Santa Gertrudis stalwart warmly remembered

Mr Adams died on March 2, after a short battle with cancer. He was 73 years of age.

Long time friend of almost 58 years Ian Buck, who delivered the eulogy, said Mr Adams would be remembered as a very successful and respected cattleman who built a great business.

Mr Buck said Mr Adams' early years in business were tough with the beef crash of the early 1970's and he often said he survived just "by the skin of my teeth."

"He too, was very proud of his children, Graham, Terri and Ben and also of his grandchildren; he was involved in their life, and supported them to follow their dreams," Mr Buck said.

"Robert enjoyed everybody's company - he would always say good-day; he was good to talk to and had a cheeky grin

"He led by example on how to treat people and work with them."

Mr Adams was very community minded and passionate about the Taroom district.

He was a significant supporter of charity events raising funds for palliative care, and other worthy events and of course, the Taroom Show Society which honoured Robert with life membership in 2019.

Mr Adams was born in the Roma hospital on August 28, 1950, the second child of parents Graham and Jean Adams of Dangarfield, Taroom.

His education started with correspondence school, but he wasn't overly fond of the schoolroom.

After his mother called him for the start of the lessons, she would often find him hiding under their low set Queenslander house at Dangarfield, sitting fair in the middle, so she had no hope of dragging him out.

Mr Adams also attended primary school in Roma, and boarding at the Methodist hostel but this was relatively short lived, as he created mayhem.

After a couple of years he was sent to The Southport School as a border where he stayed until he completed Junior.

Mr Adams attended Queensland Agricultural College in 1966.

Unfortunately, he suffered a serious eye injury during his second year at college, which resulted in near loss of sight in his eye, and required follow up medical treatment.

He returned to Dangarfield and commenced the next chapter of his working life.

The Adams family's first introduction to Santa Gertrudis occurred in 1958 when the late David Bassingthwaighte, who was friends with Mr Adam's father Graham, jumped off a first cross brindle bull into the Dangarfield front paddock.

The bulls' progeny were a big success and from there on purebred Santa Gertrudis bulls were purchased and their Hereford herd was phased out by 1968.

The Dangarfield stud was registered in 1983 with cows graded up from their commercial herd and some cast for age cows purchased from close family friends, the Perrett family of the Kabunga stud.

Initially, bulls were marketed privately. The first draft of bulls assigned to auction was in 1988 at the Wandoan sale where the stud came away with the equal top price of $7000 on two occasions. One of them was A34 who sold to Yarrawonga-Waco.

In 1991, A34 was one of the leading sires at the Yarrawonga Waco sale with eight sons averaging $8600.

In 1989 Dangarfield, Utopia and Orana formed the Dawson River Santa sale in Taroom.

Eventually both Utopia and Orana closed their studs however Dangarfield continue their on-property sale at Kingswood to this day.

The Adams family started showing their stud cattle in 1989 as a way of promoting the stud and getting out and about meeting people.

In 1994 saw the stud's first big win with Dangarfield Cleo winning junior champion at Beef 94.

Beef 97 was a memorable day for the stud winning senior and grand bull with Dangarfield Eyewitness

But what Mr Adams was most proud of was the three show cows in that team - Elle, Elegance and Eccentric.

All three were awarded 100/100 for their score in their Breedplan assessment. Only four cows on the entire grounds that year were awarded that score.

At Beef 2012 Dangarfield Universe was awarded junior and grand champion bull and placed high in the interbreed competition.

Dangarfield Tornado and Dangarfield Volcano were both awarded res senior champion bulls at the Ekka 2012 and 2013.

The Adams family also show bullocks at every Beef Week and came away with class ribbons on all bar one occasion. Class wins came in 2000, 2003, and 2009.

Prime cattle and replacement commercial heifers have also been shown every year especially in the local district shows.

The year 2003 was a huge highlight for Mr Adams.

In that year, the Dangarfield Stud won the national steer trophy with grassfed bullocks at the Taroom and Theodore shows and a class win at Beef Week with grain assisted steers fed at home.

Other highlights which Mr Adams was very proud of included the leading stud sires Dangarfield Quarterback, Dangarfield Second-To-None, Dangarfield Tornado and Dangarfield Universe who had semen exported to six countries around the globe.

Dangarfield Quarterback has gone on to sire two national champion bulls and one grand champion bull of South America. He has been the most successful sire for the stud with progeny sales now exceeding the one million mark.

Mr Adams always took great pride in the people who invested in his bulls. Many families have become great friends and long-standing clients and we are now seeing three generations still buying Dangarfield bulls.

He was not one to go chasing the limelight but enjoyed a good honest sale with repeat buyers.

But he was always proud to see the Dangarfield name printed in someone else's catalogue pedigree, especially down through a dam line.

It would be almost impossible to tally up how many sale topping bulls Mr Adams purchased over the years.

"The good ones are never dear," was his mantra.

He was never one to chase a fad or a pedigree, just go after the one he wanted and was rarely beaten if he thought it was the right bulls to lift the herd to the next level.

A real highlight from the on-property sales though would have to be the 2022 sale, where 45 bulls sold to a breed record average of $22,922 with a modest top of only $45,000.

Mr Adams was moving more into retirement mode during his last couple of years, and in the last year he and his wife Peta had purchased their retirement home in Rainbow Beach, an easy drive to Fraser, when the tailor season was on.

Their plans were to spend time between Rainbow Beach and Kingswood, Taroom, but sadly these plans did not play out as they should have. They were cruelly cut short by Robert's late cancer diagnosis, and unfortunately, he never got to enjoy the next chapter of his life.

A memorial service will be held at the Taroom Town Hall, next Friday, March 22 at 11am.

Mr Adams is survived by his wife Peta, children Graham, Terri and Ben and their families.