Head Shepherd

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

Check us out The Hub!

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. 

Thanks to our Sponsors

Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven so

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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

In this week's episode, Mark catches up with the three co-founders of Hemprino™; Siobhan O'Malley, Paul Ensor and Harriet Bell. As the name suggests, Hemprino™ is a luxurious blend of the two heritage fibres; hemp and merino wool.

The trio met as Kellogg Rural Leadership Scholars and share a huge passion for innovation and challenging the way we operate.

The Hemprino™ journey began in 2018 with a curious question, which was, thanks to funding from AGMARDT, soon followed by a trip to Shanghai to investigate the complexities of Siobhan and Paul's vision. 

The research and development phase began abroad, but production delays associated with COVID threatened to halt progress. So, the decision was made to bring all manufacturing and R&D back to New Zealand, where it proudly remains!

As you'll hear in this episode, all three co-founders wear a lot of hats! Aside from trying to get Hemprino™ off the ground, Siobhan O'Malley is a full-time teacher, a share-milker, and a co-founder of the charity Meat the Need. To top it all off, she and her partner have just purchased their first dairy farm!

Paul Ensor is busy running his family farm up the Rakaia Gorge. The property is a bit over 1000ha and runs around 7500 stock units. He is in the process of transitioning their ultra-fine ewes to a poll flock with high fertility genes. As well as being heavily involved in Hemprino™ since its inception, Paul also sits on the board of the NZ merino company.

While on Maternity leave from Farmlands, Harriet Bell jumped at the opportunity to join the Hemprino™ team in June 2021. Since coming on board, Harriet has played a big role in the marketing side of the business, as well as overseeing and fast tracking production throughout the supply chain.  

After a long R&D process, the trio have settled on an 80:20 mix of Merino to hemp, and the beauty of this product is that it only gets softer with every wear!

 
Want to know more?
Website:  Hemprino.co.nz
Instagram: nzhemprino
Facebook: Hemprino 

Check us out The Hub!

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. 

Thanks to our Sponsors

Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering 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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd Podcast, Mark catches up with a long-term colleague and friend, Darren Gordon. Darren is a sheep nutrition and breeding consultant for neXtgen Agri, based near Dunkeld in Victoria. The pair spent several years working together, researching and collating data for the Department of Primary Industries, which later went on to form the foundation of the Lifetime Ewe Management program.

Darren speaks of his various roles within the industry and the research projects that have shaped his consulting career and galvanized what he thought animals to be capable of. The pair both attribute a lot of their career success to the years of continuous assessment of pasture and animals and seeing how different genetics respond in different scenarios.

From their years of research, both Mark and Darren agree that stock performance comes down to 70% management and 30% genetics. 

Check out The Hub

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 we are working on. 

Thanks to our Sponsors

Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering 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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

Welcome back to the Head Shepherd Podcast! To kick off season 7, we have the wonderful Sarah Perriam on to chat about her extensive media career and passion for the future of New Zealand agriculture. These days Sarah runs a production company based just outside of Christchurch and produces her own agricultural podcast called Sarah's country. 

Sarah grew up on a sheep and beef station in Central Otago. Her rural upbringing, alongside influential figures such as John Perriam, shaped her love for the industry at an early age.

A big part of her production role is to assist clients in creating their own shows. Typically the focus of these partnerships is to present emerging Ag research in a way that's engaging, easy to digest and accessible to farmers.  

A great conversation between fellow podcast producers who share a similar view on telling and taking ownership of our stories; people don't know what they don't know. 

Sarah's Country

We highly recommend that you check out Sarah's podcast for yourself. Just like Head Shepherd, search for 'Sarah's country on your podcast platforms.

Check out The Hub

thehub.nextgenagri.com

Our community where our members have the opportunity to network with likeminded people and 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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

As with our previous seasons of Head Shepherd, we're finishing off season 6 with a Q&A episode with Mark Ferguson.

We'd like to thank everyone who sent through their questions. They were vastly different and very thought-provoking, as you'll hear on the podcast!

There were nine questions, ranging from the affects of fertility genes on eating quality to the limiting factors within the agricultural industry. 

Thank you for taking the time to listen to season 6 of Head Shepherd; we will be back soon with more fantastic guests!

If you're enjoying listening to the podcast, feel free to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

 
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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Jock Lawrence, creator and founder of Mobble.

After returning home to the family farm in Victoria Australia, and realising that all of the important information was up in "Dads head", Jock and his family trialed some farm management software in an attempt to get the operation running more smoothly. However, none of them worked for both generations of farmers, and none had all of the things they both wanted.

And so, Mobble was born.
"Everything you need to help manage your livestock farming business. Simple, practical, flexible livestock farm management software."

There has been great feedback so far on Mobble, with farmers finding it solving their communications issues between teams and family members without any complications.

Being a "mob" based app, you can't get caught up in the complications of individual animals which is where some software goes wrong. "The data the farmer needs most, is up in their face. We want to give them quick access to the information they need, giving them more time in their day"

Eventually, Jock hopes to add individual animals as an "add on" to Mobble.

Jocks favourite part of his role is connecting with farmers and finding out how they can make the software work for them. Mark and Jock agree that it's not always about making money, sometimes it's about efficiency and saving time. With clients across Australia and New Zealand, Jock gets to connect with a wide range of clients who all have different ideas and inputs. 
 
Mark and Jock discuss the future of Agtech and where application connectivity will take farming in the future- a pretty exciting place! 

If you would like to find out more about Mobble, you can visit their website below.
https://www.mobble.io/

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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Renée Hogg of Inside NZ.

Renee grew up wanting to go farming, and always had a vision to "Create an industry I wanted to go farming in, and then go farming in it". 

Her first role towards this dream, was actually with Apples with the Apple and Pear Marketing Board before it deregulated. And then, during that time she had her own business helping Apple growers get their head around the changes. 

She then went back into red meat, working as Supply Chain Manager for Rissington Breedline Logistics and Marketing, establishing value added products for Marks and Spencer, a higher end supermarket in the UK.

For the past six years, Renée has been running her own consultancy business, Inside New Zealand, specialising in production agriculture and the associated value chains. Inside Edge is split into three 'categories', all with a primary sector focus. Governance roles, analysis and consultancy keep all of Renées eggs all in different baskets and keeps her involved in all aspects of agriculture.

If you'd like to get in touch with Renée, her contact details are below.

Mobile: 027 439 2095
Office: 06 372 7544
Email: [email protected]

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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, we're joined by Steve Kelly, Commercial Identification Manager at Allflex, and Kim Kelly, Veterinary Technical Advisor at MSD Animal Health.

Allflex has been the sponsor of our podcast since its inception, and it is always great to catch up with the team to hear what they're up to.

In this podcast, we focus on Campylobacter, the bacteria often responsible for causing abortion in sheep.

Abortion storms in sheep can cause devastating effects, yet it is estimated that only 60% of the maiden ewes in New Zealand get a Campylobacter vaccine (despite approximately 88% of New Zealand farms having Campylobacter present on their property).

Kim takes us through the widespread implications of Campylobacter and how abortion storms are really just the tip of the iceberg, as Campylobacter can also cause early embryonic loss, stillbirths or the births of weak lambs that die soon after birth.

We put so much effort into breeding more lambs - why would we risk it all, when prevention, in the form of Campyvax4®, is so cheap?

Knowing more about how Campylobacter works gives you a greater understanding of why and when you should vaccinate your animals to be of the greatest benefit to your sheep and your business.

If you would like to know more about any of the products mentioned in this podcast, you can visit the MSD Animal Health website:
www.msd-animal-health.co.nz.

For Australian listeners, you can contact the Australian team on 1800 226 511 or visit the company’s Australian website, which includes the risk calculator mentioned in the podcast: https://www.coopersanimalhealth.com.au/product/ovilis-campyvax/.

If you are in New Zealand and would like to get in touch with Kim (or another Technical Advisor at MSD Animal Health), phone 0800 800 543.

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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the podcast we have an hour-long special for you! Mark caught up with Dr Johan Greef, an expert in production and disease traits in Merino Sheep.

Johan's career is an exceptional one. From worm resistance and resilience, to breech and dag correlation, high fertility composites, identifying odours from wool; Johan has worked on just about anything important when it comes to breeding productive and healthy sheep.

One particularly fascinating conversation involves using dogs to scent detect sheep are susceptible to fly strike with up to 82% accuracy.

Mark and Johan discuss the work done in South Africa showing that a clean face and a bare breech on a sheep results in more lambs per ewe joined.

This conversation paints a picture of what seemingly will be the perfect sheep in the future, and this is one, thanks to genomics and people like Johan, that we can actually work towards with a calculated breeding plan.

Full of facts, figures and trial results, this is a podcast for any sheep enthusiast.

 
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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Ryan Maclean, based in North West Scotland. Ryan and Mark met through a mutual friend and sheep scanner Daniel Wheeler.

Ryan was raised on a beef and sheep farm in Scotland, where he is running around 1,000 ewes and 120 breeding cattle between himself and his father. He runs predominately Cheviot sheep, with some crossed to a Texel. They also have a pedigree Limousins and Belted Galloway herds. 

Ryan however, spends most of his time off farm following the seasonal cycle of farming with his contracting business. Sheep and cattle pregnancy scanning, sheep shearing, lambing and calving plus crop work. He says it works well when the seasons play ball, but there isn't much time to spare when they don't. 

He first picked up his handpiece when he was around 15 and now has his own shearing run where he covers around 55,000 sheep a year. 

Ryan spent time in Australia and New Zealand shepherding and shearing, claiming his 200 Merinos in a day a few years ago- one of his best days in farming that really stands out for Ryan.

Mark and Ryan discuss the differences in farming around the world, and across individual countries, and how this can open your eyes to different farming systems and what works, and more importantly, what doesn't. 

Genetics is inevitably covered and it is always interesting to hear what different types of animals are required for different environments. With nearly 2,900mm rainfall, the Macleans breed for high fat and a smaller adult weight in both cattle and sheep. And with a "9 month winter", Body Condition Score is something Ryan is also interested in. It is essential their sheep can stack on weight in summer and hold it through winter.

Ryan has also been keeping track of his shedding Cheviots "Ironic, from a sheep shearer really". He hasn't selected for it but some in the breed naturally shed wool, so it's something he keeps note of. 

As always, this is another great podcast with a young farmer with passion and drive to make a change.

Growing Ewe Masterclass
We will be running our third cohort of the Growing Ewe Masterclass in March, 2022. If you would like to find out more, contact us at [email protected]

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, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE