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| Sundown Pastoral Co; a short history. | |
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N M Statham was born in Western Australia and educated at Wesley College, Perth before moving to Newcastle in NSW with his parents. He became an apprentice boiler maker with BHP and, later a sales representative with National Cash Register Company. Deciding to venture on their own, he and his wife began pricing steel buildings to farmers then contracting their manufacture on receipt of orders. His brother later joined the board when they formed the R & N Steel Buildings company that grew and prospered until becoming the premier manufacturer of prefabricated farm buildings in Australia. The largest single contract N M Statham handled personally was to supply 2000 sheds for Colonel Gaddafi in Libya within a period of two months.
To many people, N M Statham is an enigma. A quietly spoken, reserved individual, he nonetheless, exudes confidence and assurance. He is a demanding employer, unforgiving of carelessness or performance that is short of first rate. He set about the task of building his pastoral empire the only way he knew how - at a frantic pace. N M Statham's move into the pastoral industry began in 1964 with the purchase of Sundown Valley, a heavily timbered block near Kingstown in Northern NSW. Within ten years, Sundown Valley was transformed into one of the top super fine wool producing properties in Australia. Four neighbouring holdings were absorbed during the process and the combined properties soon carried a flock of 40,000 super fine wool merino sheep plus a herd of whiteface cattle. In 1983, a small Hereford stud was established based on Devon Court, Moorlands and Invernain bloodlines. With Sundown Valley fully productive, it came time to expand. In 1984 the Sundown Pastoral Co purchased Keytah, a farming property West of Moree. The company later purchased adjoining Cudgildool, then in 1986 added Wathagar, Boorondarra and Gundare stations. |
Committed to developing a cattle stud that would be the equal of any in Australia, the Sundown Valley stud was moved to Keytah. The Statham family then visited 25 of the top North American Hereford and Poll Hereford studs such as the Ponderosa ranch. From there they selected 150 cows and 10 sires, chosen from the top five percent of the herds. What followed was the largest embryo-transfer program the world has seen, with 834 embryos implanted into Australian recipients over a 35 day period. By August 1987 there were 432 Canadian bred calves on the ground making it the largest North American Hereford herd outside America. More frozen embryos were imported followed by North American champion bulls. Some of those included SRM Slammer 806T, Smoothcoat 444S, GWD Princeton 31P, PPS Supreme Power 431S and the massive Thunder Down Under 612U shown below with D A Statham who is 1.8m (6 feet) tall. 
Four cattle herds were established with the introduction of Santa Gertrudis blood stock including King Ranch Jerico, Jimbour and several other sale topping bulls. Sundown Pastoral Co created history by acquiring a portion of the top end of the King Ranch female herd, a feat never before achieved by an Australian cattle company. |
| Combining technology with agriculture. |
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With the introduction of personal computers, N M Statham guided the development of a unique cattle identification program. Every calf was tagged
with a code identifying breed and age that was also recorded on computer. This not only assisted the breeding program, but allowed management to produce whatever sort of animal they
wanted within a two-year period.
Despite the driving force and technology introduced by N M Statham, his approach always remained simple. He believed that consumers purchase beef by the kilogram and don't care what colour the animal is or its bloodline. For cattlemen to succeed they need to produce more meat per acre without increasing cost or reducing quality. In 1989, N M Statham handed control of the Sundown Pastoral Co to his son, D A Statham, a licensed pilot before he was legally entitled to drive a car. Soon after taking over the management of Sundown, he was one of a group of Australian cattlemen invited by the French Government to inspect the major French studs. |
The rapid growth and development begun by his father was continued by D A Statham. Broad scale irrigated cotton farming was expanded at Keytah
making it one of the largest private cotton farms in Australia. In 1999 he dispersed the merino sheep flock at Sundown Valley and replaced them with beef cattle herds. Two additional
properties in the Inverell district were later acquired providing almost 50,000 hectares of premium grazing pasture.
Flying remained a major interest for D A Statham and his father. They each owned a Beechcraft Baron aircraft and used them to commute between the properties, their business in Newcastle and head office at Nerang in Queensland. In 2002, the family replaced one of the Barons with a larger King Air turbo-prop aircraft. They also built a new hangar at Coolangatta airport and employed a full-time pilot to run the private airline. In 2004, D A Statham sold off the last of the family's interests in the metal manufacturing industry to concentrate of the vast enterprise that the Sundown Pastoral Co has become. |
Sundown Pastoral Co hangars at Coolangatta airport. |
The pride of the Sundown fleet - a King Air turbo prop . |
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