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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 hereThis podcast is a fantastic insight of the bigger picture thinking when it comes to the future of livestock breeding. Head Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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.auRichard 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck out Allflex products HERE

Want to know more about sheep parasites? This week we have Ginny Dodunski on the podcast chatting 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 program on farm. In the last 12 month Ginny has been the Wormwise program manager but prior to that Ginny was (and still is) a practicing large animal vet.  Wormwise was launched as an initiative to help farmers manage drench resistance Ginny says 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 a drench resistance, and how you can clean your farm up practically. From different methods of refugia, cattle grazing, careful management of drench usage, Ginny says there are solutions to the problem. However, Mark says, "Well monitored is the only way to be, you cant 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 fecael egg counts and watching drenches. "Its 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 FergFerg 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 sHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 donHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck out Allflex products HERE

This week we have another in our "Fergs 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 info@nextgenagri.com.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 Hubthehub.nextgenagri.comOur community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.Thanks to our SponsorsAllflex 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 Intelligencewww.allflex.global/nz/Check out The Hubthehub.nextgenagri.comOur community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on.Head Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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:james@nextgenagri.cominfo@nextgenagri.comHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 SarahAfter 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 someexquisite 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 bHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 poHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 wilHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 inHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 hHead Shepherd is a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck 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 info@nextgenagri.comWe 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 a bought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers to 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 - info@nextgenagri.comThanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. 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 HERECheck out the MSD range HERECheck out Allflex products HERE