Head Shepherd

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Anne Ridler chatting to Mark about ewe wastage and checking udders post-weaning.

Anne Ridler is an associate professor at Massey University, specialising in sheep and beef. Anne has been in her current role for 11 years, and prior to that was a practising vet.

One of Anne's recent research projects involved checking udders on ewes. The project came about from Anne's interest in ewe wastage. Most farmers will cull on poor udders, but Anne found that most farmers checked and assessed them all very differently, resulting in different levels of culling.

She found that in ewes with bad udders, their lambs would be 3/4 times more likely to die (bad udders being lumps or hardness in the udder).

Between 2% and 8% of ewes have 'dodgy' udders post-lambing, and the best time to check is 4-6 weeks post-weaning, so you can actually see the defects.

Anne's goal was to have a more standardised way of checking udders and culling ewes based on those checks.

Anne's interest in ewe wastage led her to conduct a trial following 13,000 ewe hoggets through to six years of age, monitoring the causes of death over their lifetimes. Only 10% made it to six years old.

This podcast is full of facts and figures and handy hints for sheep farmers around checking udders, reducing lamb losses and ewe wastage. Anne has a lifetime of knowledge to share and, with Mark asking the questions, it's definitely an episode not to miss!

Check out The Hub
thehub.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, 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

Sticking with our Zanda McDonald theme, this week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Australia's 2022 award winner, Charlie Perry

Charlie grew up on a farm in northern NSW, Australia, but as with many family operations, was told he had to work elsewhere before he could work on the home farm. He went to study in Sydney and stayed there for seven more years working in management consulting.

The family farm Charlie has returned to is in Guyra, a relatively summer safe part of Australia, with 30-32 inches of rainfall a year, hence Charlies interest in New Zealand pasture growing methods. It's something he hopes to see on his Zanda McDonald Award tour

Charlies family farm Wagyu cattle, with 600 seedstock registered animals, plus F1 crosses on the family farm so there's plenty to keep Charlie busy after taking over management in 2016.

The Wagyu breed is something Charlie is very passionate about and he serves as president and chair of the Australian Wagyu Association.

Charlie definitely has a passion for genetics, and the Wagyu breed offers him a challenge. There are the usual dilemmas that come with seed sock breeding, but there's an additional layer of complexity due to the limited foundation animals in Australia.

Charlie says he spends more hours than he should looking over genetic plans, but he doesn't mind at all. The reward of meeting with the end-product consumers in Michelin star restaurants makes it all worth it.

Not only restaurants, but also commercial farmers, appreciate the effort Charlie puts into breeding top Wagyus. "90% of our bulls go into a Southern F1 system," increasing the marbling exponentially, but maintaining the birthing ease.

After a "shove" from a friend (after 6 years of a more gentler approach), Charlie finally applied for the Zanda McDonald award. Charlie says that the application process itself was an incredible experience and recommends anyone else thinking about it to do the same.

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

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Henry Hickson, our Livestock Breeding Consultant in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia.

Henry grew on a mixed far near Boomi, New South Wales, Australia- aka an hour north of the middle of nowhere. With his dad breeding his own Merino rams, the start of a genetics addiction began at a young age. Henry then went on to study at UNE and after a stint working in farm benchmarking, applied for a consulting role with neXtgen Agri.

Henry is servicing predominantly the Victoria and NSW regions of Australia but is also involved with businesses in WA, SA and Tasmania.  From flock assessment, to ram selection, Henry also helps individuals tailor indexes to their individual needs and desires.

"We have a few indexes now that are slightly (read very) different to the industry MP and DP+" Says Henry.

In this work, Henry will be taking into account up to  16 different traits and creating a custom index that moves all of the traits in the desired direction. 

Both Mark and Henry are enthusiastic about welfare traits in sheep, and discuss how the wet summer in NSW has put additional pressure on sheep in regards to fleece rot, body strike and worm burdens.   They discuss how these conditions provide an ideal opportunity to select the most resistant animals. 

You can contact Henry at
[email protected] or +61 499 237  985

If you'd like to hear more from Henry or Mark, 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.

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

Rhys Roberts is Chief Executive and Director of the Align Group, who operate 7 farms, a market garden, and are vertically integrated with a yoghurt brand and milk processing facility.

An entrepreneurial approach to primary production has resulted in Rhys Roberts of mid-Canterbury receiving the 2022 New Zealand Zanda McDonald Award.  The Zanda McDonald Award, now in its eighth year, supports talented and passionate young professionals in the ag sector from Australia and New Zealand.

Rhys is passionate about food production and future workplaces. He’s currently running a regenerative agriculture project trial, to monitor farm productivity, animal health, human health and environmental outcomes . His focus on building a “future workplace” has resulted in creating a market garden that feeds his team through the fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs from their farms. All of the team are on fully flexible rosters, and can manage their own schedules, choosing shifts that suit them.

https://alignfarms.co.nz/regenerative-farming/regenerative-data/

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 on [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.

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 Bronwyn Clarke chatting to Mark about her career in agriculture, the research she's currently involved in, and the wealth of knowledge that she has around sheep genetics.

Bronwyn is an expert in genetics-focused R&D and project management, and has over 20 years of experience in the New Zealand and Australian Merino industries.

Bronwyn did not grow up around sheep, spending her childhood in Papua New Guinea. But, fast forward a few years, Bronwyn completed her Bachelor of Science in Wool and Pastoral Science in Sydney, and so the passion for sheep began. She then completed a PhD at the University of New England, focusing on quantitative genetics. Since then, much of Bronwyn's work has been in helping commercial farmers and breeders understand the use of genetics.

The Merino Validation Project was one that Bronwyn ran around 20 years ago (and which, coincidentally, set Mark up in his PhD, with a wealth of carcass data already available to hand). They added over 100,000 records into the database over two years, helping build up the information needed to get the genetic parameters, heritability and correlations with carcass traits and wool traits in merinos.

During their conversation, Bronwyn and Mark talk about the 'twin effect', and how conventional classing practices can lead to a bias against twins. Current trial work is keeping 'cull' animals in the flock and tracking their progress. After the first few years, the results are showing that twins catch up with their single counterparts, which is something you wouldn't know if they had been culled as a lamb.

Bronwyn is now chair of AAABG, the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics. The organisation brings together livestock scientists, breeders, educators, students and industry service providers across Australia and New Zealand. The major event for AAABG members is an international conference held every two years. Bronwyn's aim is to get more farmers involved in the conferences, so we hope our listeners will get involved!

To find out more about AAABG, follow this link: http://www.aaabg.org/aaabghome/.

Check out The Hub
thehub.nextgenagri.com
The Hub is our online community, where members have the opportunity to connect with other producers and livestock enthusiasts while keeping up to date with everything we are working on at neXtgen Agri.

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 Jack Devlin, 2IC of Bonavaree, Marlborough NZ.

Jack spent several years working around New Zealand working on several notable stations after completing his degree- and putting it into practice was something he really enjoyed. In 2020 he headed over to Japan to work as a ski instructor, which Covid quickly put a halt to.

Jack decided to give Fraser Avery a ring to see if he could help with tailing for a while. Roll forward two years and Jack is now working as 2IC on the Bonavaree station.

Bon Avery runs up to 20,000 stock units on 2,500ha of 530ml of rainfall a year. Farming next to one of the largest salt flats in New Zealand has led to a concise farming system with lots of calculated decisions. The mix of sheep and beef breeding/finishing, bull beef and dairy grazing allows for flexibility through the seasons. 

They currently have around 350ha of lucerne at the moment, and put in around 60ha of new Lucerne in a year. This crop is what transformed the Bonavaree farm and is a huge driver to their system, using it year round. 

Mark and Jack met through the Growing Ewe Masterclass. Jacks commitment to the course, questions and his "little book of numbers", really stood out. The industry is lucky to have such passionate and enthusiastic individuals working in the sector and this really shows in the way Jack discusses his career and his future.

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 on [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.

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

Welcome back to Season 6 of the Head Shepherd podcast. We have a fantastic line up of guests for you this season and we can't wait to share their stories over the coming 13 weeks.

Today, we have 27 year old Karol Devaney of Drumcliff, a village in County Sligo, Ireland.

Shearing from a young age, Karol used his skill early on in life to travel around the worlds sheep farms.  At the age of 27 Karol has travelled to New Zealand and Australia multiple times. The income from shearing paid for his college where he studied Ag Science at UCD.

"It's good work, and hard works never killed anyone,"

Due to the last few years being what they were, Karol is now settled at home below the foot of Benbulben, a 526 m mountain where his Mayo Blackface sheep graze some incredibly tough conditions.

Mark and Karol run through their farming enterprise and what works for such harsh , unforgiving conditions.

Karol began his clothing company Ewenit whilst on work placement in 2018. After the life of a farmers son and shearer, Karol found himself trying to think of things to keep him busy whilst holding down an office job.

Karol also hosts a farming podcast called "The Ewenit Farming Podcast" which began, much like the Head Shepherd podcast, at the beginning of Covid lockdowns.

It is always great to listen to passionate young people in the agriculture, and this podcast is no exception.

If you'd like to know more about Ewenit and Karol, follow the link below.
https://eweknit.com/


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.

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 season 5 out with a Q&A with Mark Ferguson.

Mark answers questions received from social media- from economic indexes, whole body energy and it's importance, first steps establishing a pedigree flock and the process of hiring staff.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to season 5 of Head Shepherd, we will be back on the 17th of January with some more fantastic guests.

The team here at neXtgen Agri wish you all the best for holiday season, and we'll see you in the New Year.
 
If you would like to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, that would be fantastic so we can spread more of the word!

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.

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
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 the wonderful Rozzie O'Reilly. Rozzie is from Narrandera, NSW, Australia, and currently works as Operations Manager at the largest prime lamb seedstock business, LambPro.

Bought up on a farm, after completing her Bachelor of Animal Science at the University of New England, Rozzie went on to complete a graduate program on a beef cattle feedlot in Queensland.  She then went on to work as a supervisor  at the mill at 23 years old which meant she learnt a lot in a short time, especially managing a team of 8.
 
After 6 years in the role, Tom Bull approached Rozzie to work for LambPro. Rozzie was ready to move closer to home and took the job offer. Five years later, here she is.

Rozzie and Mark go through Rozzie's role at LambPro- joining over 10,000 seedstock ewes with 4 breeding programme involves a lot of work! Data is the core of the LambPro business, so it's a hell of a job at that scale- Rozzie credits the success "to a very young and enthusiastic team".

In 2021, Rozzie was awarded the prestigious Zanda McDonald award and talks about her experience with the Platinum Primary Producers on her mentoring trip.

Rozzie is an asset to the Australian agricultural industry and this chat will light a fire in your belly.

To find out more about Lambpro, visit their website here:
https://www.lambpro.com.au/

For more information on the Zanda McDonald award, visit their website here:
https://www.zandamcdonaldaward.com/

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.

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
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 Robert Hodgkins, a British sheep and arable farmer. 

Robert and his partner Jo farm about 45 minutes north of London in the UK. Roberts father was a first generation farmer, and Robert worked on the farm from a young age. At 16, he decided farming wasn't for him and completed a degree in Engineering and Mathematics. He then went on to work for Caterpillar and Ford, but 7 years on he realised he hated office life- he just wanted to crack on with something- that something was farming again. 

Roberts father converted to outdoor lambing when he was a young teen, which set him on the track he's on now of farming New Zealand genetics in the UK. Concentrating on the narrow shoulders, wide pelvis and maternal ability, they manage to reduce any lambing issues which keeps his "local" population of 4 million happy. 

They began with English Romney sheep, and quickly realised they needed to target the New Zealand Romney which resulted in Wairere UK being formed with Roberts father and Derek Daniell.

In 2014 Robert left the home farm and moved north, and took the payment of 200 cull ewes, sheep handling system and a sheep dog. Within four years they had a flock of 2,000 ewes. In 2016 they had the opportunity to take on 1,500 acres of arable land and they jumped at the chance with Jos experience in arable farming. They borrowed close to $4million to set up their new arable farm- "An amazing time" is what Robert calls it! 

Mark and Robert discuss the UK farming system and all of its difficulties. With 14 different landlords on rolling contracts and various BPS and environmental schemes, it can get a lot to juggle. They also cover how Robert approaches his final product and the market he supplies, and what the next 10 years hold for the couple.  

This is a great listen with lots of laughs and some top conversation.

To find out more about Robert and Jo, visit their website

https://www.kaiapoi.co.uk

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.

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
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