Gordon Lee McClymont AO (8 May 1920 – 6 May 2000) was an Australian agricultural scientist, ecologist, and educationist. The originator of the term "sustainable agriculture", McClymont is known for his multidisciplinary approach to farm ecology. McClymont was the foundation chair of the Faculty of Rural Science at the University of New England, the first degree program of its kind to integrate animal husbandry, veterinary science, agronomy, and other disciplines into the field of livestock and agricultural production. In 1978, in recognition of his work and contributions to his field, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia.
Born in Australia, McClymont entered the University of Sydney under the sponsorship of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in veterinary science from Sydney and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, he worked as an animal nutrition researcher for the state of New South Wales. Believing that his education had not adequately prepared him for his work, McClymont designed a broader, multi-disciplinary educational approach to the field of livestock and agricultural production. Impressed with his ideas, the University of New England hired McClymont in 1955 to chair its new department of rural science.
While at the university, McClymont championed his approach to farm and livestock production and sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. Under his direction, the University of New England became a leader in ruminant research. The Australian poultry industry recognized McClymont's contributions to poultry production with a special award in 1967. After his retirement in 1980, McClymont continued to work with the agricultural industry in Australia and consulted with the United Nations and the World Bank on farm issues. In 1996, he expounded his approach to livestock and farm production in the book Rural Science: Philosophy and Application.
Early life and undergraduate education McClymont was born on 8 May 1920. His father was one of seven sons of a Scottish immigrant to Australia. McClymont's father greeted him as a newborn with, "G'day Bill" and Bill stuck with him as a nickname for the rest of his life. McClymont's father's brothers resided in rural areas, including in the Orange, New South Wales, region. Thus, although McClymont grew up in the Sydney metropolitan area, he spent much holiday time as a youth in a rural environment. His activities at his relatives' farms included lamb marking, fruit picking, horse breaking, and pig shooting. McClymont also became familiar with the local animals and plants.Leng and McClymont (2000); Ryan (1996), p. 13
McClymont attended Chatswood Intermediate High School, where he became interested in science. In his fourth year, he transferred to North Sydney Boys High School. In his Leaving Certificate Exam, taken in 1936, McClymont earned First Class Honours in physics and chemistry, which placed him third and fourth respectively on the New South Wales state honours list. While in high school, he participated in the Australian Army Cadets in a horse-drawn field artillery unit.Ryan (1996), pp. 13–14
Lacking funds to attend university, a family friend who worked for the New South Wales Department of Agriculture suggested that McClymont apply for a department traineeship. In spite of his lack of formal agricultural training, McClymont passed the exam and interview and was assigned to the University of Sydney's veterinary science program. Provided with a salary of £110 a year, he entered the university in 1937.Leng and McClymont (2000); Ryan (1996), p. 14. The family friend was A.H.E. McDonald, then Deputy Chief of Plant Industries for the Department of Agriculture. McClymont's interviewer after the exam was Max Henry, Chief Veterinary Surgeon (later Chief of the Division of Animal Industry) and former commander of the Army Veterinary Service during World War I.
When World War II began in 1939, McClymont joined the Australian Army Veterinary Corps in the 2nd Cavalry Mobile Veterinary Section assigned to his university. His unit volunteered for overseas duty, but was refused. McClymont joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircrew reservist, but was again denied an overseas assignment and ordered to complete his education at Sydney while serving the military in a scientific advisory role.Leng and McClymont (2000) He joined the Volunteer Defence Corps at the rank of sergeant and served weekend duty during the war years at anti-aircraft and radar installations in Australia.Ryan (1996), p. 15
Because of the war, McClymont's final two years of undergraduate study were compressed into 16 months. He graduated in 1941 with a bachelor of veterinary science, First Class Honours, and a gold university medal.Ryan (1996), p. 15; Ryan (2007), p. 21; Franklin (1988), p. xiii
New South Wales Department of Agriculture
Early career Immediately after graduation in 1941, McClymont was appointed as a specialist in animal nutrition at the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. In that position, he was responsible for all extension, advisory work, and policy advice on animal nutrition for the state government. In one instance during the war, McClymont had to respond to a swine influenza outbreak caused by pig meat imported by American troops stationed in Australia. While participating in an operation to kill and burn potentially infected suidae in a local piggery, he met his future wife, Vivienne Pecover, sister of the farmer whose pigs were being slaughtered. The two married in 1946.Ryan (1996), p. 15
From 1947 to 1949, under a Walter and Eliza Hall Veterinary Research Fellowship, he attended the University of Cambridge from which he earned a doctor of philosophy.Leng and McClymont (2000) His thesis, called Interrelationships between the digestive and mammary physiology of ruminants, was based on research he had conducted in 1947 in which he discovered that green oat consumption by dairy cows produced milk with less butterfat. In the thesis, he explained how the complex interaction between environment, climate, soil, plant, and animal physiology and metabolism had combined to produce the lowered milkfat.Ryan (1996), p. 16
After completion of his term at Cambridge, McClymont toured agricultural research centres and colleges in the United States. While in the US, he gave 15 lectures on his doctoral research. A number of American agricultural scientists told him later that his lectures had caused them to change their fields of research. McClymont was not impressed by the agricultural education he observed in Britain or the US, saying that the British focused on estate management while the Americans concentrated on descriptive evaluations of livestock quality.Ryan (1996), p. 17
Upon his return to Australia in 1950, McClymont was reassigned as Officer in Charge of the department's Animal Nutrition Research Laboratory at Glenfield Veterinary Research Station. At Glenfield, he developed research programs on drought feeding and pregnancy toxaemia in sheep and established a nutritional diagnostic service.Ryan (2007), p. 21; Ryan (1996), p. 17; Franklin (1988), p. xiii
Between 1945 and 1953, McClymont participated in adult education activities to rural areas around New South Wales for the Sydney University Extension Board and New England University College. New England University College was an extension college of the University of Sydney located in Armidale, New South Wales. The activities included holding seminars on animal husbandry and agriculture for farmers and graziers.Ryan (2007), p. 22; Ryan (1992), p. 51. During that time, McClymont often worked with New England University College faculty members David Drummond, James Belshaw, Arnold Eberle. From 1951 to 1953, McClymont helped New England University College establish facilities and adult classes in animal husbandry and agricultural economics in Walcha, Tamworth, Moree, and Dubbo.Ryan (1996), p. 49; Ryan (2008), p. 105
Ideas on education McClymont's work experiences caused him to feel dissatisfied with the quality of education he had received in his degree program at Sydney. He felt the veterinary science specialization was too narrow, especially in the area of animal husbandry and livestock production. Moreover, he felt the specialization of the discipline did not provide sufficient knowledge in how the overall farm animal production process worked. For example, as an undergraduate, he received only three lectures on statistics, a skill he had to teach himself during his first few years as an animal nutritionist advisor.Ryan (1996), p. 15 As a result, he took an interest in education and curriculum development. McClymont later said that he had "seen the educational deficiencies of narrow specialization, whether of veterinary graduates as specialists in animal health and disease or of agricultural science graduates as specialists in aspects of soil and plants. I had seen the problems created by such specialized knowledge when exercised without overall understanding."Ryan (2007), p. 21, 39
In June 1952, two lecturers in veterinary science at the University of Sydney, Doug Blood and Jim Steel, wrote a letter to the Australian Veterinary Journal complaining of their university's placement of animal husbandry as a subordinate topic within veterinary science. They argued that the field of animal husbandry included "the procurement of maximum production from the available animals, compatible with their continued health and the maintenance of the natural resources of the land on which they live" and was worthy of its own profession.Jordan (2004), p. 150 McClymont saw the letter and responded with his own missive to the journal in June 1953. In his letter, McClymont opined that the field in question should instead be called "animal production" and that it should, "be defined as the integration of animal husbandry and agronomy (the science of pasture and crop production), or in more general terms, manipulation of the soil-plant-animal complex, for the purpose of economic production of animal products". He added that the university-level training in the field should include, "extension work, research, and commercial applications". McClymont concluded that university graduates in such a field of study would be prepared to blend veterinary (animal) and agricultural (plant) production sciences to optimize farm animal output.Jordan (2004), p. 150; Ryan (2007), p. 21, 39. Both letters are reprinted in full in Ryan (1996), pp. 74–78
James Belshaw, Deputy Warden of New England University College, saw the letter and brought it to the attention of the school's advisory council's Special Committee on Animal Husbandry. At that time, the college was preparing to become an independent university and was looking to differentiate itself with a farm-based degree program that was different from what the University of Sydney had to offer, but which would also be applicable and beneficial to the rural New England area.Jordan (2004), pp. 150–151