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 i...
Mar 26, 2023•32 min•Season 2023Ep. 125
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 farme...
Mar 19, 2023•32 min•Season 2023Ep. 124
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... ...
Mar 12, 2023•26 min•Season 2023Ep. 123
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 Au...
Mar 05, 2023•27 min•Season 2023Ep. 122
Want to know more about sheep parasites? This week we have Ginny Dodunski on the podcast chatting about everything from drenches and capsules, to resistance and refugia. This podcast is full of handy, helpful tips, which will hopefully make you take a step back and look at your worm management programme on farm. In the last 12 months, Ginny has been the Wormwise programme manager but, prior to that, Ginny was (and still is) a practising large animal vet. Wormwise was launched as an initiative to...
Feb 26, 2023•47 min•Season 2023Ep. 121
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 Australi...
Feb 19, 2023•35 min•Season 2023Ep. 120
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...
Feb 12, 2023•32 min•Season 2023Ep. 119
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 pret...
Feb 05, 2023•21 min•Season 2023Ep. 118
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 w...
Jan 22, 2023•32 min•Season 2023Ep. 117
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 ...
Jan 15, 2023•41 min•Season 9Ep. 10
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 facili...
Jan 08, 2023•29 min
This week we have another episode in our "Ferg's Thoughts" series. Seeing as it's the start of a new year, Mark chats about what we can achieve in the future. "How can we set ourselves up for success in 2023?" Mark asks "We always think back to that 30 years, depending on where you are in your farming cycle. That '30' being the number of times you get to select a bull or ram tea to go out." "So roughly we get those 30 opportunities to keep the females we keep and the males we either buy or keep ...
Jan 01, 2023•22 min•Season 9Ep. 8
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 ...
Dec 25, 2022•22 min•Season 9Ep. 7
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,...
Dec 18, 2022•47 min
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Sarah talking about genetics, technology and solving problems in the Agricultural industry. Sarah is currently Global Strategy and New Ventures Manager at Gallagher and also breeds Polled Dorsets in the Waikato, NZ. Sarah grew up on a farm with a father who was a ram breeder. "I have always been around stud sheep," says Sarah After spending some time after university as an Agricultural journalist, Sarah returned to genetics and started working for t...
Dec 11, 2022•31 min
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 s...
Dec 04, 2022•40 min
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 hav...
Nov 27, 2022•31 min•Season 9Ep. 3
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 bir...
Nov 20, 2022•36 min•Season 9Ep. 2
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 ...
Nov 13, 2022•43 min•Season 9Ep. 1
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 en...
Nov 06, 2022•24 min•Season 8Ep. 13
We've reached the end of season 8 and we've got a great Q&A podcast for you. We have questions from “What's your opinion on Australia’s LEQ index compared to focusing solely on IMF and shear force figures if your number one breeding objective is to increase eating quality?” to "Is there any correlation between worm burdens/high genetic WEC and dermatitis/wool rot?" Mark also covers breeding for footrot resistance in crossbred (non-merino) sheep and how the industry can go about improving tha...
Oct 31, 2022•29 min
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Charlie Wootton. Charlie is currently based in Adelaide but is originally from Jigsaw Farms in South West Victoria. Charlie is doing his honours project on the "Magnificent Maidens" project, which is the topic of todays podcast. The MLA funded PDS project, "Magnificent Maidens", is to demonstrate best-bet management of maiden ewes on their reproductive performance and carryover effects on subsequent performance. "There's not much research done on ma...
Oct 23, 2022•27 min•Season 8Ep. 12
This week on the podcast we have Duncan Humm. Duncan farms Deer for venison and velvet and is also one of the minds behind NZ Farming on Facebook. Mark and Duncan discuss deer farming, a topic not often covered on the Head Shepherd podcast. Duncan farms with his partner Lorna in the picturesque foothills of the Southern Alps in the South Island of New Zealand. They have two different lines of deer with their velvet hinds looking drastically different to their venison hinds, rather than attemptin...
Oct 16, 2022•28 min•Season 8Ep. 11
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have our newest recruit at neXtgen Agri, Georgia Pugh. Georgia comes from a background of farming in Western Australia on a mixed family farm farming around 4,500 Ha. Georgia went on to study Ag Science with commerce at UWA. With honours in Meat Science. Georgia started out as a recent graduate wanting to be a farm consultant but she felt she needed to develop her "business muscle" when she graduated. So she headed to a graduate role at PwC, and dug into...
Oct 09, 2022•21 min•Season 8Ep. 10
This week we have another in our "Fergs Thoughts" series. This week Dr Mark Ferguson talks us through the benefits of using EID and how it can help with replacement ewe selection. Ferg shares his thoughts on how to best utilise EID to make better decisions when selecting replacement ewes for your flock. "What we have to be careful of is, within that selection decision, is only a part of what we see is genetic. We see a small animal that's not doing so well.. but it may be a late born twin... It'...
Oct 06, 2022•21 min•Season 8Ep. 9
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Neville Brady of Browsup Consulting , a consultancy company "...providing management support for groups, organisations and corporate businesses seeking to develop and implement structures that improve Leadership, Management, Staff Engagement, Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence. " After having the opportunity to hear Neville speak recently, Mark thought he'd be a great guest for the Head Shepherd podcast- and he wasn't wrong! Nevilles ...
Sep 25, 2022•28 min•Season 8Ep. 8
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Pat Maher, CEO of Atkins Ranch. Atkins Ranch supplies premium New Zealand Lamb to Whole Foods in North America and Canada, supplying 95% of their lamb, plus they supply a handful of other traders such as Trader Joes and Costco from time to time. Mark and Pat discuss the starts of Atkins Ranch, which has great story behind it. Started in 1989 by two farming families frustrated at the returns from the meat works at the time, they came up with the conc...
Sep 18, 2022•21 min•Season 8Ep. 7
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Harry Lawson of Lawson Angus. Harry goes through the progression of the Lawson Angus business, a pioneering family for performance recording cattle. His parents started performance recording in the late 60s and they recently held their 50th Bull Sale. They currently farm in 4 states of Australia. When Harry and his brother returned to the family farm in 1994, they were running 300 cows. Over the next 10 years, Harry and his brother upped that to 2,5...
Sep 11, 2022•47 min•Season 8Ep. 6
This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we are discussing employment in the Ag sector. Mark chats with John Boote, CEO of Drover Ag, specialists in Ag recruitment. John has been involved in Agriculture his entire life working his way up through senior management roles. He'd always seen recruitment as a major issues in the Agricultural Industry. To solve that problem, three years ago, he started Drover Ag. They now has over 1000 clients Australia-wide. "Putting the right people in the right jobs i...
Sep 04, 2022•35 min•Season 8Ep. 5
This week on the podcast we have Nathan Scott. With a background in Prime Lamb production, Nathan started his own consultancy firm, Achieve Ag Solutions, eight years ago. "We work with a range of producers, looking for the low hanging fruit within their business and applying the latest science and technology, in a practical way that means something to their business" Nathan is passionate about knowledge transfer in the Agricultural industry. "Coca-Cola didn't come out with just one advertisement...
Aug 28, 2022•31 min•Season 8Ep. 4
