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.

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