Head Shepherd

Angus Gidley-Baird, Senior Analyst - Animal Proteins at Rabobank, joins us this week to share his expertise on the sheep and beef industries across Australia and New Zealand. Angus helps us understand market dynamics, global demand and the impact of seasonal conditions on the market. In this episode we cover the:

• Current state of the Australian and New Zealand sheep and beef markets
• Impact of drought and seasonal conditions on supply
• Global demand for lamb and beef, particularly from China and the US
• Future of the sheep industry in Western Australia in light of the live export ban
• Trends in lamb carcass weights and consumer preferences
• Potential for marketing premium lamb products and objective quality measures

From changing lamb prices driven by consumer demand to the effects of market shifts on land prices, Angus does a great job of explaining the various challenges and opportunities within the livestock sector, both on a trans-Tasman scale and globally. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, we’re chatting all things livestock breeding with Robert Peacock from Orari Gorge Station. Robert discusses how and why they’ve been breeding for worm resistance. They have also been one of the first to measure feed efficiency and methane emissions, demonstrating the role of genetics in addressing these farming challenges. Tune in to discover how Orari Gorge is setting the standard for sustainable farming.

• Farming sheep, beef and deer in South Canterbury. 
• How to begin testing for WormFEC.
• The importance of feed efficiency in livestock. 
• What goes on in a central progeny test?

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest this week is veterinarian Enoch Bergman. Originally from the USA, Enoch arrived in Australia in 2003. He fell in love with the people, the landscape and the agricultural innovation of Esperance, Western Australia and has been there ever since.

Enoch is passionate about improving the performance of heifers and the use of fixed-time artificial insemination (AI) in commercial breeding programmes, and shares that passion with us today. He explains the process of synchronising heifers and the positive outcomes for conception rates, calving ease, calf and heifer survival, weaning rates and rebreeding rates. He also discusses the economic analysis of integrating fixed-time AI versus natural mating, including the cost of bulls, labour and the value of pregnant heifers.

Enoch is also involved with a Producer Demonstration Sites (PDS) programme that aims to encourage the uptake of fixed-time AI. The PDS showed that using fixed-time AI reduced dystocia, calf mortality and heifer mortality. It also improved weaning weights and re-breeding success. Enoch also discusses the benefits of early and short heifer joining and the potential challenges with bull longevity.

This podcast was recorded as a video with an accompanying presentation that includes some great graphs and statistics. You can watch it at this link:

https://youtu.be/tTgjaMRu9Dg

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we’re celebrating 200 episodes! We thought we’d make a special occasion of it so we recorded our podcast live at Lambex 2024 and who better to have on as a guest than Lambex founder, Dawson Bradford. 

Mark and Dawson discuss the origins of Lambex. Dawson came up with the idea to “ … bring producers together with the processors and retailers, and get an understanding through the whole industry.” It’s safe to say Dawson accomplished that with 1,500 delegates attending in 2024.

Mark and Dawson also discuss the Ultrawhite breed's development and the ins and outs of starting a new sheep breed. From facing judgment from others to not knowing quite where the breeding would go in the first few years, it was quite the journey. “It’s taught me a lot. It taught me that I didn’t know very much before. It’s the challenge of bringing together the four breeds and stabilising the type. You think you've got it under control and a wildcard comes in from one of the four breeds,” shares Dawson. “Be aware of what you’re producing. Be aware of the faults that come up and move along quickly.”

This is a great chat between Dawson and Ferg about genetics and sheep breeding, and we couldn’t have picked a better guest to celebrate 200 episodes of Head Shepherd. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

If you farm Merinos in Australia, it’s more than likely you will have heard of Merinotech. And if you’ve heard of Merinotech, it's likely that you know our fantastic guest this week, Bill Webb. 

For those that don’t know, Merinotech is an intensively recorded ram breeding nucleus founded in 1988 by a group of WA Merino breeders who wanted to breed a ram that thrived in their environment, backed up by a breeding plan and strategy that fully embraced the latest developments in breeding and genetics. The stud nucleus was established at Kojonup, Western Australia, with ewes from founding members and they have been applying those founding principles ever since. Merinotech rams are now some of the highest ranking in Australia for traits such as fat, eye muscle depth, worm resistance and weaning rate, as well as high-value wool traits.

Whilst Bill is still the chairman of Merinotech, he is no longer actively farming. Once his son Ben returned, Bill decided to hand over the reins straight away, “…so he didn't have my negativity or things like that impinging on his ability to work out what to do,” explains Bill. 

“I felt I'd done as much as I could to improve profitability and productivity. I didn't know what needed to be done over the next 30 or 40 years and Ben needed to work that out for himself, which he has done very well. We had a good relationship and the idea was to move out and still be involved, but not being present and influencing his decision-making in one way or another. And I'd had several back operations, so trying to do something that didn't involve physical work and continuing to injure or hurt myself was another reason.”

And with a response to succession such as that, it’s no surprise that Bill re-trained as a psychologist for the second half of his working life. “Initially I was trying to do something I didn't have to study for to earn an income,” says Bill.  “I was looking around, trying to work out what to do. I was going to facilitate family meetings for succession planning and conflict resolution, mediation sort of things. And it soon became obvious that people can handle one problem, one or two problems, but when problems become multiple issues that's when difficulty occurs. So psychology became a foundation to work from, to be able to help people work through life events essentially. So it became obvious that I did have to do some study. It took me seven years of full-time study to become registered and this is my 11th year of registration as a psychologist and I'm loving the work.” 

Bill discusses some of the lessons he’s learned over the years in both careers and what he would do differently if he could do it all over again. “Family is terribly important,” emphasises Bill. “Often farmers see the farm as the central focus and the goose that laid the golden egg, which means that the work-life balance and family can be compromised. I think at the end of the day, our family is what we have and we have to treasure and cultivate the importance of the family unit.”

Merinotech is holding their next open day on 4 October 2024 at Kojonup. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

As you may have heard in the media recently, triple drench resistance in cattle is quickly becoming an issue for New Zealand farmers. 

This week on the podcast, we are joined by Dave Leathwick and Christian Sauerman from AgResearch. They share how they came across the issue, why it has occurred and what producers can do to mitigate the risks of developing triple drench resistance. 

Dave and Christian are both ‘accidental parasitologists’, with Dave initially studying entomology, while Christian was focused on biology and zoology. However, both have now been working with parasites for a combined 51 years! 

Dave explains that drench resistance has been a long-standing issue: “The national survey that was done on cattle in 2004/2005 - virtually every farm in New Zealand had drench resistance to at least one active - and it just made no difference. Nobody paid any attention.” Now, 20 years later, the issue is far worse. 

The research pair point out that they weren’t looking for evidence of triple drench resistance and it only came to their attention when a few farmers had issues with calves not performing well. FEC tests showed alarmingly high worm numbers, considering the animals had been drenched just three weeks prior, and tipped them off to the extent of the problem. 

Christian highlights the signs and symptoms that cattle will show and also what producers can do to negate the risks of triple drench resistance. But you’ll have to tune in for that! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest on the podcast this week is Barbara Webster, co-founder of inMR. Barbara shares with Mark how inMR's Marbl™ technology uses nuclear magnetic resonance to measure intramuscular fat quickly, accurately and non-invasively, delivering a new standard to the industry.

In the last few years, the technology has been successfully implemented in lamb-carcass grading. inMR are in the process of adapting it to other applications, such as beef carcasses and live animals. 

While MRI technology has been around for a while, Barbara shares the challenges of adapting this technology for industrial use in a meatworks environment. One such challenge is speed. Their current model measures around four to five carcasses a minute. One of their development projects is a twin-sensor system that will measure 10 to 12 carcasses a minute. 

Fortunately, another common challenge frequently faced by the industry - labour shortages - has been less of an issue for inMR. They chose to pursue an automated process, with data feeding directly into the system, rather than relying on someone standing there to do the measuring. “The weight of our sensor took us down that path, but I think it's a key point of difference and adds a lot of value,” shares Barbara.

Barbara points out that funding from organisations such as MLA and SFF Futures, along with investment by Ovation New Zealand, have been instrumental in advancing these innovations. “We've been very lucky and we've had tremendous support from funding agencies that invest in new technology development,” explains Barbara. 

With the continuous innovation in robotics, sensors and AI, the next decade is going to be very interesting when it comes to tech in agriculture. Current technologies such as x-ray scanning and robotic cutting - along with emerging applications for MRI - are already in use. Mark and Barbara both share the belief that AI opens up doorways for automation and innovation like never before. "I think we're going to see a huge leap forward because our ability to cope with naturally varying product for automation applications is going to only become easier now with those tools,” highlights Barbara. 

Whether you are a meat industry professional, a technology enthusiast or simply curious about the future of food production, make sure to tune in to this episode to learn more about the cutting-edge technologies that are set to transform the meat industry!

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we’re discussing heat stress during mating and pregnancy with Dr William van Wettere.

Heat stress is classed as anything over 32°C, which can disrupt fertility in ewes, semen quality in rams and embryonic development in lambs, so it has an overarching effect on all aspects of reproduction.

Mark and Will start by discussing the effects of heat stress on ewes. Trials show that heat stress affects ewes most in the five days leading up to ovulation and the first five days after ovulation; while heat stress after day eight of ovulation did not affect fertility. Heat stress also reduces the duration of oestrus, with the impact depending on the timing of the heat stress. Trials show that heat stress can shorten the length of oestrus by five to eight hours. Heat stress can also impact the cycle length, lengthening it by nearly two days in some cases.

One trial showed that for every additional day above 32°C, lambing percentages decreased by around 3.5%. A lot of this is comes down to disruption of the ewe’s follicle development. Because of this, and poor placental development, lamb birth weight and survivability can be affected. Heat stress at different times throughout the pregnancy can also have an effect. 

Mark and Will also discuss the impact on ram fertility, which can be affected at any time in the 60 days leading up to mating. Heat can cause not only a reduction in the amount of sperm but also cause issues with motility and along with structural abnormalities. 

Fortunately there are solutions to mitigate heat stress. Research has shown that sheep that have to look for feed are more likely to succumb to heat stress, so confinement feeding with adequate shade could be an option. Another solution is to increase the ram per ewe ratio. There is also research looking into the role of melatonin in mitigating heat stress effects. 

This is a great factual podcast that will arm you with knowledge about what goes on with your sheep when you’re mating during the peak of summer so that you can make a positive change for future matings. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Building resilience and achieving success in agriculture is an unpredictable challenge that involves continuous learning, upskilling, mentorship and adoption of innovative practices. In this episode, Mark chats with Danielle England, both a consultant and farmer, about resilience in the agricultural industry.

Danielle currently farms merino sheep with her husband and his family in Keilira, South Australia. However, she has spent most of her career going back and forth across Australia in a variety of roles, most of them focused on risk, resilience and people in agriculture. 

Her first role was with the Department of Agriculture working in the Sustainability and NRM team before she moved across to Planfarm. There she got involved in the grain and mixed farming businesses and is now lead consultant with AgInnovate. “Nationally, I’ve led a lot of the decision-making around risk - and how farmers look at risk - and also the role of sheep in broadacre farms and cropping programmes, and what risks do sheep bring to those businesses,” explains Danielle.

With the recent announcements on live export, the sheep industry across Australia has suffered the flow-on effect of that uncertainty and a drop in confidence. Through her career in risk management, Danielle has some great insights about how farmers can navigate such an unsettled time. 

Danielle disagrees that this will all ‘blow over’ in a year. “I think this a two- or three-year journey that the industry has to go on. As you know, we can't change sheep genetics very quickly,” she explains. “Sure we can move out of merinos and move into first-crosses or prime lambs, but they’re not going to hit the ground till 2025. 2024 mating was decided in 2023, we don't operate in really short turnarounds in livestock.”

Danielle suggests that whilst changes need to be made to ride out the wave, it’s best not to rush in and make too many changes at once. Sometimes it is not making ‘a’ change that is hard, but the decision about which change to make. 
Here are some key points from Mark's chat with Danielle to consider when implementing change in your farming business:  

• Know your core values.
• Know what you’re good at.
• Know what you enjoy.
• Keep an open mind.
• Don’t look back, instead focus on what you want to generate.
• Don’t add or subtract more than 30% in a business at once.

Finally, Mark asks Danielle what are the key characteristics of resilient businesses. “Someone once told me, if your farm’s still there, you’ve got a resilient business,” she says. “Farming is a long game and it’s an infinite game. We try and set it up for future generations. So whilst it looks stressful now, in the long run it will be okay.”

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

How would you manage your cattle differently (or your sheep for that matter) if you could diagnose pregnancy at day 16? 

This week on the podcast, Mark chats with Bronwyn Darlington, a trailblazer in the field of disruptive innovation and sustainable agriculture. Bronwyn shares her journey through various ventures and projects, one of which is AgScent.
“My area of expertise is looking at the complex systems that interact as far as technology is concerned - to come together to create serious disruption,” explains Bronwyn. “What is life going to be like if you were actually standing on the horizon in 10 years and looking back? What technologies would you be surrounded by?” she asks.

“If you thought about what your mobile phone was 20 years ago or 10 years ago, project that out for another 10 years and think of what else that would change. What major disruptions will that cause? And then the task is to build the bridge back.”

One of these bridges is AgScent. Bronwyn had been to the US looking at emerging disruptive technologies with university students when she realised that there had been substantial breakthroughs in medical diagnostic technologies and also our ability to build and understand algorithms and create neural networks.
Bronwyn returned home (a 5,000-acre property in the southern tablelands of New South Wales) where cattle were being pregnancy-tested “ … the same way we've done since pretty much the pyramids,” says Bronwyn. “I was absolutely struck by how the livestock sector has been so hamstrung by our inability to get the benefits that, say, cropping gets with robotics … that other sectors are getting with new technologies. And I wanted to put those two pieces together.”

And so Agscent was born: “If we can look into the breath of a human now and identify lung cancer, why can't I look into the breath of a cow?”. By identifying specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath, Agscent can distinguish pregnant cows from non-pregnant ones as early as 16 days post-insemination.

As a next step, the development of technology to measure methane was a no-brainer for Bronwyn. Agscent now sells a versatile GHG sensor unit that can be used both indoors and outdoors to measure methane and carbon dioxide continually (and can be used for both individual and group measurements). AgScent is also working alongside last week's podcast guests, Optiweigh, and have integrated their methane sensor into the weighing platform. 

For the moment, Agscent can provide early pregnancy diagnosis and methane detection. Bronwyn’s plans for the future include broader applications to other livestock species, such as pigs and sheep, with the potential to detect diseases like bovine respiratory disease and pleurisy. 

Tune in to discover how Bronwyn’s ventures are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in agriculture and how they can support changes in your own farming practices.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Bill Mitchell, co-founder of Optiweigh, discussing the Optiweigh system and its unexpected impacts on the farm businesses that are already using the technology.

Optiweigh was founded 10 years ago by Bill and Jacqui Mitchell after they decided there must be a better way to closely monitor cattle weights, rather than running them into the yards every week. “There was a walk-over weighing system that I saw first in sheep. And it was just like, how on earth do I make this work on our farm without it taking more effort than it saves?” explains Bill.

However, getting cattle to put all four feet on the scales was trickier than they first imagined. “I don’t know why I even bothered,” says Bill. “But I thought, I'll collect some two feet weight and take them to the yards and weigh them there too, and see if it's any good.” It turned out that it worked, despite them both not daring to believe it. Then in 2019, the drought forced them to destock, and so they seized the opportunity to launch Optiweigh.

From then on, Optiweigh has gone from strength to strength. Every day there is a new revelation about the usefulness of their technology. The immediate nature of the data means producers can see changes in weight instantly and see the impacts of their management decisions in real time.

“People have done it to manage their grazing rotations. They've done it to look at the different pastures and different feed types, supplementary feed types or otherwise to look at a change of feeds or compare weight gains on different feeds,” explains Bill.

It’s also been used to help identify animal health issues - such as the impacts of too-high stocking rates or dirty dam water - that may have otherwise gone unnoticed until it was too late.

Optiweigh is being used around the world, from extensive grassland systems to feedlots.

Recently, the team at Optiweigh have been working with AgScent (our guests on the podcast next week - make sure to tune into that!) to measure methane whilst the cattle are being weighed. They are also looking to create a sheep weighing system.

Bill hopes that Optiweigh will become a staple in livestock farming, providing a variety of data that not only improves farm management but also contributes to environmental sustainability by continuously monitoring animal metrics such as weight, methane emissions, body condition scores and overall health status.
If you would like to know more about Optiweigh, you can visit their website here:

https://www.optiweigh.com.au/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Richard Subtil, from Omarama Station, a 12,000-hectare property in New Zealand's South Island. Over the last 26 years, Richard and his wife Annabelle have made incredible progress on the station, creating a sustainable and efficient operation for their children to take over.

There is a vast range of environments found across Omarama Station, from tussock at 1,550 metres to 4,000 hectares of irrigated flats at 450 metres and “... everything else in between,” says Richard. 

Richard and Annabelle are big fans of adopting new technology and trying new ideas, including foetal aging at pregnancy. This has allowed for better management of the their livestock in the diverse range of environments on the property, explains Richard. “We will put those early twin-bearing ewes on the lower, better blocks that start to grow a bit earlier in the season and then they have access to lucerne paddocks below,” says Richard. “Then, [we can] bring the later lambing ewes down behind… that kind of thing. That makes a massive difference.”

But it’s not just about making one-off decisions based on the data; data is recorded against each ewe for her whole lifetime. Richard explains: “Once we get that lifetime data, we can also make sure that we are rewarding those ewes that regularly give us early twins every single time, every year. Especially when, at weaning time, you look at a ewe and she's looking a bit tatty. Is that because she's a poor ewe or is that because she's worked really, really hard for you?” Without EID, it is impossible to keep track of so many variables to make an accurate assessment. 

When Omarama began using EID they classed these better-performing sheep as ‘Royals’. After analysing the data, the difference in performance was quite significant. “If we had been able to convert all the sheep on the place to Royals, there was $150,000 worth of profit, without spending a dollar more on animal health or feeding them more. It was just better sheep,” explains Richard. This just shows that by collecting and analysing lifetime data, collected on EID, it is far easier to make informed decisions that lead to better livestock management and overall efficiency.

It is not only technology that makes or breaks a business though. Richard and Annabelle make use of their previous life experience in logistics to make the most of what they produce at Omarama, be it wool, lamb or beef. Richard discusses the importance of long-term contracts and partnerships with brands like Icebreaker and how they impact breeding decisions and the future of the farm. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

As food producers, should we know more about the nutrition of the products we produce? This week on the podcast we have Dr Anneline Padayachee, a food and nutrition scientist. We dive into the fascinating world of carbs, proteins, micronutrients and more, hopefully leaving you with a better understanding of the food we produce and eat.

Anneline provides a brief history of nutrition science. This relatively new field emerged in the late 1800s, after the discovery of the elements of the periodic table, when it became possible to identify essential nutrients like amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Anneline says that nutrition science can be “ … a little bit behind … ”, as it is always reacting to changes in global diets.

Nutrition science covers the whole spectrum of diets: from the worst that lead to disease and illness, to the best that lead to populations living well past 100. Anneline discusses the concept of ‘blue zones’, regions where people live significantly longer due to an active lifestyle, a strong sense of community and a diet rich in locally sourced, plant-based foods. Anneline is quick to add that while these diets are plant-based, they are not plant-exclusive, emphasising the importance of dietary diversity and moderation in consuming animal products.

Mark asks Anneline the obvious question from a farming podcast: what is the truth about the role of meat in a healthy diet?

“If you can eat meat, go for it,” says Anneline. “Red meat is nutritionally dense. And when I say nutritionally dense, think about a concentrated cordial versus a diluted cordial. The flavour is very different, you only need a little bit of that concentrate in there. It is very nutritionally dense in protein: it has every amino acid that our body does not produce. In addition to iron, which is absolutely essential, you've also got B12. Without B12, you cannot get the energy out of your carbohydrates, so it is absolutely fundamental. And red meat is our only source of dietary B12. There's no other way we can get it, except to take a supplement or get a shot from the doctor.”

Anneline and Mark also discuss ‘lab-grown’ meat and cell culture technology in food production and how it might be used in the future. Whilst the costs to produce a kilogram of these novel foodstuffs are exponentially higher than that to produce beef at present, Anneline says there will likely be some highly useful applications of lab-grown meat, especially for the medical sector. But she finishes by pointing out: “In terms of feeding the masses, nothing is more efficient than a cow.”

This episode offers a broad exploration of food science, nutrition and health. Dr Padayachee provides valuable insight into how to maintain a balanced diet amidst the noise of marketing strategies and fad diets. Whether you're interested in the history of nutrition science, the intricacies of food production, or practical tips for a healthy diet, this episode is one not to miss.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

What happens when a Merino sheep farmer turns into a digital marketplace mogul? Our guest this week, Dwain Duxson, founder of Farm Tender and The Farmers Club, shares how and why he switched career paths.


While Dwain enjoyed his time farming and breeding Merino rams, in 2011 he decided a change of gear was in order. “For me, [selling rams] was pretty restrictive in how many customers you could serve. I wanted to serve a lot more customers. I had a bit of an idea of what I wanted to do when the internet was kicking into gear. So that was the main reason we left the farm. We just wanted to try something else and service more people.”


After a few different business ideas, Farm Tender was born. Farm Tender is an online platform for buying and selling agricultural products across Australia. And, with over 72,000 members and around 40 new members joining daily, their database is huge. Dwain wanted to help farmers get the best deals and also provide them with the top-notch customer service he was accustomed to giving when selling breeding stock.


Launching an online platform, however, came with its fair share of obstacles. In the podcast, Dwain discusses the early days of establishing Farm Tender and the challenge of trying to break into the American market.


Dwain also talks about his latest venture, The Farmers Club, a daily newsletter that provides agricultural news and articles. This is where Dwain shares his insights on the current landscape of Australian farming. After years of running agricultural businesses, Dwain has realised that writing is what he loves. Through Farmers Club, he can make the dream of writing about agriculture - every day - a reality.


If you would like to find out more about Farm Tender, you can visit their website here:
https://www.farmtender.com.au/.


If you would like to subscribe to The Farmers Club, visit the following link:
https://thefarmersclub.com.au/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Join us this week and find out how Matt Iremonger manages multiple dairy, sheep and beef operations across 6,500 hectares in Canterbury, New Zealand. Matt shares the challenges and opportunities in such a diverse farming enterprise, as well as his recent experience as a Nuffield Scholar looking at the integration of beef production from the dairy industry to create a high-value premium product.


When Matt’s parents sold the farm he grew up on, Matt needed to find another way into property ownership. After a stint at the New Zealand Wool Board and some time overseas, Matt returned to New Zealand to lease a farm. Matt and his wife then went into an equity partnership on a larger farm, which they grew for 10 years. More recently they have joined forces with the Thomas family, managing their farming business and purchasing farms in partnership with them. 


Matt and his wife Katy run dairy, sheep, and beef farming systems that operate across 6,500 hectares in the Ellesmere district in Canterbury. “We think of ourselves as a pastoral business,” explains Matt. “That pastoralism extends to a number of products which include lamb, beef and dairy. Dairy is no different to pastoral sheep and beef, it's just a different harvesting system.”


Their stock consists of 1,550 dairy cows (plus replacement heifers); 12,000 mixed-age ewes and 3,000 hoggets (producing 22,000 lambs a year); and 1,200 beef cows (from which they finish the majority of the calves). 


Running such a diverse business prompted Matt to apply for a Nuffield scholarship in 2023. Matt saw an opportunity in the industry for better utilisation of surplus calves from the dairy side of the operation. Matt spent five months travelling and researching the challenges and opportunities in New Zealand, comparing it with practices in the United States and the European Union, and came across some surprising revelations. 
Mark and Matt also discuss the breeding principles that apply across these enterprises and how they select their bulls. 

Matt has valuable insights into managing diverse farming operations for optimal productivity and sustainability, capitalising on opportunities. From navigating partnerships to strategic breeding principles, this week's episode has it all. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Ever wondered what it takes to breed top-quality Brahmans? This week on the podcast we have Alf Collins, of ALC Brahmans, sharing how he and the team do just that with a disciplined approach to breeding and selection. Alf discusses the evolution of the ALC herd, the business today and the stringent criteria they apply when selecting their Brahmans.

 
ALC started with Alf's grandfather when he introduced Brahman genetics into his British herds back in the 1950s. This move was met with scepticism by many, who considered Brahman cattle more suitable for a zoo than a farm. However, the benefits quickly became apparent, leading to a legacy that Alf and his family continue to build upon. 


Today, ALC operates over 70,000 acres in Queensland, with roughly 1,700 seed stock females and 1,200 commercial females.


Mark and Alf discuss the selection criteria employed at ALC and their use of EBVs to breed a Brahman that excels in reproduction, survivability and temperament, is well-muscled, and is highly efficient at grazing. 


Alf explains how they have optimised fertility by not moving their mating date based on weather conditions. Instead, they stick to the 1st of October, regardless of conditions. “We don't change our production year because of the rain, because the reliability is not there. The wet season can start in October. It may start in March. And we don't know. So we've taken an approach that we'll select cattle that work regardless and only keep those that work,” explains Alf. “What we're selecting for is what we call a dry season mating most years. So, a cow in the herd that says, ‘I'll put my hand up and work whether you rain on me or not. And if you do rain on me, I'll go even harder’.”


It is not just fertility that ALC focuses on. The Collinses have been breeding for natural resistance to ticks and parasites for many years. He explains that they didn’t like the idea of using such severe chemicals, for the sake of both the cows and the humans. 
It also made good business sense to breed for resistance. “It came back to trying to run a profitable cattle business and the fact that we didn't want to spend money on tickicides,” says Alf. “We just had to be disciplined in the fact that we weren't going to do it. They have to get worms and they have to get ticks. We have to let that happen and remove the ones that can't handle it. And we continue to do it today, and we'll go back and analyse that by sires. If there's linkage here, we'll get rid of the sires too.”


Mark and Alf also discuss temperament, muscling and efficiency, along with much, much more. 


Alf has a clear passion for breeding Brahmans and his enthusiasm is infectious. The success of ALC shows that with a clear goal and strategy, a commitment to science and sustainable practices, and a rigorous approach to culling, huge progress can be made towards improving livestock to meet the criteria of the environment and production system. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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From direct organic lamb sales to a firewood business and developing algorithms for drench recommendations, the Cotter family pretty much do it all.

This week we have Nick Cotter of Cotter Agritech on the podcast to chat about their farm in County Limerick, Ireland, and the various inventions and innovations they have come up with.


In Ireland, sheep farming is considered the least profitable, behind beef and dairy. This prompted the Cotter family to convert to organic farming in 2014. Nick Cotter discusses the challenges of organic farming and the direct marketing of organic lamb products. "It is bloody hard and there is a lot of work in it. But if you get it right, there is a significant premium to be found," he explains.


As the proverb goes, necessity is the mother of invention and Nick explains that the added challenges of being organic inspired them to create “a lot of good ideas.”


One of their first ideas was their CotterCrate, a manual sheep handling and weighing system. The handling system was thought up after having to handle lambs more often under an organic regime. They developed it over a year, adding and changing things as they went. Then they took it on the road and worked with farmers to finesse the design. So, it is truly built by farmers, for farmers.


Their latest engineering feat is SmartWorm. As an organic producer, Nick is all too aware of the challenge of reducing drench usage, along with minimising drench resistance in sheep and cattle farming, so Cotter Agritech created technology to combat the issue.


Instead of directly counting worms, SmartWorm assesses the real-time impact on lamb performance through a special algorithm. The tool integrates multiple factors to make accurate predictions for drenching, significantly reducing unnecessary dosing without compromising animal health or weight gain. The algorithm considers factors such as recent weather conditions, lamb physiology, recent drenches and pasture availability. With real-time analysis, it accurately determines whether treatment is necessary for each lamb.


Cotter Agritech is currently focused on driving the adoption of SmartWorm technology in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, with plans for expansion into cattle farming.


If you are interested in working with Cotter Agritech, contact Nick at [email protected].

You can find out more about their technology here: cotteragritech.com.
And, there is more information about their premium lamb sales here: https://www.cotterorganiclamb.ie/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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This week on the podcast we have Nancy Crawshaw, Extension Manager for Angus Australia and winner of the New Zealand Zanda McDonald Award 2024.
The conversation kicks off with Nancy’s reflections on the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in her home region of Gisborne. “It brought communities together,” says Nancy. “When you're completely cut off, you've got no outside communication, you can't get anywhere. It's only your neighbours and your community who you've got.” 

 
As for the recovery, Nancy points out that there’s still a long way to go. “With the land being so wet, it's been moving. You can go and fix a fence one day and then it's down the next,” she explains. “There's been a lot of repairs that probably need to be done, but we're just waiting to see if that land sort of holds up or not.” Nancy highlights that it’s important to celebrate the small wins, such as a stock-proof paddock, rather than only looking at the overwhelming task ahead of you. 

Nancy’s role as Extension Manager for Augus Australia takes her across Australia and New Zealand meeting producers and helping them add value to their business, be that through identifying ‘low-hanging fruit’ or education. 

Nancy is also heavily involved in the Angus youth program, GenAngus which is an initiative to help youth in agriculture with their first steps in agriculture. Nancy has been involved in multiple youth initiatives in agriculture and is a firm believer in surrounding yourself with the right people and finding specific mentors within the sector you want to grow in. “You have to ask yourself: who do you actually want to learn from? Who is there in the industry that you want be mentored by and learn from, that's going to actually set you up?” asks Nancy. 

This is a fantastic podcast to inspire any young people in agriculture, so make sure to forward it on to your children or young shepherds! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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Nigel Kerin returns to the podcast this week to discuss profit drivers, decision rules, staying curious and the importance of science and technology in farming.

Nigel has a great way of thinking about the business of farming and no decision is made without analysing it first. Nigel uses a triangular model to help him make these hard decisions.

“Down one side of the triangle, you've got business growth. Down the bottom, you've got cash flow. And up the other side of the triangle, you've got people, infrastructure, and I've now added technology into it.”

Nigel runs each of his decisions through this model, “For me to go ahead and go down a particular path of doing something, [I ask] does it fit in with those three sides of that triangle?” 

This opens up a series of questions that help him look at the decision from multiple perspectives. “Does it increase growth? Does it increase cash? Have I got the infrastructure and people and the technology to do this at scale? And when I look down each side of that triangle, where's the weakest link in our business at the moment? Is it actually growth? Is it cash flow? Do we have a people problem at the moment, which may be a lack of staff? Do we have an infrastructure problem? That can be wire and mortar, stockyards, cattle yards, sheep yards and laneway systems. Or do we have a lack of technology?”

Nigel puts great emphasis on staying curious. “You're constantly opening your mind up to shortcuts and those 1% changes are what drive a business.”

Not every idea he has makes it past the triangle stage, but that doesn’t stop him thinking about new ideas and concepts. “It’s a massive profit driver in your business, no matter what business you're in, whether you're in a news agency or pharmacy or butcher shop or farming - whatever. If you're constantly in a curious mindset, you've got your mind and your peripheral vision open to new ideas all the time.”

Nigel explains that these ideas come about, not from staying on the farm 365 days a year, but from getting out and learning from more informed people: consultants, courses, open days or events such as Lambex or Beef. “What football side wins a grand final without a coach? What tennis player at Wimbledon wins without a coach?” asks Nigel. “I don't have to know everything and I don't have to be that incredibly clever, just as long as I'm bringing those people into our business to help us question how we make decisions, help us make decisions and sometimes hold our hands whilst we're making those decisions.”

As with Nigel's previous podcast, ‘Turning Grass into Money’, this episode is worth sharing amongst staff, friends and family. There are many gems, from mindset changes to practical on-farm examples of success. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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Are you heading to Lambex this year? If you’re not already going, you’ll want to be there after listening to this week's podcast! Our guest this week is Jason Schulz, chair of Lambex. After a six-year break, Lambex is back and better than ever.

For those not familiar with the event, Lambex is a three-day event that celebrates and promotes Australia’s sheep and lamb industry, with more than 1,200 people attending.
Speakers range from the likes Dr Tim Elliott talking about drench resistance, to Steve Wiedemann discussing carbon, to our own Dr Mark Ferguson discussing “The very real future of Artificial Intelligence”. Other speakers will address heat tolerance, ewe lamb joining, pain perception, and much, much more.

Jason discusses his role as chair of Lambex and highlights how events like Lambex provide an opportunity for everyone in the industry to come together and learn from one another. “I like to think that the producers that have attended Lambex in the past have really gone home and made a change from what they've heard … or they've met a … contact within the industry that they may not have had before, which could be enterprise-changing or give them the opportunity to learn,” says Jason.

If you are interested in attending Lambex, early bird tickets are available until 30 June. Accommodation options can be booked through the Lambex website here: https://www.lambex.org.au/register.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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This week on the podcast we have one of the fantastic winners of the 2024 Zanda McDonald Award, Tessa Chartres, to discuss her career, how she manages her work-life balance and much more.

Tessa grew up on a farm in Bathurst. She became an accountant, specialising in agribusiness and farming, and later moved to Deniliquin to be with her husband. There, she joined Murray Irrigation, where she is now the General Manager of Business Development. With Muray Irrigation providing irrigation for 740,000 hectares of farmland, Tessa's role is certainly diverse.

“The thing I love about irrigation is I get to be a part of so many different industries across the ag sector. I see so many different crops or livestock or dairies or any of those things,” she explains. “Being part of the water sector means I get to have an influence on all of those parts and enable all of those different strains of the ag sector to exist in our footprint.”

Tessa sees irrigation as the lifeblood of the region and believes that Murray Irrigation is vital in ensuring the growth and sustainability of the region. With that comes a huge responsibility, particularly in light of climate change, environmental impacts and the concept of water as a tradable commodity. 

“What has been interesting about it, has been how people have adapted to the change in water availability, both from water being removed through mechanisms for the environment and just with climate change,” Tessa explains. “What I see is often people adapting to those in really interesting and different ways within their business models. Concepts around permanent and temporary water and how people can structure their businesses to suit the commodity that they're producing is something that, from my business mind, I've found that interesting.”

Tessa and Mark also discuss work-life balance, the importance of good employers, a lively community and how she made all of this happen with two young twins! Tessa's story is a great example of a mutually successful career trajectory and personal life.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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Breeding values are something we discuss a lot here at neXtgen Agri. We decided to do a podcast episode explaining exactly what they are and how they are ‘built’.

Today, Daniel Brown, Principal Scientist at Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), joins us to discuss what breeding values are, how they are developed, their role, the impact of genomics and the future of genetic evaluation.

Mark and Daniel begin with the basics of breeding values and the benefits of genomic testing. “Breeders record pedigree and performance information for a range of traits. A breeding value amalgamates all that performance information on an animal - and its relatives - for a range of traits, into an estimated genetic merit,” explains Daniel. “It’s essentially taking individual performance data and amalgamating it through the pedigree and adjusting for things like environmental effects … to get the best estimate we can of an animal's genetic merit.”

Daniel explains that as more and more producers utilise genomics, the reference population is getting considerably larger, which opens up the opportunity for breeders to get fairly accurate breeding values for young animals from just a DNA sample. Genomics also gives you the ability to see which genes were inherited from which parent. It’s often assumed that both humans and animals inherit 50% from each parent, but this isn’t true. 

“The genomic information gives us a much more accurate measure of the relationship. Unlike the standard assumption, that you get half your genes from mum and dad, it actually varies from … 25 to 60 … it might change between individuals. So it gives us the ability to estimate relationships much more accurately,” Daniel explains. 

Mark and Daniel discuss both the history of breeding values and also the future. The field of genetic evaluation is constantly evolving, with the potential for changes in genotyping methods and the inclusion of new traits.  With more data, comes more answers - we just need to find them, says Daniel. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Understanding the rumen is a key part of being a top-performing producer. While we might think of them as herbivores, Rob explains it’s a little more complex than that.

“They're more what we'd call a ‘fermentivore’. What they actually digest is the sludge and the byproducts of bacterial fermentation,” explains Rob.

“If we think about everything in the context of what we put down an animal's throat and how it impacts fermentation - how does it influence bug populations and then the resulting outcome of that fermentation? That is what really drives both the production and the profitability of enterprises.”

Rob does a great job of explaining more about this and the processes that go on inside the rumen and how we can best manage the rumen pH and the fermentation process for optimum production.

Rob and Mark also discuss grain feeding and various crops and the impact of those feeds on how the rumen functions.

By the end of this podcast, you will have a better understanding of how to work alongside the rumen to maximise your production on-farm.

If you haven’t listened to our previous podcast with Rob, ‘Successful weaning practices’, listen here: https://www.nextgenagri.com/articles/successful-weaning-practices-with-rob-bell

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Professor Emeritus of Animal Science at Cornell University, Alan Bell, discussing his recent paper ‘Animal science Down Under: a history of research, development and extension in support of Australia’s livestock industries’. 

In this paper, Alan discusses how back in 1788, as you may have guessed, “There wasn't any real systematic research done on the livestock side,” with the advances in the industry being achieved by the producers. He says, “It was really the innovative farmers, who were battling in a very foreign environment, to make money eventually, that had some wonderful successes.”

Alan runs through the following years, with the establishment of agricultural departments and colleges, before and between the two World Wars, with CSIRO being one of the most influential. 

Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, agriculture research was in what Alan calls the ‘golden years’. A time for practically limitless scientific exploration, mostly funded by the Wool Board, but also encouraged by strong political support and led by particular scientific ‘visionaries’. “Maybe that's just nostalgia, but I tell people that I began my career at the end of the golden era,” says Alan.

The 1970s and 1980s brought a more structured approach, with markets being more uncertain and funding being allocated elsewhere. However, through government initiatives and the introduction of levies, great research was still performed. For example, the beginnings of genomics for production and health traits. 

Mark and Alan finish off by discussing the current state of research in agriculture and where it’s heading in the future.

This is a wonderful podcast and a must-listen for anyone interested in agriculture, history and the science that built the foundations of a great industry.

You can find Alan's paper here:

https://www.publish.csiro.au/an/pdf/AN19161

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
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When the going gets tough on farm, it's the tough who get going. But what fuels that resilience? 

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, we have Kane Brisco of FarmFitNZ to discuss mental wellbeing, farm fitness and community.

In his late twenties, Kane found himself in a tough spot. He’d stopped participating in his local rugby team and his passion for farming had faded, so he didn’t know what to do with himself. Instead of packing up and changing careers, Kane took a step back and worked out what he needed to do to get himself out of that funk.

Each day, Kane starts with a routine that sets him up for success. Firstly, feed yourself right, says Kane. “You're fuelling up, it's like putting gas in your motorbike tank, you know? You don't expect it to run on empty all day, so we can't expect to do it ourselves."

Next, start with a purpose. Kane recommends writing down a list of what you want to achieve that day, stick to it and - most importantly - don’t forget to tick things off as you complete them.  “Everybody needs a purpose when they get out of bed, so for me, that's just a simple way to get a bit of clarity on the day. It takes about two minutes, not even that some days. It's a good feeling to cross them off, you know, a bit of satisfaction even on a tough day if you can just cross one of them off. It does perk you up over time,” shares Kane.

And, of course, we couldn’t talk to the founder of FarmFitNZ without discussing the influence of physical health on mental health. At his worst, Kane realised that when his physical fitness was low, so was his mental resilience. “It was that time in my life that made me realise how important it is to be physically prepared for a physical job and how that ties into your mental capability and your frame of mind and I guess your mindset and ultimately your mental health. They both work together and they're both linked,” says Kane.

Kane began running a ‘boot camp’ from his driveway for local farmers, giving them an opportunity to build strength and resilience, as well as generating that great rural community spirit. He explains, “It was just a matter of putting it out to the local community, to get them off the farm to my driveway basically to get a sweat on and test the lungs out and get together.”

“A lot of them had never done that before, something formal like that. But most of all, it was the communication with the other farmers, their neighbours from 5 km down the road that they didn't see too often … just having a catch-up, sharing what was going on regularly with each other's lives,” says Kane. “It wasn’t as much about getting fit and strong. It was actually just sharing with each other and creating those bonds within the community. You couldn't put a price on that if you tried."

If you’d like to know more, Kane has recently written a book about his journey. Find out more here: https://farmfitnzshop.com/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Replacement rates in your sheep flock are determined by your ewe losses and your culling decisions. For every ewe lamb you choose to keep, that’s one less to sell. 

In this week's podcast, our guest, Associate Professor Anne Ridler, discusses the findings from her recent study on ewe wastage in New Zealand sheep farming. Anne’s research found that, on average, 28 to 30 per cent of ewes leave the flock annually in New Zealand. The study aimed to understand when and why ewes exit the flock and how to reduce that wastage. 

Let's break those numbers down … say you have 1,000 ewes at mating time:

• At scanning time, of those 1,000, 33 will leave the flock because they’re dry. 
• Before set stocking, another 18 ewes will go due to non-reproductive reasons such as low BCS and 17 will die in this time. So, of your original 1,000, you have 932 left by the start of lambing. 
• Lambing is the highest risk period, with two-thirds of your losses occurring during this period. The average is 3.7 per cent. So, that’s another 37 ewes leaving the flock up until mid-lactation/docking, leaving you with 895 ewes.
• If you decide to cull wet-dries at weaning, the average is 3.8 per cent, meaning another 38 ewes leave the flock, reducing your number to 874. In addition, another 33 ewes exit the flock between docking/tailing and breeding in year two, some of which will be wet-dries (on average, across all the farms), some will be culled for other reasons and some will die.
• Then, post-weaning, based on udder issues, age, teeth or other decisions, farmers choose to cull, on average, 15.4%. That leaves you with 708 ewes. So, 292 replacements need to enter the flock to get back to 1,000 ewes for breeding.

Whilst these numbers might seem a bit confronting, they give a great insight into how you can reduce the number of replacements you require.

With most losses occurring during lambing, Anne suggests this could be an area to focus on. Feeding ewes well during pregnancy (to avoid metabolic issues) is a big part of keeping your ewes alive. But there are other things you can do, such as paddock audits and cast beats. 

Mark and Anne also discuss other options such as keeping wet-dries and putting them to a terminal ram.

We would be interested to hear what you base your culling decisions on. Is it age? Do you give your wet-dries a second chance? Let us know.

The study from which this information was derived was funded by the Massey-Lincoln and Agricultural Trust and done in collaboration with Lincoln University.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this current climate, should you be looking for ways to save money on farm? Or should you be looking at upping your production to cover rising costs?

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, we hope to answer those questions for you.

Our guest this week, Tim Leeming, is well known for his precision lambing and we’ve had him as a guest on the podcast before (go check that one out here). 

In this episode, Tim discusses his strategies for farming success. “When it comes to your production system - when it comes to understanding what drives that in your business - whether you've got paddocks that need to be subdivided, whether you've got soil fertility that needs improving, pasture composition that needs improving … If you're a good farm manager and have a reasonable base knowledge of how the job rolls … it's not rocket science.”

Tim and Ferg discuss the mindset behind cutting costs vs upping production. While the current advice may be to not join ewe lambs or containment feed, Tim believes in identifying where profit margins exist for a job done well. “If you do a bad job, of course, the economics of those two things might be pretty ordinary, but if you do it well, the margins are there. They're proven margins. We've seen it,” says Tim.

Tim emphasises the need for clear targets and disciplined execution. “We've got evidence of it, that if you manage your nutrition right in ewe lambs and hit these targets and do all the right things, guess what, you'll get a bloody good result, and those sheep will pay you dividends for the rest of their life on your farm because you've done that well.”

Discipline is a big theme throughout this week's podcast, with Tim collecting data when the opportunity presents itself (for example, ewe body condition when ewes are in the yards). “If you think about a mob of ewes, for instance, and how many times that they might visit the stockyards over the year. There are probably at least eight times in a year that those animals will be in a yard facility and generally, they will be going up a drafting race or drenching race or through a sheep handler,” he explains.

For Tim, consistently doing the small things well sets a foundation for long-term success. “It's a two, four, five-minute job to get a line in the sand on where that condition score of that mob is at that particular time. I'm like a dog with a bone. I’m very, very persistent on making sure that we record that, every time we're bringing those livestock in the yards,” says Tim. “It’s so important in your decision-making and your management. So, you know, that is a discipline thing.” 

Tim has a huge passion for farming and there are some great takeaways from this podcas

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest on the podcast this week is Bonnie Skinner. 

Bonnie is the CEO of Sheep Producers Australia (SPA), a levy board that advocates for a better future for Australia’s sheep industry. They do this in a multitude of ways: connecting farmers, consumers and government bodies. They advocate for better outcomes for farmers and direct levy investments towards research, development and industry services.

In this episode, Bonnie and Mark discuss the current challenges faced by the industry - be it artificial proteins, climate change or getting new entrants into the industry - and also what the future holds for lamb and wool producers. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, explains Bonnie: “In terms of providing that light on the hill, there is an immense opportunity for lamb as a protein, if we can continue to meet the needs of our consumers.” 

“Of course, we are already world-renowned for a high-quality, very consistent product in the industry. We know we can continue to improve on that. But what is the customer willing to pay for? How much room is there to really drive that price up, particularly at a retail level?” These are the questions that SPA are asking, and working towards answering, with industry support. 

Another issue faced by the industry is the uptake of new technologies and practices. One example being scanning for multiples. Despite the evidence that it will improve profitability and production on-farm, only 42% of Australian producers scan their ewes and, of these, 69% scan for dry, single and multiple foetuses.

“We've got 10-15% of producers at the top, the early adopters. They are taking up all of these opportunities,” explains Bonnie. “Then we have a good subset of producers underneath that, who are interested [but are not taking the next steps towards adoption]. How do we encourage producers to take up these practices?”

In this podcast, Bonnie explains the scope of SPA’s work for the industry: from identifying required research, right through to farmer implementation, and everything in between.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

With greater unpredictability in our weather patterns, managing pastures is an ever-evolving challenge for farmers. This week on the podcast we hope to help with some handy advice from consultant, Darren Gordon.

This week we cover:

• The importance of pasture and feed-quality testing
• The genetics of fat and feed efficiency 
• Maximising profit from pasture

Darren emphasises the importance of testing your pastures and feed, including the neutral detergent fibre (NDF). “Just test it, otherwise it's calculated guesswork,” he says. “Test, then test again. And the NDF, especially in your hays, can change intake, especially for younger sheep.” 

Knowing the NDF of your feed is vital, as it directly correlates with the digestibility and nutritional value of the feed. Too much NDF can impede digestibility. This leads to reduced feed intake, meaning no matter how good it is, your stock cannot consume enough of it to get the nutrients they need.

Once you know where your feed is at you can allocate it to the most appropriate stock class, where it will make the greatest impact. Darren runs us through different feed type examples and which stock class would benefit most. For example, feeding your lighter twin-bearing ewes in late pregnancy yields some of the greatest returns.

Darren also discusses containment feeding and the benefits to your stock as well as your pastures and soils. If you expect that you may need to contain stock, he emphasises the importance of planning ahead, rather than deciding to do it once your paddocks are already “ruined”.

“Start thinking about it now, make some preparations, look at your water quality, look at your water quantity and what you're gonna need to do if you do have to go into containment,” he explains. “Once it gets under a thousand [FOO], you're only getting two and a half to three ME out of the paddock,” meaning you get immediate returns from containment feeding.

Darren then turns the tables and asks Ferg a few questions about how genetics can also help with managing feed deficits on-farm. You’ll have to tune in for that answer! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, we’re talking about Flexolt®, a revolutionary new oral treatment for lice control in sheep.

Our guests are Dr Jane Morrison and Dr Hamish Pike from our fantastic sponsors, MSD Animal Health.

Flexolt is the first-ever oral lice treatment for sheep, giving you the ultimate flexibility when it comes to treating your flock. It can be used rain or shine, with any length of wool, revolutionising how and when you can administer a sheep lice treatment.

Flexolt marks a significant leap forward in sheep lice treatment, offering farmers unparalleled flexibility and effectiveness in managing lice outbreaks. In the podcast, Jane and Hamish discuss how it works and how to get the best results from this great new product. 

Hamish and Jane also run us through the life cycle of lice, giving you a better understanding of what you’re treating and why clean musters and quarantine are so important.

Tune in to learn more about how this new product works, and also to gain a deeper understanding of the biology, and impact, of lice in your sheep. 

Flexolt is currently available through rural retailers in Australia and is expected to be available in New Zealand from April 2023 at your local vet clinic.

For more information on Flexolt, visit www.flexolt.co.nz.

ACVM No: A011971. Ph: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz

APVMA No.: 91565/132669. Ph: 1800 226 551. www.coopersanimalhealth.com.au
© 2024 Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

What are breeding values? And why do you need a breeding objective? Our guest this week, Dr Jamie Courter, Mizzou Beef Genetics Extension Specialist, explains why they are so important for reaching our breeding goals. 


Do you have a breeding objective? This is the first question Jamie asks every producer. “I don't care what your breeding objective is if it makes sense for you,” says Jamie, “I just hope that you have one.” With no farm being the same as another, a breeding objective needs to be personalised to the goals of each individual business.


But why are they so important? “That's how we can be profitable. We have to identify an end goal and we have to keep making consistent selection decisions that get us towards that goal. You won't see the impact of this year's bull decisions until five years down the road. If we don't have that objective in mind, we're just shooting in the dark. We're not heading towards that steady upward trajectory of the traits that really matter,” explains Jamie.


So, once you know where you want to be, how do you get there? Breeding values, be it an ASBV, EBV or EPD are the best tool we have to reach that goal. 


Jamie does a great job of explaining how breeding values work and why results can vary. “I always ask producers, do you have siblings? Do you act the same, do you look the same? Light bulbs come on kind of at that point,” she shares. “In the beef cattle industry, we put pens of full sibling bulls together. It's a great way to get genetic uniformity, but it's not identical, right? They're as similar as they can be, but they're never identical.”


Keeping in mind that there are always outliers is useful. “If we have a hundred full siblings, then we would expect the average performance of those hundred calves to be the parent average, right? Most of the calf crop will have a weight right around what we expect, but we're going to have outliers on either side,” says Jamie. “It's just a result of the shuffling of the DNA. A lot of times people expect it to be perfect and unfortunately with statistics, there's always outliers one way or the other.”


Jamie points out, “We can get a good picture of the true genetic merit of those animals and which pieces of DNA they inherited from their sire or their dam. It's 50% both times, but there are 30 pairs of chromosomes and there are however many million base pairs that could have been inherited. And so we're able to get at the true genetic difference that those animals have, with genetics.”

Read more here:
https://blog.steakgenomics.org/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Tune in to our latest podcast episode as Emily Riggs, the founder and creative force behind Iris and Wool, shares her inspiring journey. 

Emily and her husband live on a sheep property outside of Burra, South Australia. “I fell in love with my farmer and also fell in love with wool,” explains Emily. “I don't actually work hands-on on the farm. So, I thought, how can I contribute to the industry?” Out of this, Iris and Wool was born, offering 100% certified Australian Merino wool knitwear, Merino denim, and accessories.

But why fashion and clothing? “I think I've always had a love for fashion. When I was a little girl, I was actually diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes. I knew that I was going to lose my hair,” Emily explains. “I was often mistaken for a boy. And that really shattered my confidence. It was then that I really turned to fashion. It was a way for me to express my creativity and for people to actually look beyond my illness.”

Iris and Wool started as an online fashion brand, with their family home as their ‘warehouse’. They have since expanded into a brick-and-mortar store in Burra, meaning their home has gone back to being a home and their customers can now try on the clothes before buying. 

For every sale at Iris and Wool, $1 goes to the Childhood Cancer Association and knitted beanies are donated to recently diagnosed children in South Australia.

Emily’s story is a heart-warming example of how, with “...a lot of hustling”, you can turn your dreams into a reality.

 #IrisAndWool #FashionWithHeart #MerinoWool #Podcast

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, Darren Spencer, President of the Western Australian Shearing Industry Association (WASIA), discusses some of the key issues faced by the wool industry, as well as how wool producers and the shearing industry can work together more effectively in the future.

First up, Darren runs us through what WASIA has done to address the much talked about “shearers’ shortage”. 

In the wake of COVID, it was obvious to WASIA that there were not enough new entrants coming into the Australian shearing industry, “So, that meant we had to actually do some training,” he explains. “Through AWI, there was a lot more emphasis put on training new entrants and novices. For the first time ever, you could see guys go to a shearing school, learn how to shear, shearing 50 or 60 a day and they could jump on a stand because the stands were empty.” 

Darren says they now have enough shearers in WA and the emphasis has shifted to upskilling them. WASIA have noticed a shortage in shed staff, so that is their new focus.

The next question, if we have enough shearers, is how do we retain them in the industry?

WASIA and AWI have developed the “Safe Sheds - The Shearing Shed Safety Program”. The aim is to help improve safety and efficiency in the shearing shed. The program assists woolgrowers to identify what needs to be fixed and provides a process to follow. “We developed the program and also developed an app with it. The program is set up with four parts. You have an induction, a pre-shearing, a post-shearing and a main full inspection program,” explains Darren.

“That was set up so that we could go to a shed, preferably well before shearing, and run through the program with the farmer and leave him with a list or whatever that needed to be fixed and we could discuss with him the priorities about what needed to happen first,” says Darren. 

Follow the link below to find this great resource: 

https://www.wool.com/globalassets/wool/people/shearing-sheds-and-sheep-yard-design/shearing-shed-assessment-manual.pdf.

Shearing is an incredibly demanding task and Darren emphasises how important it is for farmers to keep thinking about how they can make the job easier for shearers. There are recent innovations in shearing shed design, such as race delivery systems, that can improve productivity, as well as reduce physical strain on shearers.

Thanks to our sponsors, Heiniger, for setting up this interview. Darren has great insight into the core issues within the shearing industry and we think this episode is a must-listen for all woolgrowers! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

The agricultural trading sector faces challenges with volatile prices and increased government regulations. Our guest this week, David Cornish, explains how strategic planning is crucial to position your business to successfully navigate these issues. 

In the current environment, “We've seen businesses that were quite profitable or quite sustainable, even 12 months ago, now making a loss,” explains David. With high inflation, high-interest rates, potentially low capital appreciation and low commodity prices, David points out that it doesn’t make sense right now to purchase more land. Instead, investing within your boundary fence, rather than expanding it, is a better plan. 

David encourages business owners to take a hard look at where that on-farm investment is made. “Often what we have is that our costs have to increase, to increase our income. Here's our opportunity to go, no, we're not gonna let that happen. We're gonna have a look at everything that we spend our dollars on and say, can we do that better or do we need to do that?” 

David admits that thinking about strategy doesn't seem like an appealing task for anyone when there are plenty of other things to do on the farm. But he suggests that spending the time to identify those small 1% changes, that result in a thriving and resilient business, is worth it. 

“When we look at those incremental performances, and you listen to leading teams, one of the things they often talk about is this concept of ‘It's the one percenters that give you the big return’,” he explains. “It's those one or two percenters that add up to the 20 percenters that makes it worthwhile. And, for most of us, we are in a commodity industry, so let's manage what we can manage and control what we control.”

David and Ferg discuss how to decide what those small incremental improvements can be. It can be difficult to know what to cut out of a farming business when it is so complex. Is it saving money by buying fewer rams this year or reducing fertiliser? Is it spending money to save you time by putting in laneways? 

You’ll have to tune in to hear David's advice there! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, we’re discussing technology adoption and genetics with Dr Penny Schulz.

Penny farms in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia (SA) with her husband Jason. She is a livestock technical specialist at the SA Drought Hub, as well as holding several other advisory positions. 

“My role here with The (SA Drought) Hub is very much focused on farmer adoption,” Penny explains. “I do a lot of farmer-facing workshop work or developing new projects. So a lot of it might be about filling seasonal feed gaps or it could be around business. We've got things to do with service providers as well. But also outside of that, I do a bit of mentoring and coaching with young people and rural women's networks as well.”

Mark and Penny discuss the adoption of electronic identification (EID) technology by farmers. She explains that it's not necessarily farmer reluctance slowing down the uptake of new technologies. Rather, the existing technology infrastructure doesn't fully support farmers in leveraging the data that they collect. “We always cop it as farmers. They think that we're just not digitally savvy enough and that farmers need to get digital literacy training. And I say, ‘No, they don't’,” explains Penny. “I think their digital technology needs to catch up with everything else.”

“Farmers are fine using iPhones and laptops to get by with other parts of their life. And then when it comes to technology, whether it's physical tech or software to do with their sheep enterprise, it's clunky and it's not intuitive. And it doesn't talk to things sometimes and it does others. And we've just come to accept that that's what happens - even though it costs us $30,000 to set it up.”

Yet Mark and Penny both remain optimistic. With the recent advances in artificial intelligence, innovation in the ag sector continues to evolve. Penny points out that identifying the problem - and finding the right technology to solve it - is the key to successful technology adoption in agriculture, not the other way around. 

Mark and Penny also discuss the genetics used on her family farm. Penny gained a passion for genetics when showing dairy cattle, so it is no wonder she now uses breeding values for her livestock. “In farming, there's so much you can't control. So you try and look for the information where you can get it,” she explains. “And when it comes to breeding animals, the breeding values that we have in the system, that's the information we do know. And we use it quite heavily.”

This episode is a great discussion about how data-driven strategies and technology (and genetics, of course!) are charting the course toward a more robust and productive future in agriculture. 

Find out more about the SA Drought Hub by following the link below.
https://sadroughthub.com.au/about/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are you passionate about breeding robust and resilient animals? If so, this is the podcast for you.

Our guest this week is Dr Wendy Rauw, a renowned expert in animal genetics and breeding. Wendy's career has taken her to various corners of the world, working with a diverse range of species, from sheep and cattle to chickens and even fish. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.

In this episode, Wendy and Mark explore topics ranging from 'genotype by environment  (GxE) interaction' to the significance of prioritising robustness and resilience in breeding strategies, especially in our ever-changing climate. 

Wendy also tackles the challenges of integrating welfare and production traits into breeding objectives, emphasising the importance of striking a balance in various production systems.

If you're intrigued by the art and science of breeding animals for a sustainable and resilient future, this podcast is a must-listen!

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

📢 Calling all sheep enthusiasts! This week's guest is Mark Mortimer, aka @sheepgeekCP on Twitter. Mark is both a sheep farmer and an innovator with an incredible mind for numbers and technology.

Raised on a merino stud, Mark has been recording sheep data for as long as he can remember. One of his first 'inventions' was voice-to-text software so that he didn’t have to write down the numbers his dad called out to him all day in the yards. He soon realised that talking in dusty sheep yards was equally as tiresome as writing things down all day, but the foundations of innovation were now there to be built upon.

Mark shares his journey of learning to code from a “good old-fashioned book” and how he then created very specific problem-solving technology with that knowledge.

From using some of the first electronic identification tags as part of the sheep CRC, to developing a walk-through pedigree matchmaking set-up, to a whisper-silent modular auto drafter capable of drafting up to 21 ways (which he also tested with his own head, to ensure the front gate closed softly enough on the sheep), Mark's innovations are what many sheep farmers dream about creating. And this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Mark also discusses Centre Plus and his father's approach to breeding merinos in the 1980s. He emphasises the power of collective decision-making to help drive genetic gain across the industry.

We hope that this podcast and Mark's insights into invention inspire you to think a little more creatively about solving your on-farm problems.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are you proactive when it comes to your livestock's health? This week on the podcast, we have vet and “animal agronomist”, Jillian Kelly, on the show talking about forward planning when it comes to livestock health and husbandry. 

After working as a practising vet around the world, Jillian decided she wanted to approach her job a little differently. She didn’t want to just help calve a cow, for example, she wanted to help make sure that problem never occurred in the first place.

“I thought, ​​I'd love to attack this from the other end," she shares. “If we can feed them properly and look after them and set up their animal health programme properly, they probably don't need to do the postmortems. And so that's where my business, Animal Health & Nutrition Consulting came from.”

Jillian now works with multiple clients offering a proactive annual approach to managing livestock. “We look at their farm calendar and their management activities and how that aligns with their feed base and where the excesses and the gaps are and how we can best address that,” she explains. In her business, she also covers animal health treatments and rising issues such as drench resistance. 

Her business, AHN Consulting, also offers a fortnightly newsletter that Jillian writes herself, which has “...​​practical, in-the-paddock advice that might just save your stock”. 

Not content with improving the lives of just animals, Jillian also spends her evenings watercolour painting, providing beautiful artwork to improve our lives, too! 

If you’d like to find out more about AHN Consulting, visit this link:
https://www.ahnconsulting.com.au/.

If you’d like to see Jillian's artwork, visit her website here:
https://www.missvet.com.au/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

With extensive experience working with AgResearch, Abacus Bio, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, the New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council and (in her current role) as Genetics Programme Manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ), our guest this week, Dr Gemma Jenkins, has a passion for genetics.

Gemma's primary focus at B+LNZ is genetic improvement in the beef industry via the Informing New Zealand Beef Programme (INZB).

“Our main objectives are to drive genetic gain in the beef industry; enhancing it through superior genetics, AI use and promoting genomic selection by stud breeders," she explains. "The goal is to generate an additional $460 million in income for the beef industry by 2045. We aim to create genetic evaluations tailored for New Zealand, focusing on traits important to local farmers, and develop easy-to-use genetic tools like n-Prove, but for beef. These tools will assist farmers in making informed breeding decisions.”

Listen in for Gemma's excellent explanation of industry indexes and how the weightings of individual traits work to drive overall industry improvement.

We also dive into the world of medicinal cannabis. Gemma shares her experience as a science and technical advisor for the New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council. The complexity of the cannabis plant and its chemical components presents unique challenges for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly when it comes to replicating its components.

“There's lots of different parts of the plant and so it’s very hard for pharmaceutical companies to replicate because it wasn't just looking at a single product like THC or CBD. There's what they call the “entourage effect”. So it's more than just the sum of the parts, it's not just the THC and CBD together but it's all of them combined.”

Gemma explains the parallels between cannabis breeding and animal breeding, emphasising the importance of considering genetic background and interactions.

“I guess that's the same as animal breeding, at the end of the day. Some genes have a major effect, but then you know there's a different genetic landscape for each individual and ultimately, the way the genes express each other can be different based on what the genetic background is for the animal too.”

Whatever we're breeding, genetics plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of agriculture.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this week's podcast, discover how optimising soil health is your key to farming profitability. We're joined by Melinda Turner from Farm Nutrient Advisory, a specialist in the fields of animal science, soil and plant sciences. Melinda brings a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to this complex subject. 

Melinda discusses some of the common challenges in nutrient management. It's such a vast topic and, with many 'snake oil' sales people out there, it’s no wonder many farmers find it overwhelming. Melinda runs us through mineral imbalances in the soil, like low levels of calcium among others, and how they affect other nutrients and their availability. 

“You quite often get high potassium soils that can play havoc with magnesium interaction and also in terms of your calcium uptake, because the magnesium is needed for the hormone release that triggers calcium absorption,” she explains. “So, if you've got too much potassium in your soil and you're not applying appropriate magnesium and calcium, you can have quite a knock-on effect with a number of those minerals and vitamins as well. "

Melinda also shares her expertise in soil testing and analysis, underscoring its importance in maintaining optimal nutrient levels. She advises regular testing, "For both soil and herbage, every couple of years would be a minimum." She highlights that the cost of extra testing is soon reaped by the benefits of healthier, productive and, more importantly, optimised livestock, soils and forage. 

She also highlights the importance of how variable soil conditions are from farm to farm, so relying on what your neighbours, or the local fert rep, tells you to do, without proper scientific testing beforehand, can waste a lot of time and money. 

And, of course, we dive briefly into the world of genetics with Melinda explaining how soil health influences genetic expression in plants, much like nutrition does in livestock. Tune in to gain valuable insights into nutrient management and its crucial role in successful farming. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest this week needs little introduction. In this episode, Ferg catches up with Jamie Ramage, a passionate individual in the agricultural industry. Ferg and Jamie begin with one of their favourite topics: maternal efficiency. 

From there, the conversation covers the evolving landscape of sheep breeding, especially the shift towards composite sheep. We also dive into the ProBreed programme and glimpse into the future of sheep breeding in terms of shedding, wool and health traits, as well as the role marketing plays in the genetics space.

Jamie shares his experience running a motel and the lessons he’s learned about customer service and how they apply to running a farm business, especially one in the market of selling genetics. 

This podcast is a whopping 47 minutes long and covers a huge range of topics so, sit back, relax and listen in as Ferg and Jamie share their thoughts on the world of sheep breeding, genetics and much more.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week Mark is chatting to fellow podcaster, Oli Le Lievre. Raised in Sydney, Oli’s connection to agriculture was sparked by his family's farming roots in western Victoria, "I'm a city boy who fell in love with agriculture," he says. 

Oli, in his own words, “attempted” university twice, which changed his trajectory in the industry. “I began to gain exposure to the agribusiness and agriculture value chain aspects,” he explains. “I still had a deep love for farming, but the intricate complexities and pressures within the supply chain caught my attention. My career has taken various turns and has since evolved into what is now Humans of Agriculture today."

Oli’s passion now lies in sharing the stories of the fantastic people within the agricultural industry; he does this through the expanding empire of Humans of Ag. Oli stresses the need for positive storytelling in the sector. His approach with Humans of Ag is to highlight the often-overlooked, fascinating aspects of agriculture. The aim is to reshape the narrative around the industry, making it more positive and curating a genuine connection with the consumer.

So, he and his team spend their time trying to find the “extraordinary in the ordinary”, and opening up the farm gate to the wider community through videos, podcasts and social media content. In this conversation with Mark, Oli shares how he has built Humans of Agriculture into what it is today and the personal growth that comes from building your own business from the ground up. His positive vibes are infectious and that truly comes across in what is a great podcast! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, Mark chats with Hayley Purbrick, a key figure at Tahbilk Winery, one of Victoria's oldest and most esteemed wineries. Hayley, a fifth-generation winemaker, has spent a decade transforming the winery's environmental policies, achieving an impressive feat of carbon neutrality. She is an advocate for understanding data, transforming it from a burden into a tool for efficiency and sustainability.

We delve into various topics, including her latest venture focusing on empowering farmers to understand their environmental efforts and leverage the emerging opportunities in the carbon-neutral movement. With her vast experience and her passion for revitalising small towns through entrepreneurship, Hayley offers a unique perspective. Hayley now spends her time helping farmers understand their emissions at various levels. 

For many producers, it has been easy to not look too hard at their environmental impact. The concept of adding more data and paperwork to their business, for 'no return' has been unappealing to many. But it’s not all about carbon emissions, Hayley explains. "The thing about data is that it's powerful in terms of your decision-making and planning," she explains, “You can either look through a compliance lens or you can look at it through a planning lens."

Hayley suggests a reframe that empowers farmers to look forward in their business, rather than weighing them down. “We always end up starting from a decision-making/planning lens. Because if you don't understand where you're going, why you're doing your work and how that specific data supports your decision-making, compliance does feel very laborious.”

Efficiency is another key focus for Hayley, “Once you understand the data and what the data is trying to tell you, it can be a really powerful tool to show you whether your business is efficient and where the most inefficient parts of your business are.” 

Hayley's philosophy on decision-making is grounded in a simple yet powerful approach, "When people make a decision, they should ask themselves three questions: 

1. How will this impact my bottom line?
2. How will this impact the environment?
3. How will this impact my animals?"

In terms of carbon, she emphasises the importance of understanding the full spectrum of emissions in a business, which goes beyond the on-farm activities to include the entire value chain of what comes on and off your farm. This offers a more comprehensive view of a business's environmental impact. "We like to know what the lion looks like in the grass behind us," explains Hayley. 

Join us in this enlightening exploration of sustainability, data and a vision of the future of agriculture. Hayley Purbrick's insights are invaluable for anyone looking to understand the complexities and opportunities in both sustainable wine production and agriculture.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Dr David Notter spent 25 years looking into the seasonality of breeding sheep and how to reduce it via genetic selection. We are very lucky to have him as a guest on the podcast today to share his wisdom on all things sheep breeding.

In 1977, the American Sheep Industry Association identified a pressing challenge: reducing seasonality in ewe breeding. Virginia Tech became the base for this research, where they aimed to create a flock of sheep capable of breeding throughout the year.

They assembled a crossbred population consisting of half-Dorset, a quarter Rambouillet and a quarter Finn sheep. Initially, the ewes in the population had a pregnancy rate of about 50% during May and June (out of season for the northern hemisphere). While not an ideal figure, it was a starting point; within five years, the flock had reached 85%. By the end of the project, these ewes were breeding as successfully in summer as those being bred in the autumn.

One fascinating aspect of the study was the role of the 'ram effect'. Although initially expected to play a significant role in the success of the project, it turned out to have less influence than anticipated. Rather, the ewes themselves had an influence, explains David. “Just like you get a ram effect, you can also get a ewe effect by cohabiting. If you want to try and breed a bunch of blackface sheep, I would put them with a bunch of cycling Merinos or Dorsets, if you had them. We know it made a difference.”

Towards the end of the project, after years of selection pressure, some ewes had exceptional reproductive capacity. “These ewes successfully lambed around the shortest day and, approximately 60 days later, conceived during lactation,” explains David. He also explains that during the first few years, this wasn’t always the case with ewes absorbing the fetus far more regularly.

They also had issues with out-of-season lambs being slower to grow, which David believes is due to less-than-optimum uterine conditions during gestation.

David’s experience in this field is second to none and the wealth of knowledge in this podcast is phenomenal. Whether you’re contemplating out-of-season breeding, or you just want to know more about the oestrus cycle of your sheep, this podcast is not one to miss.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, we introduce our newest team member at neXtgen Agri, Phoebe Eckermann.  Phoebe's journey into agriculture is anything but ordinary, from a city slicker in Adelaide to being captivated by livestock shows, to owning her first cattle, it's been non-stop.

Her deep love for animals led her to carve her niche in the beef industry and embark on an adventure with a herd of Limousin cattle. Phoebe's unique pathway into agriculture shows that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to entering this industry.

From her responsibilities within the company, to her plans for the future, Phoebe shares her story with enthusiasm and passion. Phoebe shares what her role will be within neXtgen Agri and how she will be helping our clients on the ground.

She has a deep understanding of the livestock industry and a commitment to quality; we look forward to having her on our team.

NEWS: Have you ever seen a fainting lamb? Have a look at the link below and see if you can help solve some answers for the ag industry!
https://www.sheepmetrix.com.au/blog/myotonia-congenita-fainting-lamb

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this week's podcast, we're talking a whole lot about testicles! Our guest, Professor David Lindsay, shares his passion for the biology of reproduction and optimising ram usage on-farm. 

David was at the University of Western Australia in the 1960s, a time when the region was experiencing significant land clearance. The Department of Agriculture recognised the need for a lecturer in the reproductive physiology of sheep to address the increasing demand for sheep. He took up the role and sheep numbers quickly rose from a deficit to a surplus in just two years.

David shares some best-practice ram management principles, such as focusing on the last 54 days before mating to optimise sperm production. He also explains optimum ram-to-ewe ratios, taking into consideration the age of both animals, their condition and seasonal effects. 

Reflecting on his career,  David emphasises the importance of effective scientific writing, a skill he developed over the years and now teaches to a wide range of industries, astrophysics included! "Nobody knows you're there if you don't write," says David. "However, one of the things I found as I went on publishing this sort of material, was how difficult it was to write," he says. Professor Lindsay believes that writing should aim to inform, not to impress, a principle he has passed on to aspiring scientists.

David has a huge wealth of knowledge and we only just scraped the surface. 

If you have any questions about anything mentioned on this podcast, or one for our upcoming Q&A, email us at [email protected] or leave a voice note here: https://thehub.nextgenagri.com/c/ask-your-questions-c7d0a4/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In today's episode, we have James Cusack, a fifth-generation farmer and Corriedale breeder hailing from south-west Victoria.

While James grew up on a farm in Western Australia, he spent time completing a diesel mechanic apprenticeship before returning to farming in Victoria. James explains, "I was always told I had to do something else, so becoming a diesel mechanic was a practical skill to have. It's come in handy in various ways, but ultimately, my heart was in farming."

Now located in Skipton, south-west Victoria, James manages his family's farms, including the original Corriedale stud in Australia, flock number one, a lineage established in 1911. In 2012, James inherited the stud and has since dedicated himself to ramping up production and genetic improvement across both wool and meat.

James' dedication to improving his flock led him to join the Performance Corriedale Group. This group of passionate Corriedale breeders collaborates to enhance the breed's performance, particularly in meat quality and growth traits. James elaborates, "We aim to change the traditional look of the breed, improve rearing ability, and boost lamb weaning rates while maintaining the valuable wool characteristics."

To achieve this, the Performance Corriedale Group established a progeny test. This project involves joining 270 commercial ewes to 11 different sires, including Corriedales, Border Leicesters, Dorsets and maternal composites. The goal is to assess eating quality and growth traits in the offspring: "We're looking forward to processing the lambs in the new year and analysing carcass traits such as shear force and intramuscular fat."

James is optimistic about the future of Corriedales and believes that projects like these will help showcase the breed's potential. He emphasises the importance of encouraging other breeders to embrace objective measurement tools and select for desired traits.

To stay updated on the progress of this exciting project or get in touch with James Cusack, visit the Performance Corriedale Breeders' Twitter account or email James at [email protected]. Don't miss their field day on 1 March  2024, where you can see the progeny on display and learn more about their findings first hand.


If you have any questions about anything mentioned on this podcast, or one for our upcoming Q&A, email us at [email protected] or leave a voice note here: https://thehub.nextgenagri.com/c/ask-your-questions-c7d0a4/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, our guest is Jacob Wolki, owner of Wolki Farms and a 24-hour contactless butcher shop.

Initially, Jacob took over his father's hobby farm to provide his family with fresh eggs and beef, in a shift to a healthier lifestyle and better-quality food .

"I've always been plagued with skin issues and respiratory allergies and stomach issues my whole life,” says Jake. “And my wife, who's very conscientious and very healthy, said, well, maybe it's time to stop stuffing your face with iced coffees and KFC and honey chicken at the local noodle box and start eating a bit better.”

"I thought, "I'm going to try to raise a bit of my beef," because I wasn't satisfied with the local beef that was available to me. I wanted grass-fed and finished. I wanted it from animals that hadn't been dependent on pharmaceuticals that include drenching, and I just couldn't find it.”

Jacob finished his first beef cattle and was inspired to do more. “When I went to process my first body of beef and put it through the local butcher shop, I realised, maybe I'll do two and try to sell the second one, and it’ll pay for the processing costs of the first one. So I guilt-tripped, I begged, I pleaded, I forced all my friends and family to buy that body of beef off me,” he explains. “And you know, that was my first foray into farming.”

As he delved deeper into livestock management, he realised the farm could be a profitable venture. "It became very apparent to me very early on that processing was an enormous bottleneck.” As Jacobs's client list grew, he needed to use multiple abattoirs to fulfil the orders.

“I didn't want to be trying to manage meat coming out of four or five different boning rooms, everyone packing it differently and cutting it differently. So I knew if I wanted to have a go, I'd have to be able to process myself and package it myself. And I think it's a unique selling point for the business. I don't know anyone else that has done this." That meat is now sold to high-end restaurants, boutique grocery stores, through online sales and most impressively, through his 24-hour contactless butcher shop.

The 24-hour butcher shop, a reflection of Jacob's innovation, operates through a walk-in vending machine system and a simple app. Jacob uses the same technology 24-hour gyms use, which we think is pretty ingenious, and the sales are proof that customers like this accessibility, too.

Jacob's story underscores the importance of continuous learning and innovative thinking to turn a personal passion into a profitable venture.

Find out more about Wolki Farms here:
https://wolkifarm.com.au/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this week's podcast our guest, Chris Meade, shows that anything is possible with a strong will and a clear vision. 

Born and raised on a farm, his initial dream of becoming a veterinarian was set aside after his father died tragically and Chris ended up in the building industry. At the age of 23, Chris began what is now known as CMTP, a prominent name in the Australian packaging industry.  How his enthusiasm for cattle is woven into this story comes later. 

Beginning in the backyard of the Meade family's rented house, Chris's hard work soon led to an expansion of CMTP. In its early years, the company's primary product was potato and onion bins. Today, they can produce a painted and stencilled pallet every ten seconds. In the last year alone, the company created three million pallets.

CMTP's current operations include 11 sites with around 300 employees.  Chris reflects, “Lots of people say, "Oh, you can't do it." Well, we do it. And we have quite a complex business in terms of how many sites it's over and the amount of material we use. So, if somebody says you can't do it, they've got it wrong. You can do it." 

Chris highlights his commitment to the ethics and integrity of his company, as well as financial transparency. They conclude each day with a clear understanding of whether they've operated at a profit or loss, allowing them to promptly address any issues, rather than discovering financial setbacks months later. 

In 2008, he rekindled his involvement in farming by purchasing a small herd of unregistered and "unruly" Limousin cattle. He has since established a well-structured breeding programme and says his cattle are more like "puppies" now. Core values in his breeding programme include docility, polledness and structural soundness.

As part of their conversation, Mark and Chris discuss the impact of the F94L gene on Limousin cattle. This gene contributes to a 20% reduction in IMF and a 30% decrease in external fat cover.  It results in a 19% increase in prime cuts in the carcass. Also, animals with two copies of the F94L gene (98% of Limousin), maintain the same feed intake efficiency as those without it. This has a direct impact on methane production.

Chris's commitment to environmental sustainability is reflected at CMPT as well. Part of their sustainability strategy includes leveraging waste from their timber operations to enhance soil quality on their farms. Chris also shares how he sees his approach to farming as a form of self-insurance. By investing in properties, they can weather minor disasters without relying on external insurance.

Listen to the full episode to hear how Chris Meade has built CMTP into Australia's top pallet and bin supplier, whilst maintaining his abiding passion for livestock and genetics.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have Ella Holland, National Territory Manager at PBB (Performance Beef Breeders), on the podcast to discuss how you can make better heifer selection decisions.  

"PBB was established back in 1996 by Angus New Zealand and NZ Hereford. They saw a gap in the market and they wanted to create a company that would be a one-stop shop for the beef industry and provide them with all the services and products studs needed, and also create a unified voice for the beef industry," explains Ella. These days, PBB does much, much more and has sister companies that support the wider sheep and beef industry, such as Pivot Design. 

One of the most recent services on offer from PBB is 'Igenity'. This extensive genetic data collection covers over 18 million animals worldwide. It serves as the foundation for PBB's genetic testing, which uses DNA to evaluate animals based on 17 heifer traits - providing fertility and maternal performance predictions, evaluating genetic merit in terms of feed efficiency, growth and carcass composition, and highlighting your herd's genetic strengths and weaknesses. All from a simple DNA test.

"It uses the power of DNA to rank your animals, top to bottom, on performance and profitability,” shares Ella, allowing you to pick out the animals with better genetic merit in that “middle grey area” of heifer selection. Whilst it’s easy to cull on structural faults and poor doers, keeping the fattest shiniest heifer, it’s not always easy to pick through that middle line of the herd and this is where Igenity comes in. 

Ella underlines that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to cattle selection, explaining that the right choice depends on specific breeding goals. "There's not one good cow for everybody. There's a range of good cows and it's just working out what you want to achieve in your herd." PBB offers custom indexes, tailored to individual herd objectives, to do just that. 

Mark and Ella also discuss the other great work that PBB do and the collaboration between neXtgen Agri and PBB. 

If you would like to know more about PBB or Ingenity, you can contact us at [email protected] or PBB at [email protected].

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

No matter what country you visit, each will always say that they produce the best sheep. But, up until recently, we didn't have a fair comparison of sheep genetics between countries. That's where Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority of Ireland, and our guest this week, Dr Noirin McHugh, come in. 

Both Ireland and New Zealand have grass-based systems with an emphasis on export markets. In Ireland, their breeding objectives are similar to those in New Zealand, centring on lambing efficiency, growth performance, carcass quality, health and maternal traits. This makes it a great foundation for comparison of genetic merit. 

"Back in 2012, we actually compared on paper our two indexes" explains Noirin. They wanted to see how the rate of genetic gain compared between Ireland and New Zealand. "New Zealand, because they had so much more data behind them, the rate of genetic gain or the rate of improvement due to genetics, was three times higher than what we saw here on the ground in Ireland," Noirin explains, with the Irish Maternal Sheep Index sitting at $0.50/lamb per year vs New Zealand at $2.60/lamb per year. 

This led them to conduct a more controlled experiment, so that a true comparison could be made. In 2013 and 2014, 60 ewes were imported into Ireland from New Zealand. They were selected based on the Maternal Worth Index and selected from six different flocks. 
 
A four-year controlled experiment commenced in 2015 at Teagasc. It compared the imported genetics, 'high' Irish genetics and 'low' Irish genetics. The results favoured New Zealand genetics in various aspects, including ewe survival, lamb numbers, ease of lambing and labour requirements. However, it did show that with Irish genetics, selecting the highest genetic merit animals can lead to substantial improvements in a short period of time. 

Since that trial finished, Noirin has been involved with many other groundbreaking research trials in the sheep and beef field in Ireland and she tells Mark a little about these, too. From methane testing, to the differing methods and measures of lameness recording, to how Teagasc approach data collection to make it as easy as possible for their farmers. 

The differing ways of recording data across countries is interesting, but it goes to show that the principles of genetics work the same worldwide and, that by selecting high-merit sheep with the traits you want, significant change can be made to your business.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest this week is esteemed agribusiness leader, John McKillop, and this episode is an inspiring listen.

John has had an incredible career leading many agribusinesses around the globe and, as Mark puts it, “If there's a big name in ag that you haven't worked for, I'm not sure who they are.”

From his beginnings on a family farm in western NSW to leading global corporations, John's journey in the agriculture sector offers valuable, and often humorous, insights. His career is a testament to resilience, determination and his love for the industry. He shares his lifetime of experiences with Ferg and offers some advice from those life lessons.

1. Negotiation matters: “In life and business, remember: you don't get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate. The art of negotiation is essential, so do your homework and understand what you want before the negotiation begins."

2. Commit to continuous learning: "Commit to a lifetime of learning. Formal qualifications and continuous education stimulate your mind and keep you ahead in the industry, whether you're working for others or running your own farm."

3. Make a difference: "Don't shy away from hard work. It's the key to adding value and achieving success. Find out how you can make a difference, even if it's beyond your job description."

4. Maintain dignity and relationships: "Maintain your dignity and never burn bridges in the agriculture industry. You might need to cross that bridge again and maintaining your reputation is crucial."

5. Networking and immersion: "Networking is vital for success. Immerse yourself in your industry, engage with others and build meaningful relationships. It's a valuable habit for personal and professional growth."

6. Integrity is non-negotiable: "Maintaining integrity is a non-negotiable. If you feel your integrity is compromised, it's time to move on. Your reputation and values matter in the long run."

7. Understand your motivation: "Know yourself and what motivates you. Is it love, money, power or respect? Understanding your motivation can guide your decisions and actions in life."

John McKillop's career shows that success in agriculture often involves perseverance and a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. His insights shed light on the industry's complexities and opportunities.

John concludes with some wisdom for those who may feel a little defeated.

“You know, I've been sold up a few times and taken a few wrong moves in my career. But I don't think that defines me. I think you are defined by the fact you get up again and you go out and have another crack because that's what you love doing. And if you're doing what you love doing, you'll stick to it and eventually the fruits will be born. There will be times when you feel like there's too much pressure. But then that will lift, you'll take a breath and get back out there again.”

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest this week is Dr Sonja Dominik, a research scientist specialising in sustainability indicators at CSIRO in Armidale. 

Sonja's career began with an undergraduate degree in Germany, majoring in animal breeding and genetics. Her passion for genetics led her to undertake research work in Australia, where she developed a deep appreciation for the country, its people and its livestock. 

Sonja moved to Australia to complete her doctoral studies, looking at genotype x environment interaction in merino sheep in Western Australia. Sonja looked into how the stud environment differs from the commercial environment and whether the performance of rams shifts between these distinct husbandry systems. 

Sonja joined CSIRO 21 years ago and she has been a part of pioneering research projects. Notably, she worked on the genetics of methane emission in sheep, breech strike resistance, worm resistance and much, much more. 

In this episode, we discuss Sonja's PhD topic, the genotype x environment interaction, the impact of digital technology and the work she is currently involved  in. This includes establishing a "Lifetime Animal Wellbeing Index" to objectively demonstrate animal welfare in the industry, assisting in meeting both consumer demands, and also import requirements globally. 

Sonja Dominik has had a truly remarkable career so far and this podcast highlights the importance of research and technology in shaping the future of farming, a lot of which Sonja has been involved with!

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Cara Brosnahan from Beef and Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) discussing the latest research being done to gauge the prevalence and impact of facial eczema (FE) in New Zealand.

As the global climate shifts, the disease is migrating further southward, causing new challenges for regions and livestock previously unaffected. B+LNZ are trying to understand the spread and severity of the disease, with the aim of devising effective strategies to manage it.

North Island farmers will be very familiar with what FE is - for those that aren't, sheep and cattle consume a toxin known as sporidesmin, produced by a fungus living in the pasture, which causes liver damage and subsequent photosensitivity, resulting in the clinical sign of facial eczema. Subclinical signs of the disease can lead to significant liver damage, reduced production, fertility issues and - in dairy cattle - a drop in milk production.

B+LNZ's three-year research endeavour aims to enhance understanding of the prevalence of facial eczema in New Zealand and the impacts on livestock in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

B+LNZ need 350 dedicated farmers (with 22 participants from each of the 16 regions across New Zealand) to gather samples between October and May for three consecutive years. The objective is to obtain a comprehensive nationwide understanding of facial eczema, regardless of previous farm exposure to the condition.

B+LNZ will provide sampling kits and cover the cost of shipping samples to the laboratory. Study participants will be responsible for collecting samples from the ground, approximately every two weeks, amounting to 16 collections from their flock of sheep each year during the research period.

Farmers interested in participating in the facial eczema research study can express their willingness to participate by registering their details below.

https://www.cognitoforms.com/BLNZGenetics/FacialEczemaThreeYearResearchStudy

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Breeding a balanced sheep is no easy feat. But with a head for numbers and a great mindset, our guest this week, Alan Rissmann, is doing just that.

With the business tagline 'We breed sheep to work for you, not make work for you', it's no surprise that Rissmerino breeds sheep for higher welfare traits and reduced workload. In his conversation with Mark, Alan dives into the 'why' behind this.

"In the industry, there's been this perception that sheep are hard work and they just have to be hard work," says Alan. Quoting the adage, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you'll be right," Alan shares why the belief that sheep are hard work can hold producers back from improving their sheep production. 

"If you don't think sheep can survive without a drench, without a foot trim, you're not going to try to fix it.... But, if you do think that this is a stupid waste of time, like I do, then you're going to do something to fix it and there are ways to fix that."

Mark and Alan discuss the traits that Rissmerino base their breeding decisions on and what they are looking for in a sheep - low micron, low adult weight, good growth curve, increased fertility, worm and fly resistance, structural soundness and clean skin. Sounds like a dream sheep!

Alan is a firm believer in running large mobs of sheep so that they face the same challenges. "They're all in one mob pretty much all year. There are just five weeks they get pulled out to be single-sired and then five weeks again over lambing time. The rest of the year the sheep run just on grass, all in one big mob so they go compete with each other for survival and I think that's very important," he says.

The location of the Rissmann's property offers many environmental challenges, which means their flock is "pretty bombproof", as Alan puts it. They face heavy rain leading to pressure on wool colouring and fly, more worms and also feet issues. This, along with Rissmerino's  dedicated data collection,  hard work in genetic selection and strict culling policy, have rewarded them with some exciting merino sheep with plenty of potential for handling future challenges.

This is an inspiring podcast that highlights the success that can come when you put all of the best-practice principles into action. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Tune in to hear Dr Nicola Lambe and Dr Mark Ferguson discuss sheep genetics, methane emissions and their intersection with climate change. 

With an impressive 25-year career at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Nicola brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our listeners. From her beginnings as a poultry research assistant, Nicola is now a teacher and project manager at SRUC. 

Throughout her career, she has played a crucial role in CT scanning work in Scotland, helping farmers breed for better meat and carcass quality in their sheep.

20 years ago they started with a second-hand CT scanner from a hospital that wasn't mobile. Now, they have one on the back of a truck trailer that travels around the country. Through the years this has produced a wealth of data to analyse.

"It takes cross-sectional images through the body," she explains. "We have software that can calculate fat, muscle and bone in different areas of the body. You can look at the 3D reconstruction of the images and examine it in different planes to measure muscle dimensions and body part volumes."

From this, a lot can be recorded. Muscle mass, fat percentages and even rumen capacity and pelvis size and Nicola goes through the results of this research, plus the more recent methane and feed efficiency work Nicola and SRUC have been involved with. They are currently recording methane via portable accumulation chambers, the CT traits listed above, feed efficiency, rumen microbiome, disease resistance and commercial performance.

Mark and Nicola dive a little deeper and discuss the impact of methanogens, organisms that generate methane in sheep. The relationship between methanogens and sheep genetics is an intriguing subject that still lacks complete understanding. However, advances in technology over the past ten years have greatly influenced the industry and, with research happening globally, answers aren't far away.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week Nicola Peddie shares her insights into the wool industry, the power of sustainable innovation, and the potential for personal growth when you put your mind to it. 

Born and raised on a sheep and beef farm in New Zealand, Nicola's passion for wool came from a black and coloured stud flock her mother ran. "From a young age, I used to prepare the wool with Mum and become naturally very fond of it," she says.

Nicola gained her wool-classing ticket, but found it difficult to find a run in New Zealand. So, with her usual determination, she headed to Kangaroo Island and got her Australian wool-classing ticket as well. Nicola worked to gain enough experience to get a run in North Otago and she also began instructing part-time, which Nicola says was a fantastic experience and gave her exposure to mentoring others.

"Following that, I got an opportunity and I worked for three months in the wool store. I worked hard and made a point that I wanted to get on the road and they gave me the opportunity to do that. But it was a hard road," Nicola explains. "I didn't get a client list, so I was cold calling and knocking on doors and utilising my network. I was lucky that through my family I had some contacts - and also through wool handling and wool-classing. I worked for them for a couple of years and then got an opportunity with The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM)."

Nicola's hard graft and tenacity shine through, showing that with a strong work ethic and professionalism, you can shape your career's trajectory to reach your goals. Her latest role for NZM, 'Northern Regional and Offshore Manager', involved building a strong nucleus of influential growers in Australia, focusing on ethical sourcing. She was also highly involved in developing the strong wool supply from North Island farmers.

A few months ago, Nicola left NZM to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA). "I was always an ideator in the organisation, and it was something I enjoyed. However, you also need to know the mechanics, and that's the next stage of actually being able to drive change," she explains. "When I think about the future that I want after the MBA, I want to be able to support and drive transformational change in the agricultural sector and support growers and make sure that they're set up for the future, and to be able to do that effectively, I needed to round out my skill set. 

Nicola's story serves as a testament to the potential of professionalism, personal development and seizing future opportunities. Whether you're an aspiring young professional in ag, or someone older seeking growth in their career, we hope Nicola's story encourages you to take that next step. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Lamb survival is always a hot topic, especially as producers increase their scanning percentages and improve their feeding practices, leading to more multiples. This week on the podcast we have Dr Amy Lockwood, whose research has focused on lamb survival - from paddock size to feed availability.

In this conversation with Dr Mark Ferguson, Amy shares the findings from her PhD research on mob size and lamb survival, illustrating how producers can reduce the size of their lambing paddocks, and manage smaller mobs, for maximum economic value.

Amy explains, "The effects that we've seen for singles, twins and triplets have all been linear. The smaller the mob, the better the lamb's survival. In terms of the economic optimum for mob size, there is a tipping point and that tipping point will vary depending on the enterprise. But just in terms of the relationship between mob size and lamb survival, the smaller the mob, the better - and the more lambs that are going to be marked out of that paddock," which is what every producer wants.

Mark and Amy also discuss how, with advances in technology, it is now possible to monitor lamb behaviour remotely, allowing for more accurate and efficient data collection and better answers to what constitutes a 'good' lambing paddock.

Mark and Amy briefly cover her ongoing projects at Murdoch University. Amy is currently working with Serena Hancock on the 'Edible Shelter Project' (a collaboration with UWA). She is also involved in a project focused on genetic solutions for sheep foot health, a collaboration between Murdoch University, neXtgen Agri, key industry bodies and merino breeders in Australia.

We are fortunate that Amy has recently become part of the neXtgen team (based in Western Australia) and will be sharing more of her wisdom with our clients there.

If you are interested in our upcoming webinar: Genetic solutions for foot health (AUS), click here.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Maximising the potential of the grass you grow is a critical component of pasture-based agriculture; doing it well is what separates the good farmers from the great.  In this episode of the Head Shepherd podcast, we discuss this and more with Michael Gooden, an Angus seed stock business expert and a champion of sustainable cattle farming practices.

Michael hails from NSW, Australia, where he and his family have taken a unique, future-focused approach to their Angus seed stock business. They have been instrumental in emphasising the importance of breeding animals that can thrive on grass.

"The reality in our business is that we manage grass, so we had to sell our grass to the highest bidder and, for us, that seed stock business was going to be an enterprise that could be the highest bidder for the grass that we grow."

Michael gives us an insightful tour of the mechanics of a grass-based farming system. He explains how they match stocking rates with pasture growth curves and how they make economic decisions about what stock stays and goes during the ebb and flow of the farming year, highlighting how data collection can play a crucial role in making informed decisions during stressful times.

"One upside to having a performance-recorded beef herd is that we've got every animal ranked, so we know where that [stocking rate] line can go," says Michael.
 
Michael touched on the challenges and strategies for agricultural businesses. He shared his thoughts on the importance of having everyone on the same page and working in the same direction to maximise efficiency and progress.

Michael also covers the impending price drops in the agriculture industry and stresses the importance of controlling what you can and being aware of the situation.

Michael has an inspiring, forward-thinking approach to farming; his insights and experiences serve as a valuable guide for anyone interested in improving their production and making a commitment to sustainable farming practices for the future.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are we aware of where our food comes from? What about the subtle complexities in our food production systems? Join us as we get a fresh perspective on this and more from Jill Griffiths, a science writer, journalist, and author. 

Her recently launched book, "What's for Dinner?", dives into how our food is grown and our role as food-eaters. With a mix of science, history, and personal stories, she takes us on a fascinating journey to meet the plants, animals, and people who make our meals possible. 

But what inspired Jill to write this book in the first place?

"I've been a science writer in ag and environment for a long time and, before that, I studied biology and journalism. I grew up in the country and then lived a lot of my life in the city, so I came to the whole question of "food and farming" from various viewpoints. What I was hearing from researchers and farmers didn't always match up with what I was hearing in the public discourse and from my city-based friends. So I went looking for where the answers to some of those questions lay."

Jill says it was an eye-opening journey that gave her access to unique people and places she otherwise might not have experienced.  And what did Jill discover?

Well, firstly, our food supply isn't as diverse as you might think. Jill shines a spotlight on how limited our choices are.  We rely heavily on just a few species for our meals.

"75% of the world's food comes from 12 species of plant and five species of animal. But within those species, there's a narrow range of breeds. 90% of the dairy herd in Australia are Holstein Friesian. So, from that one species, not even the whole genetic range of that species is present in our food chain. I'm not sure that that's a good point."

Mark and Jill also cover the nutrient density of food.

"We often hear that that modern food is lower in nutrient density and there's a grain of truth in that," says Jill. "The grain of truth is that in increasing yield, we have increased water and starch content, so there is a dilution factor that happens with minerals and nutrients as starch and water increase." But, Jill explains there is so much variation during a season that the argument of modern food being less nutrient dense "just gets shot in the water really quickly."

And finally, we cover the 'eat local’ slogan - and it’s not as simple as it sounds. 

"It's a difficult thing to sit in an agricultural exporting country, as you and I both are, and say we should all eat local because our farmers rely on us exporting a certain amount of agricultural products, so the people that are eating that aren't eating local." 

Beyond sourcing and eating, we also confront the reality of food insecurity. By the end of this conversation, you’ll be left with a deeper understanding of the agricultural industry and the importance of knowing our food sources, and you'll never look at a can of tomatoes the same way again! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Do you vaccinate your livestock correctly? Do you read the label every time? Is your fridge at the correct temperature to store the vaccine? Today we're discussing gold star vaccination protocol with Kim Kelly, a Veterinary Technical Advisor from MSD Animal Health.

Mark and Kim discuss the common pitfalls people often stumble into when administering vaccines. These range from improper storage to incorrect administration and dosage. Kim lends us her expertise in avoiding these errors and how to make the most out of vaccines, so you're getting every cent's worth.

This episode will help you navigate the complexities, including mastering vaccination techniques, avoiding lumps and getting the maximum coverage.

Kim has a few key tips. First up is location, "The location of the injection is really important. Pretty much all the vaccines say to use in the interior half of the neck, which is right up close, behind the back of the ear. Not the shoulder. There is no reason to inject them as far back as the shoulder."

Next up is the route of administration. "Vaccines will say to inject under the skin. That means you really need to tent the skin and inject it into that tent. I have seen plenty of people say they don't need to do that, that they could use one hand and flick it out with a short needle. They might be able to, but I almost guarantee some of it isn't going where it needs to."

Mark and Kim also discuss the economics of vaccinology. How can you effectively protect large numbers of animals with production costs rising? Kim provides insights into how to prioritise vaccine usage. "We sometimes see people who just do one shot across all their sheep, and they are doing a half job on everyone. It would be better to do a full job on a proportion of your animals rather than a half job on everyone."

Kim also gives more examples of how flexible your vaccination protocol can be if you know your farm and stock well. "For a long time, farmers thought they needed to use "this" vaccine across all their sheep and now we can be a little bit more targeted. So [for] diseases like, for example, clostridial, it's more young animals that are more likely to be naive and haven't come across it naturally. So if we can give them their vaccinations, we can prioritise them."

Mark and Kim also cover minerals in your vaccines and how they can present a toxicity risk when combined with your other veterinary applications. You can find their handy tool for avoiding this here: https://www.sheepvax.co.nz/selenium-dose-calculator/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Our guest this week, Robynne Anderson, is an authority on global agricultural and food policy. Robynne grew up on a farm and started her career in agricultural publishing. After selling her first business and taking a short break to contemplate her next move, she founded Emerging Ag Inc. Robynne realised there was a lot of talk about 'food security', but very little understanding of what it takes to grow, share, and distribute food. 

"Clearly, there was a gap between what we in the farming community understood as baseline knowledge and what those who are making agricultural policy, let alone more broadly, food, trade, finance, environmental policy, etc....have as an understanding of what we do. So, in that lies the origins of Emerging Ag," says Robynne. "The goal is to bring the practical reality of farming to the policy sphere," she says. 

She groups the common challenges faced by farmers into three categories:

1. Growing and harvesting the crop, often under highly adverse biological and climatic realities.

2. Regeneration or sustainability, with a long-term view to the production system, often within multi-generational family businesses, staying open to doing things differently.

3. Resilience - Covid, climate, financial, policy challenges - finding ways to adapt (acknowledging and being proactively part of the changes).

For Robynne, it's essential for farmers to speak up and be part of the conversation, without being defensive. She elaborates, "We don't have to be bashful, but suddenly a conversation has turned, and we may feel defensive. Instead of being the rural 'local yokel,' you're now the villain destroying the planet." While both of those narratives exist in the world, a lot of people do have an appreciation of how difficult it is to be a farmer; Robynne's aim is to help more people understand what farmers do. 

Robynne encourages farmers to take the time to explain and connect. "We tend to talk about things in terms that make sense to us as farmers," she says. "We tend to cut to the chase without explaining that we share the underpinning value that they're asking for." By adjusting our tone and unpacking what we mean, we can find a point of connection with the non-farming community.

When Mark asks her to run through what an effective issues management strategy looks like, Robynne shares three key points:

1. Identify the outcome you want.

2. Don't be wedded to the method of getting there.

3. Be open to working together and leave space for people to do their part.

Listen in for some absolute gems with on-farm applications!

You can find Robynne on social media at @Robynne_A or visit Emerging Ag or Agrifood.net.

And a final note from Robynne, "There's nothing we love more than a farmer who loves to speak up! We welcome the whole world of farmers to come and be part of the conversation." 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week, we have our first lawyer on the show, Pat Barrett. He is both a lawyer and farmer in Wagga Wagga, Australia.

Pat grew up with a passion for agriculture with friends and family involved in the industry and studied Agribusiness and Law at the University of New England with the intention of using the degree in a management position. “I never thought I was going to be a lawyer,” says Pat. But, after an interview planned by his mother with a local lawyer, Pat found himself shaking hands and accepting a job at the practice.

Today's conversation focuses on the common pitfalls in succession, which is a significant part of Pat's work.

“We’re made up of 50% succession work, the other 50% doing rural property/commercial work. I love getting to work with really good people and trying to find those solutions. It is a delicate and sometimes difficult ride,  succession. But I really love looking at the opportunities in every farm and farming business, because there are always opportunities.”

Pat reminds us never to look over the fence and copy what the neighbours do. “There's all these factors that affect succession and it’s never a one-off transaction.” With the individual complexities behind each farming business, no story is ever the same.

Mark and Pat run through what might be preventing someone from starting the conversation of succession. “They’re always going to be there, those risks”, says Pat. “It’s about looking at the opportunities to grease the wheel and keep things moving and work through those risks.”

Mark asks who needs to be involved in the discussion. “A lawyer, an accountant and a farm consultant, if they have one - it does really help - and bank managers are going to tell you how you can go through it and facilitate it from a funding point of view,” says Pat.

Not a particularly exciting, or cheap, mix of people, but Pat says it’s essential to maintain a circular discussion with each of these people to make sure no-one is heading down a biased, unproductive path.

“Ultimately, the things that I've seen work really well is where someone comes home onto the farm, they get paid properly, that person can then go and generate their own assets - that's buying a house in town or shares or whatever it is," says Pat.

Ultimately, Pat hopes people see the positives in succession.

“Being able to get through that process and hand something on to the next generation is unreal. Doing it via will, who gets the satisfaction in that? Seeing your family working and seeing your business go forwards,” says Pat. “I don't think that's celebrated anywhere near enough. And hopefully it's providing opportunity for other family members as well. Because of the way property prices have risen, it's a great way to spread wealth and opportunity amongst family.”

https://walshblair.com.au/our-lawyers/patrick-barrett/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we’re heading back over to the US to speak to Brad A. Freking, a research geneticist in the Livestock Bio-Systems Research Unit, Clay Center in Nebraska.

Originally, Brad grew up on a small mixed farm. Brad's first connection to genetics came when he went to study at university, working on beef cattle efficiency. Brad then went on to work with pigs; since 2016, he has been devoted entirely to sheep research.

Brad currently works in the Livestock Bio-Systems Research Unit, Clay Center, a research institute with 8,000 head of beef cows, about 2,000 head of ewes and 500 sows. It is one of the largest livestock research centres in the world.

Mark and Brad cover a whole range of topics this week, including the genetics behind scrapie, MV, the sheep breeds of the US, sow uterine capacity and much more.

Brad also runs us through some of the research going on at Clay Center. “The current focus, obviously with this administration, is climate adaptation.” Brad and his team at Clay Center, alongside colleagues around the US, are creating linkages amongst populations so they can look at genotype/environmental interactions. “We're just attempting to try to identify animals that might be more resilient to different climate changes in different regions of the country. And see if we can get a handle on that, some kind of indicator trait”, says Brad.

You can find more of Brad's work here: https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person/?person-id=1842

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we're switching up species and discussing cashmere goats with David Shaw.

In 2017, David undertook a self-directed R&D project to see if he could ‘resurrect’ the cashmere industry. David found that New Zealand had some of the best cashmere fibre in the world.

“We know our fibre is whiter and longer. Research indicates that the fibre from this part of the world is relatively softer. We have people wanting the fibre, we have a market, but we don’t have a supply.”

So, David founded “New Zealand Cashmere” to solve the problem. While David has passed ownership of New Zealand Cashmere on, he is still a passionate champion of the industry. 

David farms on the north side of the Catlin Ranges. “Three rows of hills before the south coast of New Zealand” and, beyond that, Antarctica. Their farm is usually summer safe and winter wet, finishing around 7,000 lambs and several hundred cattle a year. David explains how the goats integrate into the “typical” New Zealand farming system. 

“We farm them quite differently here. Goats eat from the top of the pasture down, sheep eat from the bottom up. If you put the goats in second, you're forcing them to the bottom of the pastures. So, we put the goats in first and they take out the fibrous material and the thistles and the other weeds on the top of the pasture. And then the other stock come in behind them. That lowers the interaction with worms and it also benefits our existing stock.”

“I saw something in the animal that was quite different to sheep and beef. They cleaned up all the weeds, so we technically didn't have any weeds on the farm any longer. Goats were utilising parts of the pasture other animals did not utilise”, explains David. “The goats in my mind are a huge tool that people have ignored or forgotten or aren't aware of.”

So what is the financial return on cashmere farming? David’s flock averages about 400g of 16 micron cashmere. Their doe hoggets are doing around 200g at 14 micron.

“Goats with up to half a kilo of cashmere in them, if you put that in a relative sense, that's $50-70 dollars worth of fleece value and the goat adult weight is half of an adult sheep. So you’re looking at well over $100 a stock unit from fibre returns alone”, says David.

“So, the question is, how quickly can farmers build up to that from a foundation flock and then capture that out of the processing?”, David asks. It doesn’t take as long as you would think. With the work David has been doing over the past 40 years, he explains, “You can go from a multicoloured foundation doe flock to all white, 14-15 micron cashmere in one generation. Genetically, we’ve come a long way. The flock is homozygous white, so we’re at a very different starting point. It's our role as breeders to offer the highest genetic gains into flocks as quickly as possible.”

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this podcast, two genetics enthusiasts delve into IMF, methane, mature cow weight, immune competence and more, exploring the latest developments in livestock genetics and breeding strategies for Angus cattle.

Yes that's right, we are heading back into the Angus world with Christian Duff, general manager of genetic improvement at Angus Australia.  As Mark puts it, Christian is "involved in genetics in a fairly big way."

He is very passionate about the power of quantitative genetics to change a species. "It's an amazing tool - if you're patient", says Christian.

Mark and Chris bounce around some thoughts on various traits and their influence on Angus.  From methane, the current focus for Angus Australia, to immune competence, to mature cow weight, to IMF and much more.  They dive into each topic and talk about the heritability, the recent changes and how they affect other traits. 

Chris has been involved in exploring links between specific diseases and genetic markers, particularly in the area of immune competence.  This has led to promising research showing that cattle with higher immune competence have lower mortality rates, which could have significant implications for the beef industry.

Chris chats about current research studying the relationship between pink eye resilience and immune competence.  He also talks about the efficiency of vaccines on animals, based on their immune competence.  "You assume they're all going to have the same coverage... it's not the case.  Some respond really well to the vaccine and some you may as well not have vaccinated".

While production traits have long been the primary focus for breed societies, Chris explains there has been a change in the R&D focus to include more resilience and sustainability traits.

To find out more about the the ImmuneDEX value, take a look here:
https://www.angusaustralia.com.au/education/breeding-and-genetics/understanding-rbvs/immunedex

This podcast is crammed full of knowledge and and we thank Chris for sharing his time with us. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Have you ever wondered why some cattle thrive better through an unusually hot summer?

Our guest this week, Dr. Raluca Mateescu, Professor of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics at the University of Florida, has been focusing on the impact of heat and climate on beef production in the southern regions of North America.

Raluca and her team have been looking into how to breed cattle to handle increasing temperatures, with a focus on improving productivity and achieving food security through genetic selection.

“Not all of our breeds are adapted to this environment so if we're going to try and raise cattle in these regions we need to figure out a way to do it to increase their adaptability to their environment", explains Raluca.

“In Florida, the purebred Angus is not going to be able to survive, because it's too hot.” Many of the producers in California cross the Angus with the Brahman to get better thermotolerance.

Mark asks what the biological differences are between an animal that can handle heat and one that can’t.

“The traits involved in the sweat gland area contribute to the adaptability in the Brahman cattle.  Beef cattle are able to lose 85% of the heat they produce through sweating.”  Raluca also explains that the smaller rumens of the Brahman also mean the breed produce less heat themselves during rumination.

Raluca tells Mark how they are looking for those animals with better adaptability to heat.

“Our resource population is about 5,000 head of cattle that we have collected a lot of data on in the last 6 or 7 years.  We measure their body temperature, take a skin biopsy for the measures we are taking in the lab.  We're measuring their coats and a bunch of other traits that are related to thermotolerance.  We also extract bloods and run a genomic profile on them.”

Their aim is to find genetic markers that will help producers identify animals with a higher thermotolerance without the need for expensive lab tests.  Something that could benefit us here in the future.

Until then, Raluca explains, “The coat score is something that's very easy for the producer to do right now."

If you would like to read more of Raluca’s research, you can visit her website here: https://www.ralucamateescu.com/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we're back chatting about Angus cattle with another great livestock producer with a passion for genetics.

Born and raised on the family farm, Lucinda always knew she was going to be involved in the agricultural industry.  After growing up on a merino sheep property,  she gained a first class honours degree in Agricultural Science, followed by a formative time in the goat industry.  Since the mid-1980s, she has been farming with husband Bryan, at one point with multiple livestock breeding enterprises, now specialising in breeding Angus cattle.

We start off by talking about Landcare, something close to Lucinda's heart.

"When Landcare started in the late 80s, that was a lot of fun, just thinking and learning about how to do things differently and working more in tune with the environment.  That has had a number of iterations and now it's very focused on climate change and how we work with what is a changing environment to run our businesses with a degree of resilience and profitability. It's all about leaving a better environmental legacy in the farming business."

Mark and Lucinda then dive into the main focus of the podcast, breeding good Angus cattle, something Lucinda has a lot of experience with the Rennylea Angus herd.

Rennylea Angus is based in the Murray Valley in Southern NSW.  The Angus cattle were introduced in 1952 alongside merino sheep.  Today there are 2,300 recorded cows in the herd, and a total of 4,500 cattle on various properties.

"We are very much a tier 1 performance herd."  We came through the 80s when we were just measuring weights.  BREEDPLAN started in 1985 and we were a foundation herd at that time.  Then we went on and became involved in the Beef CRC project."

Lucinda gives Mark a run down of where the Rennylea Angus herd is heading towards.

"We aim for a well-under breed average for birth weight, a calf that grows quickly to 400 days.  We're interested in elite carcass performance - cows that have positive genetic fat, but not too much."

"We're very interested in the maturity pattern, how you select for performance but don't end up with a really big maternal flock in terms of the individual animal."

Diving into the maternal efficiency trait, Mark asks about bending the curve of maternal efficiency, so that mature cow weight doesn't increase with 400 day weight - a topic they are both passionate about.

We round the podcast off with talk of the future.  From securing succession at home, the future of branding beef to consumers in Australia, to innovation in seed stock.  As Lucinda says, "The future isn't what it used to be and we know it will change.  It's up to us how we play in that changing space."

Rennylea:
https://www.rennylea.com.au/

You can find out more about Landcare Australia here: https://landcareaustralia.org.au/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Welcome to the latest episode of the Head Shepherd podcast, where Ferg is chatting with Dr. Susan Robertson, a senior lecturer in ruminant production at Charles Sturt University.

Susan has a wide range of research interests - from a PhD looking at staple strength in ewes, then delving more into pasture production, before transitioning into a full-time research role in 2016 with the EverGraze project (which aims to improve sheep reproduction).   More recently, Susan has conducted a trial on the impact of caffeine on lamb survival. 

Caffeine is used in human medicine to mitigate the lack of oxygen at birth and Susan wanted to know if it could have a similar impact on lamb survival.  The results were fascinating with a 21% survival improvement in the first trial.  However, due to the nature of livestock trials, the results did not repeat.

Susan and Ferg also speak about the work she has been involved with in mating ewes in confinement.  With such a broad range of "confinement" styles across Australia, Sue said the work has been very interesting.

For more information about the EverGraze project, check out https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/pasture-management/evergraze-project.

You can read the results of "Frequency of feeding during the periconceptional period did not alter reproduction in Merino sheep" here:
https://www.publish.csiro.au/AN/pdf/AN22161.

And, the guidelines for breeding ewes in containment that Susan referenced can be found here: https://www.mla.com.au/globalassets/mla-corporate/extensions-training-and-tools/documents/managing-breeding-ewes-in-containment-areas.pdf.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Today we discuss the bigger part of how you make money on the farm - how well you feed the animals. Nutrition of your livestock is one thing that you can get right, or wrong, on a daily basis; genetics is a longer burn. With nutrition, you can see the results almost immediately. To discuss this, our guest this week is Charlotte Westwood.

Charlotte got her vet degree from Massey University and spent the first years of her career in the Waikato working mainly with dairy cattle. After a back injury, Charlotte headed off to Australia to do a PhD looking at cattle reproduction.

Now, Charlotte is a Veterinary Nutritionist at PGG Wrightson Seeds and the focus of her chat with Mark today is intramuscular fat (IMF). 

When we talk about the genetics of IMF, the words “Wagyu” and “Angus” come up, and it’s often considered to be predominantly genetics that influence levels of IMF. Charlotte explains why that’s not the case. She also explains why it’s a longer game than you might think. 

“The bizarre thing is, we think [the influence around IMF is] about the [nutrition] weeks or maybe a couple of months before the animal is processed,” explains Charlotte. But it starts much, much earlier than that. “A lot of what is happening, when the animal reaches its finished stage for processing, has actually started whilst still inside mum's tum.”

Charlotte explains what “The Marbling Window” is.

“The nutrition of mum in that last trimester can influence both the number and also the potential for the future growth of the fat cells within the muscle itself. So if mum has a hard time during the last trimester of pregnancy, that may influence the decision of stem cells - whether they’re going to turn themselves later into muscle, fat or fibre cells. There’s a drafting gate there and if we don't get it right inside mum's tum, in a small way that can influence IMF deposition.”

Charlotte runs through how fat is laid down in an animal once it’s growing, and it’s quite fascinating.

“Fat is laid down in a specific order. You've got your internal, visceral fat... then they'll move onto all subcutaneous fat around the body. When that starts to get laid down, they move on to the fat that's laid down between the muscles.... and then the final stage of fattening is when the animal's older, through maturity typically, or getting close to its mature live weight, then IMF gets laid down.”

IMF is the last to be laid down, and unfortunately it is the first to go. Charlotte explains. “When animals hit stress for any reason [...], enough to go through a short period of negative energy balance, they'll start to mobilise fat. And they'll mobilise it out in the order it was laid down. So that IMF you've lovingly sculpted… for a sake of a period of stress, the IMF is the first to peel out.”

If you’d like to hear more from Charlotte, she has her own podcast, The Rumen Room, where you can listen to episodes on the basics of nutrition, reproduction and much more.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Do you want to develop your understanding of estimated breeding values (EBVs) in cattle? This week's podcast guest, Tom Gubbins, and our host Mark Ferguson chat about breeding values and Te Mania Angus, giving us a great insight into the role of genetics in a farm business.

Te Mania started in New Zealand in 1928 with the closing of the Angus herd book. They have been involved in genetics from the very start, to which Tom credits some of Te Mania's success to. "We've watched, over a long time now, the targets and objectives being reached."

From 23 cows in the 1980s, Te Mania now has 900 cows joined, 690 heifers and a 500 cow embryo herd. The top 10% of cows are now producing 500 calves per year through that embryo transfer program allowing for some amazing genetic gain.

Mark and Tom then run through various data that Te Mania is recording.

"We've been involved in structural EBVs for quite a while [and] been collecting structural data since the validation project in the 80's."

Structure and temperament are what Mark refers to as "stockman's traits" and people wonder why we need EBVs for them, but Tom says their buyers are selecting on them.

"The structural EBVs have been really good at explaining to people the genotypic vs phenotypic effect of structure. Because you can see an animal standing there in front of you with perfectly good feet, but it doesn't have perfectly good EBVs", explains Tom.

"If the animal's going off [to somewhere] that's a bit wet and the feet are prone to growing out badly, then the animal phenotypically standing there with good feet, well the genotypic information from the EBVs are saying that the progeny isn't going to be nearly as good as the father".

"And people are making decisions on that... whereas they might be sceptical on the 600 day weight EBV." And the same goes for temperament. So why is there more reluctance to trust other EBVs?

Tom runs through all of the phenotypic information they have been collecting at Te Mania and how that turns into breeding values, giving us a great insight into what data builds an EBV.

The commitment of Te Mania to the future of the Angus breed is very impressive. From feed efficiency, to IMF, to growth and structure, their level of recording is huge. 

Te Mania have their 2023 2 Year Bull Sale on Tuesday 8th August at 11:30am. Click for full details - 

https://www.temaniaangus.com/sales-events/event/2023-northern-spring-angus-bull-sale-walgett-nsw-and-on-auctionsplus

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this podcast, we sit down with Rick, a seasoned farmer whose parents moved to his family farm in the 70s as a child,  as part of the family's succession plan. Rick now runs a self-replacing composite flock, focusing on early maturity, fat, muscle, and health traits such as worm resistance. Rick also sheds light on his involvement in the Farm Owners Academy as an accountability coach and how he's creating a legacy that his daughter can carry on in the future.


Rick lives on his family farm which he moved to as a young boy in the 70's when his father took it on as part of the family succession plan.  "From then on it's been a really mixed operation. Dad ran it with the approach of having many enterprises and spreading risk. We were doing the same based on that conditioning for quite a while... and soon worked out we weren't doing anything really well. [We were] just working ourselves into the ground basically."


So, things had to change. "l knew what i enjoyed doing, which is the most important thing in my opinion." After attending a production day and coming across breeding values for the first time, he was blown away. "You can dial up what you want, and you can just go for it. And they work." Rick decided that was the route to take. They now have a self replacing composite flock selling store lambs and surplus ewe lambs as breeders.


Genetically they focus on  early maturity, fat, muscle and health traits such as worm resistance.


Their challenges now are doing a better job of triplets and hoggets, with Rick saying they're 0.25 of a CS below where they'd like to be.


Farming in 575mm rainfall area, footrot COULD also be a big challenge, and is why Rick farms composites. And, of course, Mark poses the question if they could have a footrot free Merino, would they?


You'll have to listen to hear that answer.


Rick is heavily involved in the Farm Owners Academy as an accountability coach. Something he really enjoys. 


Rick also covers the great efforts of volunteers after the Kangaroo Island fires. And it wasn't just the recovery effort that was a positive from the fire. 


"Our daughter came home and spent two years with us." Rick says he's proud of himself for not 'putting her off' during that two year period. "I worked really hard in terms of getting the right mindset and I'm proud to say that [my daughter] is on a path that will more than likely see her come home to the farm" 


Rick's changes in mindset, outlook and farm practices is what allows a farming family going through a successful succession, not only from Rick taking over from his father, but also creating a place his daughter wants, and can, return to.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week, our guest is Ben Todhunter from Cleardale Station in Canterbury NZ. 
Ben's grandfather purchased Cleardale in 1943 and is named after its geographical "snow shelter" attributes. Cleardale is only 4 km from Mount Hutt as the crow flies. 

Stud breeding is in Ben's genetics, with his great grandfather founding the Blackford stud in 1924. In Ben's time, they had a traditional first cross English Leicester/Merino flock. But, since Ferg has been around they've been doing things a "bit different".

One of those things is breeding the Cleardale SX Fine Wool. A 21-24 micron sheep with crossbred performance.

"We'd been getting similar results in production traits from the SX fine wools.. finer micron, similar reproduction and growth rates." Ben explains.  "We've made the choice to go that way, and go quite fast that way. Given the way we're going with disease resistant traits its giving us confidence to go fast that way too" 

Cleardale has been involved with the Footrot breeding value since the start of the programme. And because of that, Cleardale has not only one of the most linked flocks on the footrot trait. putting them in the top 5% of the breed. 

Alongside the sheep, Cleardale run an Angus stud producing cattle for a high country environment. "Functional and efficient cows that have progeny that provide a first class eating experience" is the aim of their breeding plan says Ben, 

Ben recently visited the US to have a look at the genetics there and also their market chain for beef. Ben says it's hard to compare genetics as it's mainly grain/feedlot based systems. However they are bringing a 3-5 back to the country to give them a try. 

What impressed Ben in the US was the Certified Angus Beef Headquarters, a programme where they have a value chain trying to line up products to consumers and then the profits returned back to producers. 

Ben says this has led to an increased demand for the product in a country which already has the highest consumption of beef per capita in the world. 

One thing that's never too far from Ben's mind is value chains; working out which consumer sets are going to be doing what. Mark asks what Ben sees playing out in the future. 

"Breeding for the consumer." is very much the focus at Cleardale. But as ever with genetics, it's not as easy as it sounds. 

"You've got to predict what the consumer wants before they want it." Explains Mark. "Because if you want to put a lot more IMF in your beef you have to start now, because it's going to take time."

Mark and Ben discuss the importance of writing those bets down. "It's awesome when you pull the document up from 8 or 10 years ago and you can tick off those boxes, that there's an objective that's been met".

Cleardale is a great example of where commitment and enthusiasm can take a breeding plan in a short time. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Join us today for a chat through Richard Rains's career of 40 years of selling meat around the world. "It became a great passion and I still pinch myself every day at the success a little kid from the bush was able to achieve." 

Richard grew up in central NSW and was the youngest of four kids. When it was his turn to return to the farm, his father said to him, "Things aren't great. If you come home, it just means we've just got to split the meagre returns another way." explains Richard. "He did say, give it a go, if it works we'll all be better off. If it doesn't, you can just come home". With that safety net behind him, Richard started into his career in the meat industry. 
 
In the early seventies, Richard was head-hunted to go to a meat trading firm, Sanger. With Sanger, Richard sold the first beef to Korea that was ever imported there via government tender. He spent a lot of time there. "Thirteen times in one year. Quite a thing for a young kid from the bush," he says. 

After a year in the London offices, Richard was sent back to Australia as the business was struggling. Richard then joined the newly formed Sanger Australia in 1976 and retired 10 years ago, leaving behind a $500 million legacy.

Mark and Richard talk through how they built that business so successfully,  from hiring and training staff in the right way and also having a fantastic relationship with
Richard and Mark then discuss the future of the industry from the view of a meat trader. 

"Food is an experience, and how lucky are we to have these experiences," says Richard. "There was absolutely no doubt in my time, the more tags you could put on an animal the greater value you could get for it. Whether it was Wagyu, Organic, Natural, Grain fed or Grass fed." And the same still stands today. 

Richard believes we should be doing more brand marketing. But, not at an individual producer level. His advice is... "Rather than producing what Grandad did and hoping for the best, I strongly recommend producers to get a relationship with their producer and find out which one is going to work for them. They should supply into that processors brand."

Mark and Richard round the podcast off by talking about the Zanda McDonald award. "It is changing lives, and at my stage in life there's not much that gives me greater pleasure than being able to change the lives of young people in Agriculture."

Find out more here:
https://www.zandamcdonaldaward.com/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are you optimising your farm's production? Today we have John Young, aka Youngy, on the podcast. There are so many ways to optimise your farming business and sometimes that can be overwhelming. John, however, makes it all sound very understandable and achievable.

John's background is in farming but he now runs a systems analysis service.  Farm Systems Analysis Service has been involved in the development of AFO (Australian Farm Optimisation model). John gives us a rundown of what AFO is.

"AFO is a bio-economic model aimed at how best to allocate your resources to achieve your objective. What that actually means, when you apply it to a farm is trying to improve your on-farm decisions. So how you allocate your time, feed, and paddocks to try and achieve your goals."

The strength of the models is that they have an economic focus and a management focus. The weakness of the model, or the "challenges" as John thinks of them, is the challenge of how to represent biology well. And this has been the focus of John's career.

"The other sort of weakness," John says,  "Is that it only represents one type of year. My son, Michael has just about finished his PhD and one of the things he has incorporated is seasonal variation- or 'Weather-Year' variation as he calls it- to differentiate the variation from summer to winter, from this year to last year to next year. That addressed one of the major weaknesses in the model."

You can find out more about Michael's research here https://youngsfarmanalysis.com.au/research/

Mark and John run through the outcomes of some of the analysis John has been involved with. From fibre diameter and improving weaning percentages to the value of saving a single lamb or the economic value of ASBVS based on an individual business's current status. 

Currently industry indexes mostly assume that a farm system is a multiplication of an individual animal's performance. It also mostly assumes each trait has an economic value on a linear scale. John explains how that isn't always the case.

"The value of increasing litter size is much higher if your current litter size is 1.2 vs someone whose current litter size is 1.8. One is adding a few more twins, the other is adding more triplets." He explains. "So we know that the relative economic values vary. If we can make allowances for that, we can work within the bounds of what's required to make a good index."

"Coming up with the relative economic values is not a simple task, it's a little bit like the value of an extra lamb. There's a simple answer that's quite often wrong and then there's the more complicated answer."

Mark describes John as "The smartest person I know" and after listening to this podcast, you'll probably agree. 

We'd love to know what you think of this podcast, and how it has you thinking about optimising your farm and how you approach industry indexes going forwards. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Integrated pest management for blowfly, worms and lice is the topic of todays podcast, with our guest Alison Colvin. 

Alison has published work on practices on farm and has also been involved in a lot of survey work. You can find more here

Alison runs us through the surveys, which had some interesting results about incidences of flystrike, treatment trends and the effects of drought on lice, fly and worm problems and much more.

You can read the results for yourself here:
The Australian Sheep Parasite Survey

Mark and Alison then run through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for lice, worms and flies.

Starting with a hot topic at the moment, lice. The results of the survey confirmed what they have known for a while, that the prevalence of lice on Australian flocks is around 20% but it is decreasing slightly.

"Introduction through purchased and stray sheep was the most ranked reason for recurring lice infestations. The second was not completing the whole flock at the same time and incomplete mustering. So there are still areas for improvement on our on farm lice control." says Alison

"Rotation of lice products is theoretically good, you should be able to get rid of all of the lice and not have any surviving lice building up resistance. BUT that relies on us using the products properly for lice prevention. Dose rates...all sheep treated, shearing equipment is changed between sheds etc."

So, if the lice treatment is effective, and you have good boundary fences and biosecurity regimes then you might not have to deal with lice for a good period of time. It's just making sure you're paying attention to detail with lice.

Mark makes a great point. "Flies and worms turn up anyway, whereas lice you can win the battle and remove them from your property. "

Mark and Alison also run through the key parts of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) that are important for worms and flies too. 

Alison highly recommends the website paraboss.com.au for information and tools for IPM. Although this is an Australian website, our listeners worldwide will definitely find something worthwhile on there.
 
There really is no avoiding these pests when sheep farming so this is a good podcast for anyone involved in your farming business. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

One of the main topics of today’s podcast is the financial modelling of transitioning to a shedding flock from a Romney our guest, Prof. Paul Kenyon of Massey University, has been involved with.
Mark asks what instigated the work and what does the modelling show?

"In reality, coarse wool is costing more to get it off. Many farmers spend their whole summer shearing, crutching, dagging, dipping... controlling fly. As we move forward in the modern society it's harder and harder to get labour in remote areas." Says Paul. "Many don't want to work on a sheep farm when in summer, they're doing those four jobs over and over again."

Paul and his team modelled what it would look like financially to transition from a Romney to a Wiltshire.

"As you went through the transition and post transition, you're better off to move to a Wiltshire because of reduced costs."

"It also showed us, to be [financially] status-quo with a shedding animal, the price of wool had to be up around $5... and it hasn't been around that in a long time."

Because the only data available for the modelling was from the 80's and 90's, they are now working on updating it so it is more accurate to today's Wiltshires in New Zealand.

"That's a slightly different genotype than what's in the industry now."

"We've started a field study. We have a farm where they've agreed to leave half of the flock as straight Romneys and the other half have been bred to the Wiltshires," explains Paul. "We have our Romney control and as the respective generations are born, the Wiltshire crosses are crossing back over the Wiltshire."

They are now at the point where they have hoggets that are 7/8ths Wiltshire meaning they are one generation away from what most breed societies would accept as a full Wiltshire.  They are also collecting a huge amount of data during the trial.

Paul says "We're collecting everything from mating performance, puberty onset in hoggets, scanning percentage, NLB, NLW, weaning weights, wool traits.." and much much more.

"We're collecting the wool traits because in the 1/2, 3/4 and 7/8's, you're going to have to shear them to get the 'mohawk' off them. So we're collecting that out of curiosity. "

Mark asks about the value of the wool on a Wiltshire.
"At a 35+ micron there's not really much more of a hit you can take."

Because shedding doesn't take place biologically until late spring after a winter, Paul explains they're looking into how early they can pick replacements based on a "shedding score" and also how that first shedding score relates to their score as a 2th or 4th. Some interesting research!

You can read the full article modelling the transition here:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/11/2066

This is only a fraction of what is a fascinating podcast with Paul. Listen in to hear about more great research. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

As producers, you're always wanting to get the most for your hard earned produce and it always helps when your processor wants that for you, too.

Located mid-way between Sydney and Melbourne, Gundagai Meat Processors (GMP) is one of the most innovative lamb processors in Australia. GMP became a household name within the industry as they were the first to offer premiums for IMF.

This week we have Will Barton, CEO of GMP on the podcast. We start off strong diving straight into why GMP decided to offer a premium to suppliers.

"We had a period from 2000 to 2020 where we weren't trading. What that meant for us is, in 2020 when we stuck our head up and decided to launch Gundagai Lamb as a brand, we could start up as we wanted. We said "Hey, we're going to do something different do you want to come with us?"."

Will goes through how GMP decided what that "something different" actually was.
 
Gundagai started the process of change by paying less for over-fat lambs, and more for lambs that had a better meat yield. They have now developed a scoring system called GLQ score.
 
"We realised [...] that if we didn't have an eating quality measure to balance the lean meat yield trait... we were potentially going to be in a situation where we bred chicken." i.e lean, fast growing and tasteless. "We need a 'guardian' of eating quality."

Will runs through the work they did with machine learning and AI to come up with the GLQ score.

"It's more than just IMF. It's an algorithm that encourages above average marbling but it also discourages over fattening." 
 
"If we get a carcass thats got an insane amount of marbling but a low lean meat yield, it wont make GLQ5+. Because it's unsustainably fat and we want producers to be tuning into genetics to create that outcome rather than just over fattening an animal to get there." Says Will. "We also track 20 animal health conditions and/or carcass defects. We take a point off for any of those animal health attributes on a carcass by carcass basis." 

To sum all of that together means a GLQ5+ lamb has to be above average eating quality, which has not been done via excessive fattening and the animals either got clean bill of health or the farmers been given feedback to improve their practices over time- so a holistic attitude approach.  

And how much financial reward as a producer do you get for achieving that?
"We pay, at the moment, $0.80/kilo for a GLQ5+ lamb."

Mark asks if there's any focus on a particular breed, or if they'll work with producers advising on those requirements to be GLQ5+. Will says that's not the role of GMP

"We see that you can have any breed that you like and achieve the desired outcomes if you follow the right genetics and then match those genetics with the right nutritional platform. We're not about to become agronomists or geneticists."

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Every day, we make hundreds of decisions. These decisions affect you, your business and those around you. This week we have Kate Burke on the podcast talking about how to make the right decisions.

With 26 years of experience behind her, Kate has a huge range of expertise in the Agriculture industry. Kates principles come from her experience in the industry as an agronomist, an educator, researcher, writer and also growing up as part of a multigenerational farming business.

"My mantra at Think Agri is about good, sophisticated thinking in agriculture and bringing together the best of both worlds; that intuitive multigenerational farm thinking and some of the discipline that comes out of corporate agriculture."

"My philosophy is about joining the dots and connecting the people, the technical and the business all together."

Today Kate walks us through eight points of 'wethering the storm', something we need to constantly keep in mind in such a changeable industry as agriculture.

1. Managing thought.
The simple concept of drafting your thoughts like sheep through the race.

2. Be aware of self and others
Self awareness is about being in tune where you are at, and reading the play around you.

3. Maintain resilience
This is resilience in terms of staying productive and staying well- something we've done poorly as a farming industry.


Listen to the podcast to hear more of Kates fantastic tips to connect science, people and money.

Here is Kates website:
https://www.thinkagri.com.au/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have an old supervisor of Marks, Graham Gardener as our guest. Graham has been involved in a huge multi species project (ALMTECH) focusing on measuring lean meat yield and eating quality for the past 7 years. You can find out more about it here:
https://www.almtechau.com/

Mark and Graham start off with the work ALMTECH have been doing on live animal measurements in terms of lean meat yield.   

"In beef, the most advanced one we started with was a 3D imaging system. The cameras would acquire images and predict things like weight, eye muscle area and fat depth. We also had a muscle scoring system. Also we could predict the whole carcass composition in terms of bone muscle and fat ratio."

Another piece of new technology Graham covers is a handheld microwave device where you can predict the fat depth in cattle. The tech has been developed from a technology applied to humans to do brain scanning, so it's very safe for humans.

Mark and Graham then go onto DEXA (Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry).

"We've done preliminary work and it looks quite good and far more accurate than any of those other systems I've just described" But the scale and cost of the machine isn't always ideal. "About half of all lambs slaughtered in Australia are measured on the DEXA scale. But, not everyone wants a DEXA system so we've been working on the handheld devices." Says Graham.

Some of these devices are being developed to be used in both live and carcass measurements. "The same microwave device, we're having a crack at that in the abattoir as well. The accuracy is promising and it might be able to meet accreditation standards." Graham explains. 

When it comes to scoring sheep, it isn't as easy as beef what with the wool distorting imaging. "Simple surface imaging cameras don't work." says Graham. "The microwave does a pretty good job at predicting fat depth, and we've had a crack at correlating it with a medical DEXA scans of live animals."

"So, lean meat yield was one half of the story, eating quality was the other half." says Graham. "There are things that measure eating quality in lamb but we cant measure them at chain speed yet."

Mark asks about any other tools in the belt for selecting for eating quality.

"There are tools that we can use for those other traits like shear force, and thats genetics." Says Graham. "It's only the really switched on breeders that are bothering to optimise their eating quality traits within their selection indices."

Mark finally delves into the cellular level of meat quality which is an absolutely fascinating conversation for those sheep nerds out there.

Have a look at the Scott Automation processing video Mark and Graham mention here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aim65529e4E

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Bio shearing, wool harvesting practices and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) research is the topic of this week's podcast.

We have Jock Laurie, chair of AWI chatting with Mark today. Jock currently farms wool, lamb, beef and grain on properties in New South Wales. In 2021 Jock became chair of AWI.

Jock runs us through what AWI does, and what they're currently looking into it.

AWI, for those that don't know, is responsible for research and development for the Wool Industry in Australia. They're involved in many aspects from working on marketing the wool product and creating demand,  innovation in the shearing process, pasture varieties,  developing new uses for wool and working with wool growers to help maximise profitability and identifying areas of concern. Recently, Jock says their role has been heavily in "defending the fibre [wool] in the environmental sustainability debate."

Mark and Jock dive into the recent work AWI has been involved with.

"The first thing we have to do is get the product off the sheep's back." Jock says. There's the traditional changes we could make in the industry, and which we should be doing actively.  Changing shed design, knowing where the stressors are in shearing and changing the shed design to improve that. But AWI is also looking into something else.

"We're also looking with Adelaide University around a "bio-shearing" Jock explains

"It is essentially putting a break in the clip and then removing it." Something they have achieved already. The next step is working on a way to get the wool harvested.

"Ideally you run them through a machine that takes the wool off as you already have the break, you could use air to take the wool off." But that is all in the research stage currently.

Jock says that Covid highlighted the shearers shortage in Australia and thus the importance of finding alternative ways of harvesting wool.

"We know there are labour shortages across all industries, but industries that have physical demands that shearing does... we need to recognise that and focus on alternative ways of removing the wool. and without COVID we may not have seen that."

You can find out more here.

Mark and Jock cover a multitude of topics in this podcast, showing just how much AWI are involved with. It is a great, inspiring listen about the future of the industry. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Today on the podcast we have a different kind of guest! We have the incredible Dr. Roswitha Baumung who currently works at the Division for Animal Production and Health of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Roswitha has always had a passion for animals. She studied Agriculture and completing her pHD on Animal breeding and genetics.  "I was especially interested in the genetics of small populations".  After a scientific career at University, she began a helping farmers in her home country, Austria, set up breeding programmes for rare breeds. 

Now she works for the FAO, working with all of the breeds around the world. Roswitha works in a team of three and is responsible for looking at the diversity of our livestock breeds.

In her role she supports countries by implementing breeding plans to preserve the genetic diversity of the population amongst many other things.

Mark and Roswitha discuss the importance of maintaining a native population to deal with shifting climate conditions. She says in some developing countries, she has seen a shift in species that specialise in harder conditions, aka going from sheep farming to camel farming!

"We need animals that are resilient, that recover fast after a [weather] event." And it's not just an environmental shift, it's also a consumer shift.

Mark asks is there is a secret gene bank full of the worlds animal genetics, like there is with seeds, but alas there is not. Roswitha does mention "cryoconservation" though, which you can read more about here

This podcast is a fantastic insight of the bigger picture thinking when it comes to the future of livestock breeding. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

It is always interesting to compare different farming systems across this world. This week on the podcast we have Dr Tim Keady speaking about farming in Ireland. Having recently returned from a trip to New Zealand, Tim has a great insight at how the different systems compare.

"We went to see the use of different technologies on-farm, with the intention of reducing labour and improving efficiency. So, we decided to go to New Zealand" says Tim. "... to look at the systems of sheep reproduction... but also to look at the types and levels of technologies that are used on farm, particularly to improve labour efficiency."

Dr Tim Keady is principal sheep research scientist in the Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc Athenry and has a wealth of knowlege on the Irish sheep industry. 

Mark and Tim compare the different genetics, grassland management, hogget breeding and markets which are surprisingly similar in many ways. 

Firstly, in the last number of years in pedigree breeding genotyping is becoming more and more important in Ireland. Tim says "It's looking like there's a new scheme thats been launched this year that one of the requirements is that you have to buy a genotyped ram." A concept that has yet to reach our shores. 

Tim runs Mark through the Irish sheep meat markets. Much like New Zealand, Ireland exports most of it's lamb, with 70% going overseas, making it the largest net sheep meat exporter in Europe. With 2.5 million ewes, that's no mean feat. 

 Mark and Tim discuss the breed profile of these sheep to fit both the Irish seasons but also the export market requirements.

Thank you Tim for sharing your time with us. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

If you can optimise your stocking rate for your season, there's no reason you can't make profit in livestock. However, accessing capital for trading and breeding stock, isn't always easy and can hold a producer back. 

That's where Richard Brimblecombe and Legacy Livestock come in. Richard is a "Queenslander through and through" who always had a hankering for numbers. After a career in banking, Richard became one of the founding CEOs of stockco's Australian business. In 2019 he joined the North Australia Pastural Company. 

Richard says, "It was a very interesting roll, but having to the taste for livestock finance and what it can do for the Australian Ag Industry, and for individual producers, I was very keen to do something different in that space again; so we kicked off Legacy Livestock."

"The role [of Legacy Livestock] is to come in and provide the piece of capital to allow a producer to run his property at his full stocking rate and therefore at its full potential.

The best way to get in touch is to visit the website: www.legacylivestock.com.au

Richard says "Give us a call, have a look around on the website. You can ring the number and you will talk directly to a relationship manager, and sometimes you might even get me!''

Richard and Mark also cover what it is to be a good producer, how optimum stocking rate can do wonders, and Richards insights into market trends.
 

https://www.legacylivestock.com.au/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Want to know more about sheep parasites? This week we have Ginny Dodunski on the podcast chatting about everything from drenches and capsules, to resistance and refugia. This podcast is full of handy, helpful tips, which will hopefully make you take a step back and look at your worm management programme on farm.

In the last 12 months, Ginny has been the Wormwise programme manager but, prior to that, Ginny was (and still is) a practising large animal vet. 

Wormwise was launched as an initiative to help farmers manage drench resistance.  Ginny says that resistance to anthelmintics was always going to happen.  "Parasites were always going to develop a resistance to drugs. The more days in the year your worm population is exposed to drugs, the more opportunities they have to breed and get around it."

Mark and Ginny spend the podcast discussing what you can do if you do have drench resistance and how you can clean your farm up practically.

From different methods of refugia, cattle grazing and careful management of drench usage, Ginny says there are solutions to the problem. Mark points out that, "Well-monitored is the only way to be, you can't do any of this shooting blind." Ginny explains that, for the first few years, technical management can be overwhelming, but once you "get your eye in", she says it can be a lot less formal.

Mark and Ginny discuss the genetics behind it, and how it's not always about doing faecal egg counts and watching drenches. "It's about really focusing on feed and condition and minimising larval challenge."

If you'd like to keep up to date with Ginny and Wormwise, you can find them on Facebook here.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we are discussing markets and were lucky to secure some time with Matt Dalgleish to talk through the current markets and current trends.  Matt has a wealth of experience in livestock markets.

Matt works with Andrew Whitelaw and together they have founded Episode 3 to provide market analytics.  You can find out more about their work at Episode 3 

They began working together in commodity market analysis in 2016 at an agriculture analysis firm owned and operated by Ruralco, a listed Australian company. In 2019, Ruralco was acquired by Agrium Australia (formerly known as Landmark), a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian agribusiness, Nutrien.  

In 2020 Andrew and Matt decided to leave Nutrien to form a new food and agriculture analysis business known as Thomas Elder Markets (TEM), with the support of Elders Rural Services, a listed Australian company. 

In 2022, Andrew and Matt took over the ownership of TEM, rebranding the business and relaunching as Episode 3 (EP3).

Matt and his business partner produce the Ag Watchers Podcast - here is the link to follow their work:  https://agwatchers.podbean.com/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we bring you Ferg's thoughts on innovation and particularly the role Artificial Intelligence will play in livestock farming in the future.   The uptake of innovations in livestock breeding in the last 20 years is about to go into over drive and we are on the cusp of big changes in how sheep breeding happens across the industry.  There will be two options for those breeders out there - adapt or be disrupted.

Some of the concepts in this podcast are borrowed from Christian Kromme, we highly recommend you read or listen to his book and follow him on social as well as subscribing to his news letter. 
A link to his book is here - https://christiankromme.com/the-book-eng/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Mark Wragg transitioned from Romney ewes to a finer wool cross three years ago. Today he chats to Mark Ferguson about that process and also about the introduction of a White Suffolk stud to their business.

After attending a NZM workshop a few years ago Cheviot, which Mark Ferguson spoke at, Mark Wragg decided to make the jump into transitioning to finer wool genotype.

"A long time ago they tried merinos but the feet just fell apart.  We have heavy clay downs and it stays wet all winter. It's pretty hard on feet." But after hearing about the work done in footrot breeding values in Merinos, Mark decided to give it another go. "Certainly that workshop opened our eyes to the potential and what was possible."

Mark introduced the Southern Cross genotype into his Romney flock three years ago. The southern cross is a fine wool sheep that focuses very heavily on footrot breeding values, dag breeding values and WEC breeding values...

"...and all the things you need to entice a Romney farmer to take on a fine wool genotype. " says Ferg

Ferg and Mark run through the highs and lows of transitioning into a new genotype.

The main issue is uneven lines of lambs. But as Mark explains, "It's just transitioning and its's part of it and you've got to grin and bare it until you get through it."

But the highlights?

"We had the opportunity to shear about 4000 first cross lambs and even in that first cross they went from $2.50 for Romney lambs wool to getting almost $10 a kilo for that first cross wool"

"Certainly helped with paying the shearers." says Mark.

Along with the first cross hoggets averaging 26 micron, weaning weights being up 2kg on last year and there not being a sign of footrot on the place, you could say Mark is convinced. 

Mark also discusses the introduction of the White Suffolks into New Zealand from Australia.  "The thing I really like about the White Suffolk is that it has a really nice shape for lambing ease nice, low birth weights but very rapid growth, which is what kiwis needs as seasons are short and variable."

Ferg also has a love for the breed. "It would be hard to argue there is a more performance driven terminal breed in the world than the White Suffolk."

This podcast is a great insight into what it looks like to transition from a Romney to a finer wool genotype without sacrificing any of the production traits that traditionally came with a finer wool type. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

 This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have another senior scientist of AgResearch, Tricia Johnson.

Following on from our podcast with Dr Suzanne Rowe on "Genetic selection for lower methane in ruminants", we invited Tricia on to focus on her research in one of Marks favourite topics, feed efficiency and body composition.

Tricia has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to sheep phenotypes and genetics; from muscling and meat quality traits to Facial Eczema .

Mark starts off this epic podcast with the Myomax gene.

"Early 2000's when Texel's were gaining prominence in New Zealand [...] We identified a region of the myostatin gene which was associated with increased muscling in the Texels."

Tricia dives into more about muscling and fat, which then leads to the topic of feed use efficiency.

"We've known for a long time that feed use efficiency is a really important economic trait in terms of feed cost, but also in terms of animals being able to be a little more resilient in the face of variable feed amounts" She explains.

Tricia walks us through the trial that began back in 2015. "We have 6 weeks where we have daily feed intake recording.  Any time an animal goes into a feeder we see the timestamp of when she goes in, how long she's there for and how much feed she eats for that feeding event." This gives a fantastic profile of feeding events over the trial period.

"We also take live weights twice a week ... we have a really nice profile of her growth and her feed intake at the time and a whole lot of behavioural traits of how she's eating that feed"

Mark asks about those behavioural traits and if they discovered anything interesing.

Tricia tells us about a fascinating finding when they ran the BLNZG Low Input Sheep Progeny Test animals through the intake facility. 

"One of the really interesting things, in terms of looking it some of these behaviour traits, happened in the first cohort of these [low input] girls."

After their Farm manager at the time noticed a "bunch" of them were refusing to transition into the facility, something highly unusual after over 2,000 sheep had previously done so sucessfully. 

So, Tricia wondered if they were all from the same low input sire? And they were. He was also a leading ram in a certain trait, can you guess which one? 

Tricias knowledge in feeding efficiency and behaviour, the genetics behind them and the resulting factors of those behavioural patterns is just incredible. You'll want to listen to this podcast a few times! 

Thank you Tricia for sharing your time with us and our listeners. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have the wonderful Prue Bondfield.

Prue didn't have a traditional pathway into agriculture. "In terms of the beef industry my association there started when I got married to my husband who owned a Charolais stud. I was a lawyer in Brisbane, Queensland." Says Prue. "It was really city meets country in the best way".

From the time David and Prue purchased 50 cows from her Father in law, the stud went from strength to strength.  "We ran the Palgrove seedstock herd for 35 years and in summary exited that business early this year".

Mark asks, now that Prue and David have built and exited a successful business, with the power of hindsight would they do anything differently now?

"You learn by trying. If it hadn't been invented, we'd try and develop or pioneer something. We found that over our life we had to find different ways of breeding our cattle or different breed standards for us.. they're not things you'd do differently but they certainly make character."

"When you do things half right, you never feel great about it." Says Prue. "It feels better if you're doing things really really well, to the best you can do it and producing quality at the other end."

Prue credits the key factors to their businesses success to a few things. First was leasing land whilst they increased their numbers. "We had a factory operating before we bought the factory floor [...] So we had productive animals ready to move onto any new land that we bought."

"Once embryo transplants started to become part of the norm in the business, that really jumped our numbers up. There was this never-ending game of chase behind the production. And then that gets to the certain point where you become a big supplier."

Prue says they never intended to be a large business, they wanted quality over quantity but they were obviously onto a winning formula!

"We started to think about how we raise some capital, to raise some to find a partner who will very much be part of this growth story." "We started to look for a partner. We did look all over the world." One essential for success was that Prue made sure he business was ready for investment. Prue says "You have to be operating as a corporate entity in a family business which is what we really gave a lot of time into getting that right prior to looking for capital".

Prue now sits on a range of boards and governance structures and still has connections throughout the industry. Mark asks Prue's thoughts on the health of industry and what innovations are required to take it to the next step.

Prue chats about some of the companies of boards she's on  "One of them is an AgriTech company called Black Box Co. It's fantastic, it gives me a really good insight on what farmers are asking for in terms of practical, good technology" 

"There is that sense now, that I haven't seen before, of working together and working as one industry."

Prue is an inspiration to many and we thank her for spending her tim

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have a fantastic podcast for you discussing a very hot topic, Methane emissions in ruminants.

We have Dr Suzanne Rowe, Senior Scientist at AgResearch talking about the history of recording methane in sheep, what the industry is currently doing towards reducing methane emissions and where the future of methane in sheep is heading.

Dr Rowe was born and raised in the UK, studied Agriculture and has a PhD in Quantitative Genetics. She then moved to NZ "..where we've got the great facilities and big herds." Suzanne has been working, for almost the past decade, on breeding sheep with low methane outputs.

"The program was started in 2007 by a man called John McEwan, I'm sure many of your listeners would have heard of John. He set out to understand whether methane could be measured and whether it was heritable."

John started with 1,000 animals from CPT flocks, so his findings would be applicable in the industry immediately.  "It took him around 4 years to get them all through the  Portable Accumulation Chamber (PAC)." The PAC is a chamber which uses a gas analyser measuring device to record gas outputs from sheep.

Back then it took two days to measure one animal. Every 6 minutes a sample would be taken from a PAC, so it did give a very detailed result.

"From there what John did was select high and low methane selection lines and go on to breed these sheep for generations, to see if methane was passed on."

And was it?

"We're here today because it was. It's heritable."

"We went back and looked at those 6 minutes measures over the 48 hour time periods and we looked at each [...] measure and we worked out which of the ones were most predictive." This research and investigation work, evolved since the initial detailed studies, means now just a half an hour 'stint' is needed inside a chamber.

There are currently PACs in Ireland, units in Norway, one off to Scotland, France and Australia so the world is really starting to ramp up methane measurements in livestock.

AgResearch are currently trying to find out the connection between the gut microbes and methane emissions. "The microbiome that sits in the gut, is a property of its' host." Says Dr Rowe. "I don't think thats some maternal transfer, I think that's from the genetics of the animal"

"There are different ways to ferment feed, it seems that the low methane sheep have picked a different way to ferment the feed"

Suzanne briefly talks about the future of measuring methane in sheep. Recently they have been looking into taking and processing rumen samples and comparing them with PAC results. This could allow for more rumen samples to be taken in difficult locations where a trailer can't reach, or even with larger species such as cattle and deer.

However, it's not currently as easy as it may seem. The feed intake has to be very specific and precise prior to taking rumen samples because, as Suzanne explains, "We just don't have the validation or resources to know it's like for like". (For every grazing scenario)

Suzanne tells us about the Beef and

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have another episode in our "Ferg's Thoughts" series. Seeing as it's the start of a new year, Mark chats about what we can achieve in the future. 

"How can we set ourselves up for success in 2023?" Mark asks  "We always think back to that 30 years, depending on where you are in your farming cycle. That '30' being the number of times you get to select a bull or ram tea to go out."

"So roughly we get those 30 opportunities to keep the females we keep and the males we either buy or keep as well. " says Mark.

"The point of that is that, that is not many, so we have to make the best decision we can." He says, highlighting the importance of every breeding purchase and decision. 

Mark asks "What is the story you're telling yourself? What was the story you told yourself in 2022? We have this story in our head about what is possible, but it's hard to not get caught up in the hardships of farming. Be it the weather, legislation or any other problems farmers can face. "

"The reality is, we don't have a lot of control over that.  Our opportunities lie within dealing with the cards we're dealt. Our only control is how we react to that. How we get on and farm, how we breed animals.."

"I think 2023 is a great opportunity to try something new. Whether that's something as simple as scanning for twins..." Mark reminds us it's okay to try and fail, rather than not try at all.

If you'd like neXtgen to be part of your New Year to help you reach those new audacious goals, contact us at [email protected].

Thank you to all of our listeners in 2022 and the guests that shared their knowledge with us here at neXtgen and you our listeners. We have a fantastic line up for the start of 2023 that we think you'll love.

Check out The Hub
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Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Check out The Hub

thehub.nextgenagri.com

Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have our freshest recruit, James Lines.

After only 9 days on the job, Mark got James onto the head shepherd podcast to talk about his upbringing and what lead to him applying for a job at a genetics consultancy firm.

James grew up on a mixed farming enterprise, which also had the Gum Hills Merinos stud and south Devon cattle. After a 'gap year' working on the home farm and jackarooing, James studied Ag Science at Adelaide University. He's spent his last year really focusing on genomics during his honours project where he specialised in livestock production. 

James runs Mark through his project. "It was implementing a genomics program in a stud context, which was at home at Gum Hill." James explains. "It was interesting working with family and working with academics and researchers." 

James started off by sorting through a decade of data based mainly on wool quality. "Most of the sheep in the population had had yearling measurements for around the 10 months of age." With spreadsheets from 2012 available to him, James set about pulling together a huge database of historical records which he describes as "in a different format every time". Then he moved on to genomics. 

"I spent a couple of weeks with a lot of helpers and a lot of technology collecting DNA samples on all of the ewes that have scanned in lamb. Which will give us parentage for the first time."... "Combined that all, got through the statistics of it... meshed it all together and it spat out our enhanced genomic breeding values." 

"It certainly sets you up for your new role!" says Mark. "You couldn't ask for a better background" 

Mark and James also cover the T90 project. James is one of the T90 trainers helping people navigate materials and the changes they are implementing. 

James is currently based near Mount Gambier but will be covering Western Victoria, South Australia and also into WA once he's more centrally placed.

As Mark describes, James is tailor made for the job. If you would like to get in touch with James or anyone at the team you can contact us at:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, we're changing gears a little and chatting with author Michelle Scott Tucker.

Having an audience of mostly sheep tragics, Mark thought the parallels between Michelles book, Elizabeth Macarthur: a life at the edge of the world; and our listeners was too good not to make the most of.

Michelle tells us more about the wonderful Elizabeth Macarthur and the foundations of the Merino wool industry of Australia.
 
Elizabeths story begins in on a farm in North Devon, after marrying a not-strongly liked soldier named John Macarthur. In 1790, Elizabeth followed him to "make his fortune" in Australia- the only officers wife to go and what Michelle refers to as a "pretty stupid decision".

June 1790 she arrived in Sydney Harbour excited to see this mythical township she'd been promised Australia held , and instead saw an army campsite of tents full of soldiers without shoes, food or women to talk to.

In 1793, the Macarthurs got their first land grant of 100 acres in a place that is now called Parramatta.  They spent a few years working hard turning the place into a mixed farm. Livestock numbers were incredibly low so they had sheep but not in huge numbers.

In 1801 John Macarthur was sent back to England to be court marshalled after shooting his commanding officer during a duel, and left Elizabeth to run the recently expanded farm alone with the youngest children.

John escaped his court-marshalling in the UK and sweet-talked his way into supplying British wool mills with Australian wool, despite not having the sheep or the experience in importing wool. John also sweet talked his way into exporting a flock of the kings Merinos he'd purchased, despite export of them being illegal. He returned to Australia in 1905 with 5,000 acres and some "scrubby" fine wool sheep.

But, nearly 4 years later John gets sent back to the UK after causing more political trouble.

And so Elizabeth was left running the farm, and the wool export industry for the next 12 years. She was the first person to send commercial quantities of wool to England.

-

Although different to our usual podcasts, this is a fantastic relaxing listen. Michelles years of research into the beginning of the Australian wool industry, and much much more, is really commendable and enjoyable listening for any sheep tragic.

If you'd like to find out more about Michelles books, follow the link below:
https://michellescotttucker.com/elizabeth-macarthur/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Sarah talking about genetics, technology and solving problems in the Agricultural industry.

Sarah is currently Global Strategy and New Ventures Manager at Gallagher and also breeds Polled Dorsets in the Waikato, NZ. Sarah grew up on a farm with a father who was a ram breeder. "I have always been around stud sheep," says Sarah

After spending some time after university as an Agricultural journalist, Sarah returned to genetics and started working for the the Ultrafine Merino Company. 

"I looked after the breeding programme of their nucleus flock at Tara Hills and helped sell the wool into Asia, developing different pricing mechanisms." 

"We did a lot of testing around spinning efficiently and the wool. We could show the company we were working with that we could add more value to their processing efficiency and then we shared the premiums with them."

Mark explains what the company is. "Breeders came together and measured the micron of over 20,000 ewes and bought them into a central nucleus of 600. Then they set about breeding the worlds finest merino, essentially."

"A lot of those foundation breeders are still chopping away and producing some
exquisite fibre" 

Sarah currently breeds Polled Dorsets. She recently moved from Canterbury to the Waikato. "That would have been quite a challenge moving to an FE area for the sheep?" ask Mark

"It's a really big challenge. We will bolus the ram hoggets but we don't do anything else, they just have to survive." says Sarah. "We've already seen some sire lines that are much more resistant to it."

Very early in on in the sheep DNA pedigree days, Sarah was involved with Ovita. "We had the problem at the time that it was pretty expensive tech. So we came up with a product that only had 7 markers in the panel and developed some smart ways of being able to get more accuracy."

"There was lots of challenges along the way of getting people on board. Over time as we got the price down, people saw the value and we added more traits into the panel that told you about muscling, fecundity, worm resistance and things like that," Sarah explains. "Then we moved in top the SNP chip days, so now accuracy is very high. So it was a journey and understanding the problem... and that's what a lot of my career has been about. Then working out a way to solve it and taking people on the journey."

Sarah has been at Gallagher for nearly 7 years. "We've been on a journey about future thinking and looking further out and thinking; what is the future on farm? 

"We've been working really hard to get a product to market that has the reliability of the products that we traditionally are known for, which is extremely high. When you read statistics our products are more reliable than Boing!" 
 
Mark asks Sarah what she thinks the next 10 years will bring in Ag.

"I think it's going to be a journey towards precision farming. It's really hard to do this in pastural remote areas but it's not impossible."

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Professor Simon de Graaf, a fellow podcaster and a world expert in sheep reproduction, sperm sexing and AI.

Simon is currently a Professor of Animal Reproduction at The University of Sydney,  where he says 90% of the work he does now is sheep "But my background is such that we've dealt with a lot of different species."

Simons work in reproduction began during his PhD where he studied sexed semen. Mark asks for a run through of the process of sexing semen.

"It's all based on the fact there's a different amount of DNA in a male sperm and a female sperm." explains Simon. "The X chromosome is bigger than the Y chromosome so if you add a special dye to it, you can pick up the higher florescence in the X chromosome."

The method for successfully separating sexed semen was a success. "The big challenge, after they initially developed the technology, was keeping the sperm alive though the process." explains Simon. "It's a lot to be shot through a cannon at 80 miles an hour...it's not a recipe for long life. So there was a lot of research that went into keeping them happy and healthy in the process"

​Fast forward 20 years and the results of sexed semen have pretty good conception rates.

"There's certainly been some people that have gotten fantastic results in recent times and [they] are going back for second or even third sexed semen programs. You should expect, if everything goes right, around your normal AI, which is around 70%."

Mark asks if Simon is involved in anything that might explain the variability of AI success.

"With in my team, Dr Jessica Rickard and Eloise Spanner, they have just commenced a project on prediction of AI success."

Part of this project is to attempt to place a few more numbers or gather more information on what makes for a success or what makes for a failure.

Mark and Simon then cover "Reproduction Co", Simons latest venture.

"I've always been quite interested in the commercial space and I was keen to offer the semen assessment service at a national level. So what I decided to do was set up this business. Amongst other things it's offering standardised semen testing."

"We have three labs where everyone is doing the same thing, following the same protocols. They've been trained in the same way and we exchange reference samples to check we're all seeing the same thing and scoring the same thing."

"We all talk about how expensive AI programs are...I would argue that you should take a look at the semen that you are going to be using.  Check it for numbers, looks, swimming patterns.... Why not test for those things if they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to a failure?" he asks.

Simon delves into the science behind artificial insemination and he and Mark discuss the future of AI. Currently work is going on to facilitate cervical AI in sheep with frozen semen.

And finally, Simon discusses his podcast "Repro Radio" which covers all aspects of reproduction. From human fertility to wildlife conservation.

If you would like to

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Jason Strong, Managing Director of Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd. (MLA)

Jason grew up on a farm and says "I can never remember not wanting to be a cow farmer." He says that winning a scholarship to the University of Illinois in his late teens was "transformative" in his career. 

"The most important thing was learning about meat grading and meat science. I got really excited about being a meat grader and came home [...] and realised we didn't have a meat grading system.... which is quite career limiting."

"That's what got me started working with Dr Rod Polkinghorne and John Webster [...] that set up the Meat Standards, Australia system."

Jason worked in various roles in Agriculture but with one common goal, to make the industry better for everyone. Now, as Managing Director of MLA, Jason gives us a run down of what MLA do, for our non-Australian listeners, and also what they are focusing on in the next few years. 

"At our core, we focus on research development and marketing."

Jason makes a great point in saying that over MLAs time, they have invested in 12-13,000 projects. Which means it's hard to find something in the livestock sector they haven't looked into.

"When we think about research and development, so much of what was a challenge for us twenty years ago, [...] so many of those things have been solved or improved. So the breadth of things that we need to invest in, is a much shorter list now than it was 32 years ago"

Jason says that MLA are focusing on the importing things going forward. "When we put our strategic plan together, we took a "Fewer, Bigger, Bolder approach." 

Mark asks what the "big ticket" items that MLA are focusing on.

"Sustainability," Jason says. "We've doubled investment in that space. We've committed to double our investment in adoption and extension and we also significantly increased our investment in traceability and biosecurity"

Jason is very enthusiastic about the future of the industry, and as he should be.  "The industry is in an amazing shape. Particularly in the last five years. The success of the collective industry are coming to the fore" 

Considering the past few years and everything that has happened, Jason says that prices for red meat will remain strong. He says that the collective effort of the last 20 years, building markets and connecting with consumers, is now showing benefits.

"It's not a mistake. It didn't just happen [..] there's absolutely a component of where we're at at the moment. The underlying strength of where we are has come from all of the other things'' 

One benefit of such a strong market is that we have more certainty in our investments. "We can now make a direct connection between investment and benefit." Jason says. When it comes to genetics, farmers now know their decisions will actually pay off financially. Farmers can now buy rams with traits they know they will be rewarded for by the supply chain. 

This episode is a great reminder of how far the industry has come in the past 20 years and

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd Podcast, we head over to Europe to chat with Cathy Dwyer.

Cathy is based in Edinburgh and splits her time between two roles. One at Scotlands Rural College, leading a team of researchers in Animal Welfare and Behaviour and the other at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies where they have a centre for Animal Welfare Education of which Cathy is a Director.

We invited Cathy onto the podcast because of her research into the maternal bond and maternal behaviour at birth in sheep. It has been one of her core research areas.

Cathy says they started out thinking about just the behaviour of the ewe. "Everyone thought it was the mothers fault if the lamb didn't survive, so we started [research] with the mother"

"One of the key things that we found, as part of that work using embryo transfer between two of our different Scottish breeds with different levels of maternal care, was that the lamb was really important... although we tended to blame the mother, the behaviour of the lamb was just as important."

"We've done some work looking at the heritability of lamb activity at birth. We know it is fairly heritable (25%) so we can select rams in particular that produce offspring that are active" Says Cathy. "So certainly there's a lot of potential to improve lamb survival by honing on what the lamb was doing, rather than just looking at the ewe"

Mark asks what measures they were using to measure lamb activity. "We looked in particular at what was the lamb was doing five minutes after birth... We had very specific scores that we asked farmers to collect [...] To make it more objective to farmers."

They've also been looking onto thermoregulation in the lamb.

"You have this downward spiral, they're born with their brown fat backpack of energy, but they've got to replenish that as quick as they can. So having a good suckling relationship with their mother sits in the middle of the success of the whole story."

"Some of the work we've looked at is how does that early thermoregulation start and how is that brown fat being used. There are differences in some of the animals that we've looked at in the thyroid hormones, which are involved in the onset of thermoregulation."

Another weak point in lamb survival at birth is in triplet lambs. Cathy says that triplet lambs are compromised on many fronts. "Singles and twins physiologically and behaviourally are on a continuum, whereas triplets drop off the bottom of the scale. And I think really understanding where that's coming from."

"A ewe has two uterine horns. When she has twins she has a lamb in either side, but when she has triplets theres going to be a second lamb in the second horn, and how does she deal with that? Theres going to be some sharing of the amount of space and amount of placenta. So there are anatomical differences between having twins and having triplets"

Mark and Cathy also cover maternal behaviours in hoggets/maidens and other research projects she's involved with.

There is plenty to be learnt from this podcast so thank you to C

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Charlie de Fegely chatting about things all things sub clover and beyond.

Charlie farms in Western Victoria in the foothills of The Grampians. They average around 550mm of rainfall per year and are in a predominantly cropping area but they have chosen to be all stock because of their heavy clay soils.

Charlie and his family will be mating 10,000 ewes this year. Last year he mated 8,300 and marked 12,000 lambs. Figures to be very happy with. 

Charlie chats about his time at the Grassland Society and the "Longterm Phosphate Trial" and Sub Clover research.

"It was a terrible time [in sheep farming], and we were looking at alternatives to retain viability and long term profitability. Dr Peter Schroder came to me when I was president of the Grasslands Society and he said "Charlie, we've got the help these farmers pick themselves back up after the wool prices have been shot." 

"The work they'd done at the long-term phosphate trial, it showed clearly that if you put fertiliser on for not much cost you can actually increase your productivity." Charlie says. "One of the ideas behind it was to not have to put a tractor and seeder through the paddock. And it did work. The sub clover seed was there, it just had to be grazed hard enough to let it come back, and fertilised. And people were ecstatic" 

"It was a great time to be part of extending information to farmers as it actually put a smile back onto farmers faces... It was amazing to be a part of it." He says. "That was one of the programs they (MLA) ever invested in and there's a lot of people that actually need it again to understand pasture quality and the impact on the animal."

Charlie is still implementing those principles and is a huge fan of sub clover with some phenomenal looking pastures on his farm. "We've applied the principles... fertilising and grazing. Then all of a sudden the clover comes up" 

Charlieexplains his weaning pastures which are an impressive sight. "We use a combination of sub clover and perennial ryegrass. I will say at 12/14kg ha of clover some people might think that's a lot, but it ends up looking like a fodder crop of clover." 

"It carries another month of great quality. It allows us to finish weaning of mum and get a month of extra growth."

The "measure to manage" mindset has followed Charlie through his career. After period of consulting, Charlie realised "I could actually do better staying at home because we had the opportunity to expand."

Now at home full time, with the farm ever growing, Charlie is starting to dabble in genetics. When Charlie bred merinos he managed to remove dag from his flock, something of which he's keen to do again in his Composites.  "We've got some really productive sheep but we've bought some traits in we don't like. So by breeding our own rams we can take out some of those traits." 

Charlie and Mark also cover the Zanda McDonald award, mating hoggets and much more in this podcast. 

Thanks Charlie for sharing your time with us.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week, to tide you over between seasons, we've released two of our Head Shepherd Premium podcasts for you. 

Mark recently uploaded a series on different traits that might be important for our clients. In the "Breeding Series", Mark covers many traits. From staple length, to growth to muscling. 

We've decided to share CVoFD and Fat with you today. CVoFD might seem like an unusual one but as Mark says, "It's quite cool as its correlated with lots of things."

They are both linked to whole body energy, which is why we put these two together.

If you are interested in more Head Shepherd Premium podcasts, contact us on [email protected]

We will be releasing an episode every week alongside all transcripts of the podcasts as well as giving you access to the other 28 bonus episodes. 

We will be back next week with Season 9.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

We've reached the end of season 8 and we've got a great Q&A podcast for you. 

We have questions from “What's your opinion on Australia’s LEQ index compared to focusing solely on IMF and shear force figures if your number one breeding objective is to increase eating quality?” to "Is there any correlation between worm burdens/high genetic WEC and dermatitis/wool rot?"

Mark also covers breeding for footrot resistance in crossbred (non-merino) sheep and how the industry can go about improving that at a producer level. 

We also cover the future of neXtgen Agri and where Mark hopes the industry will be in 20/30 years time, and it's an exciting place to be sure! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Charlie Wootton.
Charlie is currently based in Adelaide but is originally from Jigsaw Farms in South West Victoria.

Charlie is doing his honours project on the "Magnificent Maidens" project, which is the topic of todays podcast.

The MLA funded PDS project, "Magnificent Maidens",  is to demonstrate best-bet management of maiden ewes on their reproductive performance and carryover effects on subsequent performance. 

"There's not much research done on maiden merino hoggets that join at 18-19 months of age" Charlie says. He also says that improving maiden hogget performance is a "low hanging fruit."

Maiden ewes can represent up to 30% of the whole farm ewe flock and their reproductive performance is usually 20-30% lower than that achieved at their subsequent joinings.

"You can't prioritise all of the sheep in your flock. So that means that maiden hoggets are often put on the back burner [...] and forgotten about until their first joining at 18 months of age"

Mark says when it comes to putting that weight on maidens, "Do it early and do it the easy way rather than trying to stack weight on at the end."

"It's about working out how we do that in a cost effective way." Agrees Charlie.

Mark and Charlie go on to discuss the results of the trials and what the key drivers are to maiden performance.

"For every one kilo increase in live weight at joining there was a 2.2% increase in reproductive rate" Charlie says. "We also found that during joining, weight gain is positively correlated with an increasing scanning rate. For every 100g per day of increased weight gain, during the joining period there, was a 7.3% increase in reproductive rate"

If you would like to hear more from Charlie and learn how to improve the performance of your maiden ewes, you can attend our FREE online course for the Magnificent Maiden project.

The course will be run over 3 x 1 hr sessions over 4 weeks - starting 5pm AEDT Wed 2 November

Presentations and project progress updates will be given by: 

• Dr Mark Ferguson, neXtgen Agri
• Dr Andrew Thompson, Murdoch University
• Charlie Wootton.

For more information about this project check out our project site here: https://www.nextgenagri.com/magnificent-maidens
https://www.nextgenagri.com/articles/magnificent-maidens

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Duncan Humm. Duncan farms Deer for venison and velvet and is also one of the minds behind NZ Farming on Facebook.

Mark and Duncan discuss deer farming, a topic not often covered on the Head Shepherd podcast. Duncan farms with his partner Lorna in the picturesque foothills of the Southern Alps in the South Island of New Zealand. 

They have two different lines of deer with their velvet hinds looking drastically different to their venison hinds, rather than attempting a duel purpose animal.

"The velvet hinds are like these tiny little 'Perendale' type things versus our massive venison animals"

Duncan says he focuses on temperament and maternal ability when picking replacements. "The velvet industry has been a bit too focused just on kilos which has left a few of those maternal traits behind as a result"

"They wouldn't be the first industry to get lost chasing  the product and forgetting about the animals" Mark says.

"There's still so much potential in deer genetics. With one good stag, you can jump the genetics up not by 100's of grams, but by kilos" Duncan says. "It's pretty exciting.. if you have deep pockets"

Duncan is now planning on putting in 35Ha of solar on their Canterbury farm. It will be the second solar farm in the area.

"It's been something we've been looking for for quite some time. A big part of driving it is farm succession and resilience to climate and governance."

Their proximity to infrastructure and their summer climate means they are well set up to produce power. "Mid-Canterbury power demands are opposite to that of the rest of the country. Peak usage is in the summer in the middle of the day. So solar is the perfect fit for this area, it's pretty cool."

Duncan Humm is also one of the brains behind NZ Farming, "New Zealand's #1 grass roots social media community. Telling the story of real farm life and where your food comes from through the eyes of farmers".

The initial intent was for it to be a community for those who couldn't get down to a local rugby club or pub for a yarn. Tyler, the original creator wanted a space for people to have a chat with likeminded individuals and it definitely worked with over 420,000 followers across a range of platforms.

If you're not already following NZ Farming, make sure you do!
NZ Farming Facebook
Nz Farming Instagram

Designer Genes
Later this month neXtgen Agri will be on the road in the North and South Island to bring our "Designer Genes" workshop to you.
https://www.nextgenagri.com/events

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Live

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have our newest recruit at neXtgen Agri, Georgia Pugh.

Georgia comes from a background of farming in Western Australia on a mixed family farm farming around 4,500 Ha.  Georgia went on to study Ag Science with commerce at UWA. With honours in Meat Science.

Georgia started out as a recent graduate wanting to be a farm consultant but she felt she needed to develop her "business muscle" when she graduated.  So she headed to a graduate role at PwC, and dug into the advisory role with focus in research and development consulting.

"You've just got to do everything, and learn, and build life skills. That diversity will make you a more well rounded human. So I really focused on in that on the early part of my career."

Georgia found herself ready to apply her skills directly to farming business, helping individual farmers rather than the industry as a whole. And so, she applied for a role here at neXtgen Agri. 

Mark asks Georgia what her predictions are for the next 10 years in the industry.
"I'm really passionate about helping, not just those that have their head in the tech/cutting edge aspect of agriculture, but bringing on the "lagards" in the industry."

She uses her family farm as an example. They use paper based systems and she's helping them move towards a tech based system with individual data management.

"It's to get to that baseline point so we can be ready for when robots and facial recognition technology, and all of the other exciting tech coming in farming"

Georgia makes a great point. "When it becomes paramount to have data from farm to table... When consumers are wanting that, then we as an industry will be ready to go- once we've done that baseline of data collection"

Mark agrees, saying "Technology isn't going to come in take us from 0 to 100, those that are already at 70- it'll lift them that last bit".

Georgia is a great addition to the team and we're very excited for her to be a part of the team over in WA.

Designer Genes
Later this month neXtgen Agri will be on the road in the North and South Island to bring our "Designer Genes" workshop to you.
https://www.nextgenagri.com/events

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week we have another in our "Fergs Thoughts" series. This week Dr Mark Ferguson talks us through the benefits of using EID and how it can help with replacement ewe selection.

Ferg shares his thoughts on how to best utilise EID to make better decisions when selecting replacement ewes for your flock.
 
"What we have to be careful of is, within that selection decision, is only a part of what we see is genetic. We see a small animal that's not doing so well.. but  it may be a late born twin... It's genetics could be just as good as an early born lamb"

Mark suggests separating twins from singles at replacement selection so you're not judging twins against singles. This requires lambing twins and singles separately and keeping them that way until marking/docking, so that you can identify them with tags then.

EID allows you to store data points which gives you the ability you to make that informed decision.
 
"Without EID it becomes difficult to keep track of all of those things."

Weaning weight, condition scores, wool traits, reproductive performance, birth litter size.. the list of things you can record to an EID is endless.

Mark reminds us we need to make sure to "remove the noise".
 
"Even when we're measuring things, it's still important to remember that not all of it is genetic. Some of it's genetic, some of it's environmental" 

We've developed a tool at neXtgen Agri that helps correct data for the known fixed effects, which we'll be commercialising soon.

Mark covers the other benefits of having EID, from being able to mix up mobs and seperate them again easily at any point. "You don't have to worry about a dot on their back fading or being shorn off, once it's on the EID it's there forever."

Mark also discusses Genesmith, technology we have been developing to match lamb to dam at commercial scale, without the need for expensive DNA or collars. 

Designer Genes
Later this month neXtgen Agri will be on the road in the North and South Island to bring our "Designer Genes" workshop to you.
Email [email protected] for more information.

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

 This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Neville Brady of Browsup Consulting, a consultancy company "...providing management support for groups, organisations and corporate businesses seeking to develop and implement structures that improve Leadership, Management, Staff Engagement, Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence. "

After having the opportunity to hear Neville speak recently, Mark thought he'd be a great guest for the Head Shepherd podcast- and he wasn't wrong! 

Nevilles background is in the advertisement industry with studies in marketing. "I was always interested in buyer behaviour. As an adult student I also did some study in psychology." He says. "I was really interested in a theory proposed by Professor Higgings called 'Self Discrepancy Theory". It's as follows

• Actual - This is what I'm actually doing.
• Ought- This is what I ought to be doing.
• Ideally- This is what I could do.

The team of three at Browsup Consulting have been applying that to businesses across Australia "to move them from 'actual' through to 'ideal', so that they can achieve operational excellence."

Mark and Neville go on to discuss conflict. Something Neville says we should embrace. "If we as an organism didn't suffer from conflict, we wouldn't be here. Conflict's fun"

"Wherever you have people living, working, socialising or playing sports together, there is always conflict. Usually we're called into businesses because of the AVOIDANCE of the conflict, rather than the conflict itself."

The root cause of conflict is always one of, or multiple of the following reasons:

• Structure,
• Resources
• Competency
• Commitment

First, Browsup review business structures and resources before they go blaming anyone’s competency or commitment.  "Following this process, we have a farm business input audit that clearly measures their starting point, their actuals... leadership, staff engagement, succession and so on."

Once they've established the root cause of the conflict, they can aim towards being in their "Ideal", rather than their "Actual".

Mark and Neville also discuss emotional maturity and management. Mark asks "How do you get people self aware enough to be aware that they're part of the problem/solution to conflict?"

Neville says, "If you had snot on your nose, wouldn't you like someone to tell you?" It might not be an easy conversation to have. "One of the first steps is to confront the truth."..."and look... It's never come as a surprise, when people rate someone poorly for emotional maturity"

"If you talk about it, it takes some of the heat out of it" says Neville. This allows a plan to be made to solve the issue.

To finish off the podcast Mark and Neville discuss Mens Mental Health, a topic very dear to Nevilles heart. "The suicide rate in male farmers in Australia is 400% greater than females. So get into the conflict early," Neville says. "Conflict isn't like a bottle of red wine, it doesn't get better with age."
 
And a f

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Pat Maher, CEO of Atkins Ranch.

Atkins Ranch supplies premium New Zealand Lamb to Whole Foods in North America and Canada, supplying 95% of their lamb, plus they supply a handful of other traders such as Trader Joes and Costco from time to time.

Mark and Pat discuss the starts of Atkins Ranch, which has great story behind it. Started in 1989 by two farming families frustrated at the returns from the meat works at the time, they came up with the concept of Atkins Ranch. Then they tossed a coin over who would move over to America to start selling their premium product.

33 years later, there are now hundreds of suppliers to Atkins Ranch.

A key selling point of Atkins Ranch is supplying grass fed lamb 52 weeks of the year, because New Zealand grows grass year round.

Atkins Ranch looks to be ahead of the trends. They were doing antibiotic free 20 years ago before it became a thing. They moved onto "non GMO products", then GAP (Global Animal Partnership) which is an higher animal welfare standards audit, and Atkins Ranch was the first meat company in the world to get that accreditation.

"Now we're really looking at regenerative farming very very closely. We've aligned ourselves with an accreditation system called "Land to market verification"... we see that as being the next big thing."

Genetics wise, Pat says they like more intramuscular fat because it means theres more chance of the consumer cooking it well. How much IMF? Well, "If the consumer can't see it (IMF), they wont pay a premium for it. So it needs to be visual." Pat says. Atkins Ranch also look for heaver carcasses, around the 25kg range as opposed to the 18kg standard in New Zealand.

The whole ethos of the business is to get the market premiums that they generate though their customers, back in into the pockets of the farmers.

There tends to be a waitlist to become an Atkins Ranch supplier with processing labour limitations. "There is a definite desire to grow, though, because of how successful the business model is." Pat says.

If you would like to learn more about Atkins Ranch, visit their website below:
www.atkinsranch.com/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Harry Lawson of Lawson Angus.

Harry goes through the progression of the Lawson Angus business, a pioneering family for performance recording cattle. His parents started performance recording in the late 60s and they recently held their 50th Bull Sale. They currently farm in 4 states of Australia.

When Harry and his brother returned to the family farm in 1994, they were running 300 cows. Over the next 10 years, Harry and his brother upped that to 2,500. They went from selling 50 bulls a year to 1000.

Mark and Harry compare the change in genetics and traits Lawson Angus have been chasing over their 50 years of recording. They started with recording maternal ability and growth.
It wasn't until mid-80's when the US bulls came into Australia, that they focused on birth weights.
They also started ultra-sounding in the late 80s as they wanted to start selecting on carcass and marbling. They then focused in on mature weight as they got bigger growth.

Harry says that not enough people are paying attention to their mature cow size.

"No seedstock herds are weighing their cows even though it drives so many things. Fertility, ability to handle socking rate/seasonal fluctuations and postpartum anoestrus intervals."

"If you're big, lean and high milking in our system, you're gone" Harry says. "Milk is a very misunderstood trait. We're getting more and more milk and we don't need more and more milk. It's a massive energy drag. You're not pumping out four calves, you're pumping out one"

Mark and Harry discuss other traits like marbling, fat and feed conversion and how they effect the maternal cow and essentially the bottom line of the business.

A great podcast between two genetics enthusiasts. It's also great to hear the history behind such a successful operation.

If you'd like to find out more about Lawson Angus you can visit their website below:
www.lawsonsangus.com.au/

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we are discussing employment in the Ag sector. Mark chats with John Boote, CEO of Drover Ag, specialists in Ag recruitment.

John has been involved in Agriculture his entire life working his way up through senior management roles. He'd always seen recruitment as a major issues in the Agricultural Industry.  To solve that problem, three years ago, he started Drover Ag. They now has over 1000 clients Australia-wide.

"Putting the right people in the right jobs is what keeps us going"

"Personality matching is the most important thing" John says. Sometimes it's not always about their qualifications or experience "We'll promote exceptional characters to roles where they may not have the desired skill set" Skills can be taught, a personality is hard to change.

Mark and John go through what makes a good employer AND a good employee.

John says that there's so many choices for employees now that employers have to make sure they're offering something above the usual. "Everyone in your neighbouring community are looking for the same person as you, to fill the same role."

"It's about inclusion, support and furthering skills" Not necessarily offering an extra $30k

John also says "It's your challenge as a business owner to accomodate an employee as they progress in their career... if the ladder stops within your operation you can't blame them if they want to keep climbing"

Mark and John also discuss what it takes to be a great employee and how to get the job of your dreams. Cover letters, research into businesses and prompt communication can go a long way.

If you would like to know more about Drover Ag you can visit their website below

www.droverag.com.au/

If you'd like to find out more about working for neXtgen Agri, visit the link below
thehub.nextgenagri.com/c/careers/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Nathan Scott.

With a background in Prime Lamb production, Nathan started his own consultancy firm, Achieve Ag Solutions, eight years ago.   

"We work with a range of producers, looking for the low hanging fruit within their business and applying the latest science and technology, in a practical way that means something to their business"

Nathan is passionate about knowledge transfer in the Agricultural industry.

"Coca-Cola didn't come out with just one advertisement, they came out with a campaign to appeal to a range of different audiences" and there's no reason why knowledge transfer from experts, to farmers, should be any different. 

Nathan says if we keep providing "Fact sheets" and hoping something will change, nothing will.
 
"Times wont always be as good as this", Nathan says. He says we should be using these good times to set ourselves up for when times are harder.

Nathan says for a lot of people it's not always about making more money, but simplifying their system to make it easier on the people and animals.

"There isn't enough critical reviewing of farm business practices. And it doesn't need to involve a third party" Nathan says. "I think having an argument with yourself about why you're doing something is a damn good place to start"

Why are you lambing on that day? Why are you using those genetics? Ask yourself that. If you can come up with a justified reason, then move on.

A great podcast to get you thinking about what, why and how you do things on the farm.

If you'd like to find out more about Nathan's training or Achieve Ag Solutions, click the link below:
https://www.achieveag.com.au/about

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have a guest from our recent event, the neXtgen Agri Muster. Tom Fraser is a scientist at AgResearch. 

Tom spoke at the muster about pasture allocation and making the most of your genetics. It was such a great talk we decided to get Tom on the podcast to share the knowledge with our podcast listeners. 

Tom talks about Body Condition Scoring and how "your hand is the cheapest tool you have".  Mark says "it's the most profitable thing you can do on a sheep farm".

They also run through pasture quality throughout the year. Summer and early Autumn period is the time to consider the ME of the pasture, once they've started loosing quality. "We only have to worry about the quality of our pastures for about three months of the year" (in New Zealand), says Tom. 

The biggest driver of profit on a sheep farm is Kg of weaned lamb per Ha. "Wether that's done by high scanning, or high lactation growth rates, it's the way to make money," says Tom.

Mark and Tom then run through the Muster and the general state of the Agriculture Industry. "There are some unbelievably capable exceptional farmers out there that are doing an magnificent job, and luckily, almost without exception, they want to share their knowledge" says Tom.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Rob Bell, Co founder and CTO at ProAgni and CEO and Principle Consultant at Formula Ag. Which Ferg translates to "knowing a lot about nutrition."

On this episode we're focusing on weaning, a process not too far away in parts of Australia.

Rob initially started off as an agronomist in the cotton industry but the droughts soon led to a change of career.  One thing that really struck him was that regardless of what happened, even in the worst draughts, livestock farmers still had an asset at the end. Whereas in the cropping game if you put a seed in the ground, and it didn't' germinate, you had nothing.

So for the past 16 years Rob has been finding his feet as a consultant in the mixed farming game. Rob says it was really a case of taking the lessons learned within the cotton industry and implementing them into a livestock business.

Six years ago ProAgni was born after a luck meeting with a ruminant microbiologist in Queensland led to an opportunity of creating something pretty outstanding in terms of antibiotic resistance and removing those challenges from the livestock industry. The past 6 years have been an interesting journey of turning relatively complex science into a commercial reality.

Mark and Rob discuss the process of weaning and how it shouldn't be an event, but rather a process

Rob breaks weaning down into three parts.

1. The physical process of weaning- what processes can we put in place to minimise stress on animals and management?

2. Pasture management-  we reduce 40% of our energy requirements on the farm at weaning which means we can built a feed reserve.

3. Economic- what do those three or four extra weeks of growth and grass banking mean at the other end of the business?

Rob speaks of the benefits getting young lambs well educated to high quality feed prior to weaning to reduce shock post weaning. Understanding the physical AND mental transitions the lambs are going through means it's less stressful for everyone.

The conversation then leads to discussing the ruminants gut biome and how sheep should be thought of as small fermentation chambers rather than grass digesters. This is important to know because when you wean lambs you are changing them from essentially a monogastric to a ruminant. This process requires good management and an understanding of the process internally in a lamb.

This podcast is full of more facts and information than you could possibly want on weaning and the biology behind the animals you farm.

If you'd like to get in touch with Rob, or find out more about ProAgni
https://proagni.com/products/sheep/prowean/

[email protected]

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

We are currently busily recording season 8 of the podcast.  While we do that we thought we would share with you one of the podcasts from the private podcast we run within The Hub - Head Shepherd Radio.  Ferg has been recording a breeding series and this week we are sharing one of those with you.   We are sharing the reproduction episode from the breeding series this week and Ferg goes through the various traits to look at when buying rams this year.  The Hub is a great virtual home for livestock producers, with great content added frequently and a great place to interact with like-minded livestock farmers.   The Hub membership costs just $56/month or $575 for the year.  If you sign up during Sheepvention you will get 20% off your annual subscription.
Check it out at thehub.nextgenagri.com or sign up here www.nextgenagri.com

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week is our season finale of Season 7 of the Head Shepherd podcast. As ever, we asked our listeners if they had any questions for Mark Ferguson to answer.

Mark covers questions such as:

 "Are the commercial farmers still planning to invest similar this up coming ram selling season in Australia, at the same level they have in previous years?  Is there any uncertainty in higher interest rates and FMD on the horizon?"
 
to
 
"Can high temperatures during joining affect the quality of the foetus? Is it possible to get more abortions or reabsorption if semen and/or egg quality is affected by extreme heat?"

 Mark also runs through the recent footrot work he is involved with in New Zealand and Australia.

This weekend Mark and the Australian half of the team will be at  Sheepvention, either on stand 219 or roaming the show-grounds. Towards90 also launches at Sheepvention next weekend. Take a look at towards90.com to find out more.

Have you looked at our upcoming events? We have our neXtgen Muster next month and we'd love to see you there. 
Find out more about the neXtgen Muster here

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Sophie Barnes- sheep fan and producer of the Head Shepherd Podcast.

Sophie isn't from a farming background but is now one of the biggest fans of sheep you could find. Sophie came across farming when she was 18 and has been hooked ever since. Sophie moved to New Zealand seven years ago for a "two year trip".  Sophie runs through her time here in New Zealand and the jobs she's held- a from gorse spraying shepherd to production manager of the youngstock at a sheep dairy.

Mark and Sophie discuss her introduction to farming and what she is doing today. Sophie lives on her partners family farm in the King Country, NZ. Farming 1,200 Polled Dorsets, Facial Eczema is an issue Sophie and her partner deal with on their farm. Mark and Sophie discuss FE and the implications of it in arriving in the South Island.

They briefly cover rearing lambs as this is something Sophie is very passionate about after her time working at the dairy.

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Sally Murfet of Inspire Ag. 

Sally is a farmer's daughter born and raised in North West Tasmania on a farm producing beef cattle and seed potatoes.

Sally established Inspire Ag after seeing a gap in the support system for the agriculture industry. There was no one helping farmers increase business performance through human capital.

"If you have a disengaged employee, it will cost you 30-200% of their wage to reemploy that staff member. Focusing on employee engagement lessens the need to try and attract people into your business in the first place." 

A lot of the work Sally does is around succession planning, performance management leadership and team development.

Mark and Sally go through the components of a good team. Culture, Sally says, is one of the most undervalued factors in running a successful business.

There's research out there that says that leaders can have up to 70% variance on team engagement- positive or negative. So the way you show up every day, is exactly what you're going to see reflected in your team.

When you work out these performance issues in monetary terms, it can become a significant amount. Leadership and culture are not "fluffy things" but actual areas for production gain.

This is a great podcast that every farmer needs to listen to understand the true scale of what leadership and showing up properly for your team can do to the bottom line of your business.

To find out more about InspireAg, visit their website:
www.inspire-ag.com.au/

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this episode we are providing a recording of Associate Professor Andrew Thompson from Murdoch University.  Thommo, as he is better known, presented this talk at workshops in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  There are loads of tips in here and I'm sure you are going to enjoy the depth of knowledge that this man has.
The workshops were for an MLA funded project that involves developing a decision support tool for those considering or currently mating ewe lambs and are keen to understand the economics of various strategies.
For more information or to ask questions about the project, check out:

https://thehub.nextgenagri.com/c/calculated-ewe-lamb-joining/

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

We started this podcast with three episodes of Ferg telling us what he thinks about genetics.  We thought it was time to hear his latest thoughts a couple of years on. 

This episode provides you a few thoughts and tips on setting a breeding objective or genetic plan and then implementing strategies to put the plan into action.

It refers to a genetic planning document that Ferg has written.  If you would like a copy of this template, please send through an email to [email protected] and we will send it out to you. 

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.

Thanks to our Sponsors
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes.
A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence
www.allflex.global/nz/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Ross Richards of Romani Farms, Taumarunui, New Zealand.

Ross farms in a fairly challenging environment. With warm muggy summers and paddocks surrounded by native bush it is hard to produce good wool even on the best of years. Facial eczema has always been around but with the warmer winters we've had recently the spore counts are getting worse.

Ross has spent the last 16  years breeding what he terms a "biologically efficient" sheep to counteract these challenges. Ross has reduced chemical and labour inputs by not dipping or drenching his adult ewes, or treating for facial eczema. He aims to breed to animals that are fit for the environment they are farmed in. Ones that don’t need constant propping up with chemicals or management inputs. 

Like many forward thinking ram breeders, once Ross realised his clients were going elsewhere for shedding sheep, Ross began to breed some of his own. Currently they're no match for the efficiency of Ross's Coopworths, but they're well on their way. Ross's initial plan was to breed a terminal that complemented the Coopworth. Ross has some. first cross sheep that are performing exceptionally well, but hybrid vigour is at play there. 

Ross says "Why go through the effort of growing wool just to shed it?" and is approaching the hair sheep route, rather than shedding. 

Ross is also looking at tail length and dag score. "What's the point in making their tail shorter if you still have to dag it?" Reducing both chemical and labour input is important to Ross and he's aware that come sale time his rams may not be the biggest or shiniest. But the time and effort has gone in to test these animals to the absolute limit to really find the top performers. 

Ross is a firm believer in "asking the silly questions," and says it's often younger or external eyes on his business, asking "but why do you do it this way?" which brings in change. This year he has employed a new full time shepherd which he says has made a significant difference to their business.

Ross and Mark run through the once bred heifer system Ross implements on his six different lease blocks. The benefits of using dairy heifers gives him the extra finishing stock he needs without having to over winter too many breeding cows or buy in store stock. This improves his control over the animals (and genetics) but also farm biosecurity which is especially important in these times of M. Bovis. 

Ross and Marks passions both align in breeding a sheep with high welfare traits that are both easy and productive to farm. It is a great insight into the mind of a sheep breeder.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Monica Ebert.

Monica has been involved with sheep her entire life. She grew up on a stud farm in North East Kansas, USA breeding and showing British Downs Breeds. 

The passion for wool came a little later after Monica studied Fashion Design and Marketing at University. This is where she started to see the link between fashion and fibre. She decided she wanted to focus on wool as it goes into apparel. Monica interned in Texas at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research centre. 

Monica returned to Texas AgriLife Research to complete her masters degree focusing on wool supply chains. There she focused on a genetic study crossing Australian Merino genetics to try and fine up the Rambouillet (Merino) in the US. 

From there she went to Montana State University to manage the Wool Research Lab for a year, focusing on working with local wool growers in the state of Montana. 

Mark and Monica worked together at the NZ Merino company and both left at similar times. Mark to start neXtgen Agri and Monica to South Africa. Monica is working for South Africa's (SA) biggest wool broker, BKB, managing a brand named Core Merino. Monica has been there for the past four years and she's been focusing on the environmental impact on fibre growing and what that means globally to both the producer and the consumer. 

Core merino is a wool athleisure brand started in 2012. Monica came on board in 2018 and gave the whole brand a revamp. 

"South Africa is a beautiful country, people enjoy being outdoors and being active"
The perfect market for a merino athleisure brand but at the time they were only marketing it towards farmers. Monica increased the Core Merino online presence and the orders started adding up.

Monica also gives Mark a run down of the farming systems in SA. Sheep are a massive part of the economy but as are crops and Angora goats- with South Africa having the largest agoria goat population in the world. 

“The farmers here are incredibly resilient.” It’s not an easy place to farm with the weather, natural predators and animal health issues like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) disrupting supply chains. With no first stage processing in SA, and Chinese borders closed to South African raw wool due to a FMD outbreak, it is getting increasingly harder for wool brokers to shift wool. 

This is the second time in the four years that Monica has lived in SA that a FMD outbreak has resulted in China closing their borders.
“It has made the industry wake up and realise maybe we’re too reliant on others. They are now looking at what they can do, but it won’t be an overnight fix. "We could fine-up the wool and target the European market or process wool ourselves.” Monica says.
After four years in SA, Monica is now back off to the US. She’ll be working with the Woolmark company in North America working with multiple active outdoor brands.

“I think we can see the need to collaborate as a wider industry to make sure consumers know that wool is the clean green fibre it is”.

Monica has been championing wool her entir

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast we have Robin Smith of Numnuts.

Numnuts is a device that simultaneously  castrates or tails a lamb whilst also administering pain relief.

Mark chats with Robin, a Product Design Engineer and creator of Numnuts, but is originally from a family of sheep vets.

"You end up back in the flock as you get older"

The Numnuts story began when Robins father developed a vaccine for barbers pole. Robins company, 4C design, developed the machine that produced the vaccine. That bought Robin over to Australia, where he had a chance meeting with Meat and Livestock Australia. Here he came across the need for a pain relief administering device during lamb marking.

Research had suggested that local anaesthetics were the best option to provide relief during the castration and tailing process but there wasn't a way to make that process repeatable, reliable and accessible to farmers. And so, Numnuts was born.

Robin says the interesting thing about this challenge, was that the drug, the anaesthetic, was already readily available but the method of administrating it in a time-effective method wasn't.
 
The initial concept was born 12 years ago and the device has gone through many different stages. The first prototype involved a form of a lasso and a chainsaw priming bulb. Numnuts was an international collaboration between welfare scientists at CSRIO and Moredun in combination with product design engineers 4c Design.

Numnuts has been refined over the years to castrate and  give local anaesthetic to the exact correct point, down to a millimeter, meaning the most effective pain relief possible. You can watch it in use here.

Launched officially in 2019, what Robin explains wasn't ideal timing. "I've experienced drought, plague and a global pandemic, so it's not been the best three or four years to launch a product in the welfare space".

There's currently around 1,500 farms across the world using the Numnuts device which is "not bad going".

Robin hopes there will be more wool and meat schemes that reward the producer for higher welfare practices in the future, meaning more uptake of Numnuts.

Numnuts is the best solution to the problem. Robin says their market driver is first and formost welfare, secondly increasing production for the farmer via the high welfare wool schemes, but there is also a driver in the form of increased survivability in the paddock post tailing and castrating.

As always with anything neXtgen Agri, Mark briefly touched on genetics. Robin discusses "high/low responders" when it comes to pain. There is a gene related to pain response so in the future, could we select animals that are resilient to the necessary procedures?

If you would like to find out more about numnuts, you c

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd Podcast we have Dayanne Almeida aka The Sheep Nutter.

Dayanne isn't from a farming background, but through her Animal Science degree in her home country Brazil, she fell in love with sheep. Once she'd finished her degree she began to work for sheep breeders associations in her home country then one day, Dayannes friend suggested she travel to New Zealand to learn more about sheep farming. To which she laughed!

Dayanne didn't know English at the time. But, she didn't let this stop her and with her friends help she sent out over 800 emails to farms, studs and breed associations in New Zealand asking if they would share their wisdom with her.

She finally received a reply from a farmer in Gisborne, NZ and after a few conversations, she booked her flights to NZ in 2009.

Dayanne worked there for the next five years learning all there was to New Zealand Sheep and Beef farming. That short trip she planned never ended and now she has citizenship here in New Zealand.

After five years, Dayanne moved to Wairere in the Wairarapa where she got more involved with the stud work. She began sharing her work day on Facebook to friends and family back home in Brazil.

When Facebook allowed Dayanne to go live whilst in the yards, her social media profile grew exponentially. Scanning, drafting, shearing- she shared it all live.

"Maybe this will motivate them," Dayanee says. The idea of sharing knowledge with the people back in her home country really excites her.

That happiness was infectious and people shared her story all over social media. This lead to her getting invites to lots of workshops Brazil. In 2016 she re-scheduled a few things and managed to do 22 presentations in three and a half weeks. This even snowballed into Dayanne being on Brazilian TV!

Dayanne returned to Brazil every year for her "Marathons" until Covid hit. She is currently lining up her agenda for her return in May next year where she already has 12 talks planned.

When asked what the secret of successful farming is,  Dayanne explains "It's nothing to do with the breed or the stuff we use on the farm, that is just a consequence of the mindset The point of difference is the kiwi, the person... the farmer".  "Kiwis could be farming snakes (...) whatever they choose, they're going to be good at it"

Dayanne and her partner now Paul run their own Romney stud, she shares the behind the scenes into what it takes to run a farm. Bills and expenses included! She wants transparency and for people to know what it's really like to run a farm in New Zealand.

When it came to farming, Dayanne knew she wanted more than just a commercial sheep and beef farm. She loved the data and recording that came with running a stud. She says she needs SOMETHING other than day to day farm jobs.

They are focusing on Health Traits in their stud. They do not currently have facial eczema on their lease block, but they know it's coming. "What we breed today,

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited. We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have  St John Craner, rural sales and marketing trainer, owner of Agrarian and Kellogg scholar.

The podcast this week takes a step sideways from our usual content. St John specialises in rural sales and the psychology behind it.

His company, Agrarian, offers in person and online training programmes where they help agribusiness grow using digital strategies and marketing campaigns, to sales training and farmer panel research. 

St John says "In order to sell you have to get curious about the buyers brain and how it buys and the process in which the buyers brain goes through.

Mark and St John cover the "buyers" brain and the "farmers" brain- and where they combine when farmers buy breeding stock. They discuss why the biggest, fattest animal usually sells for the highest figure, rather than the ones with the best data.

"We have three main drivers in life; status, significance and survival" St John says. "We are signalling our genetic merit in the purchases we buy..."

We'll leave that one there.

They also discuss the power of mindset. St John chats about working efficiently with the "power hour" to make the most out of yourself. St John says staying curious is key and that it's never been easier to BE curious. Becoming a life long learner, St John says, brings success. 

This podcast delves into marketing, the psychology of buying and also the power of mindset and curiosity. There are many gems in this podcast and it's definitely one to listen to more than once. 

If you would like to find out more about Agrarian, you can visit their website below
https://www.agrarian.co.nz

St Johns email address:
[email protected]

Recommended book:
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck.
Atomic Habits by James Clear

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thehub.nextgenagri.com

Our community is where our members have the opportunity to network with like-minded people and keep up to date with everything that we're working on.