5)

David Blair Coates: a career of contribution to the northern Australian cattle industry

Rob M. Dixon

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: r.dixon2@uq.edu.au

Handling Editor: Wayne Bryden

Animal Production Science 65, AN24290 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN24290

Submitted: 28 September 2024 Accepted: 19 February 2025 Published: 7 March 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

David Coates, a highly respected agricultural scientist who spent a lifetime working for the benefit of the northern Australian cattle industries, passed away on the 24 January 2024. David had exceptional knowledge and experience of the practical aspects of the industry. In his research career, he excelled in his contributions, and especially towards understanding of phosphorus nutrition in both pastures and cattle in the rangelands of northern Australia, and in his leadership in the development of near-infrared spectroscopy of the dung of cattle for rapid and economical measurements of the diets of cattle grazing rangelands.

Keywords: cattle nutrition, diet selection, faecal NIRS, FNIRS, grazing cattle, northern Australia, phosphorus, phosphorus in pastures, rangelands.

References

Brooks J, Anderson M, Urness PJ (1984) Infrared reflectance analysis of forage quality for elk. Journal of Wildlife Management 48, 254-258.
| Google Scholar |

Coates DB (1994) The effects of phosphorus as fertilizer or supplement on pasture and cattle productivity in the semi-arid tropics of north Queensland. Tropical Grasslands 28, 90-108.
| Google Scholar |

Coates DB (1995) Effect of phosphorus as fertiliser or supplement on the forage intake of heifers grazing stylo-based pastures. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 35, 181-188.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB (2004) Improving reliability of faecal NIRS calibration equations. Final Report of Project NAP3.121. Meat and Livestock Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Coates DB, Dixon RM (2007) Faecal near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (F.NIRS) measurements of non-grass proportions in the diet of cattle grazing tropical rangelands. The Rangeland Journal 29, 51-63.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Dixon RM (2008a) Development of near infrared analysis of faeces to estimate non-grass proportions in diets selected by cattle grazing tropical pastures. Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy 16, 471-480.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Dixon RM (2008b) Faecal near infrared reflectance spectroscopy estimates of diet quality and responses to nitrogen supplements by cattle grazing Bothriochloa pertusa pastures. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48, 829-834.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Dixon RM (2010) Fecal NIRS calibration for predicting protein and digestibility in the diet of cattle: fistulate and pen feeding procedures for generating diet-faecal pairs. In ‘Shining light on manure improves livestock and land management’, 9–16 February 2007, Reno, NV, United States. (Eds J Walker, D Tolleson) pp. 28–51. (AgriLife Research and Society for Range Management, Texas A&M University: College Station, TX, USA)

Coates DB, Dixon RM (2011) Developing robust faecal near infrared spectroscopy calibrations to predict diet dry matter digestibility in cattle consuming tropical forages. Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy 19, 507-519.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Ternouth JH (1992) Phosphorus kinetics of cattle grazing tropical pastures and implications for the estimation of their phosphorus requirements. The Journal of Agricultural Science 119, 401-409.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Kerridge PC, Miller CP, Winter WH (1990) The effect of phosphorus on the composition, yield and quality of legume based pasture and their relation to animal production. Tropical Grasslands 24, 209-220.
| Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Dixon RM, Murray RM, Mayer RJ, Miller CP (2018) Bone mineral density in the tail-bones of cattle: effect of dietary phosphorus status, liveweight, age and physiological status. Animal Production Science 58, 801-810.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coates DB, Dixon RM, Mayer RJ (2019) Between-year variation in the effects of phosphorus deficiency in breeder cows grazing tropical pastures in northern Australia. Tropical Grasslands-Forrajes Tropicales 7, 223-233.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Coleman SW (2010) Historic overview for fecal NIRS analysis. In ‘Shining light on manure improves livestock and land management’. (Eds J Walker, D Tolleson) pp. 9–22. (Texas AgriLife Research and Society for Range Management)

Coleman SW, Stuth JW, Holloway JW (1989) Monitoring the nutrition of grazing cattle with near infrared analysis of faeces. In ‘Proceedings of the sixteenth international grassland congress’, 4–11 October 1989, Nice, France. pp. 881–882.

Dixon R, Coates D (2009) Review: near infrared spectroscopy of faeces to evaluate the nutrition and physiology of herbivores. Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy 17, 1-31.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kerridge PC (1990) Phosphorus and beef production in northern Australia. Tropical Grasslands 24, 129-130.
| Google Scholar |

Stuth JW, Kapes ED, Lyons RK (1989) Use of near infrared spectroscopy to assess nutritional status of cattle diets on rangeland. In ‘Proceedings of the sixteenth international grassland congress’, 4–11 October 1989, Nice, France. pp. 889–890.