Simon Coates: The Veterinarian Who Helped Start Australian Wagyu

Who was Dr Simon Coates?

Dr Simon Coates was a veterinarian who spent more than three decades in the Australian Wagyu industry and is remembered as one of its founding figures. His death in November 2020 was reported by Beef Central on November 11 of that year. The report says he died suddenly, and a funeral on November 20 was livestreamed because COVID restrictions limited attendance to 100 invited guests.

No birth date or place appears in the pages reviewed, so none is given here. What the record does show is the breadth of his work: imports, breeding, embryo transfer, breed administration and education.

How did Sumo Cattle Co begin?

Coates founded Sumo Cattle Co, which was in business by 1991. It started at Roma in Queensland and later moved near Ipswich. It was one of the first five Wagyu studs registered in Australia, and herd recording started in 1993, according to Beef Central.

The stud imported 50 heifers and six bulls through Takeda Farms, upgrading Sumo to Fullblood and purebred Wagyu genetics. The Australian Wagyu Association (AWA) says the genetics came from the United States and Canada. Sumo was a market leader in Fullblood genetics in Australia from 1997, per the AWA.

Embryo splitting, ET centres and the Japanese export trade

Coates used embryo splitting and frozen embryos to expand the number of Wagyu in Australia, which helped establish the early F1 live cattle export trade to Japan and later the Fullblood industry. He set up three embryo transfer centres, at Euroa, Griffith and Roma, to serve the growing industry.

He travelled often to Japan and worked with collaborators in some of the earliest exports of Australian Wagyu beef. They formed the Certified Wagyu Corporation, which Beef Central says was instrumental in developing product chains into Japan and worldwide.

• Australia's first Wagyu seedstock sale took place in 1995 or 1996, and Coates held it.
• He ran workshops and field days at Roma and across eastern Australia.
• He urged traditional breeders to look beyond appearance to market qualities.
• Greg Gibbons credited him with helping launch the Aronui feedlot near Dalby as a major Wagyu feeding facility.

Leading the Australian Wagyu Association

The AWA's honour roll and past presidents page lists Coates as second president, serving from 1994 to 1997 after founding president Peter Winkler. The association says he oversaw substantial growth in membership and public awareness. He had joined as a councillor in 1993.

In 2018 he was made an Honorary Life Member. The AWA says he registered more than 5,600 animals, including 1,494 Fullblood dams and 173 Fullblood sires, which produced more than 21,000 progeny in AWA member herds.

Why Wagyu in Australia matters to beef

Wagyu genetics in Australia began with a handful of studs in the early 1990s and grew into a major export-oriented sector. Coates's work sits at the start of that growth: imports, embryo multiplication and the first F1 exports to Japan.

The ranching section of farm.FM follows breed building around the world, including a farm.FM story about Australian Wagyu cattle.

Remembering a pioneer

The AWA created the Dr Simon Coates Scholarship for Veterinary and Reproductive Science in his honour, as part of its Wagyu Fellowship Program. Peter Robertson, a Hughenden breeder, described him as generous and not focused on personal profit, and past AWA presidents called him a thorough gentleman in business.