Head Shepherd

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Ross Richards of Romani Farms, Taumarunui, New Zealand. Ross farms in a fairly challenging environment. With warm muggy summers and paddocks surrounded by native bush it is hard to produce good wool even on the best of years. Facial eczema has always been around but with the warmer winters we've had recently the spore counts are getting worse. Ro...

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Monica Ebert. Monica has been involved with sheep her entire life. She grew up on a stud farm in North East Kansas, USA breeding and showing British Downs Breeds.  The passion for wool came a little later after Monica studied Fashion Design and Marketing at University. This is where she started to see the link between fashion and fibre. She decided sh...

This week on the podcast we have Robin Smith, a Product Design Engineer and creator of Numnuts . Numnuts is a device that simultaneously castrates or tails a lamb whilst also administering pain relief. Robin is originally from a family of sheep vets: "You end up back in the flock as you get older," and the Numnuts story began when Robin's father developed a vaccine for barber's...

This week on the Head Shepherd Podcast we have Dayanne Almeida aka The Sheep Nutter. Dayanne isn't from a farming background, but through her Animal Science degree in her home country Brazil, she fell in love with sheep. Once she'd finished her degree she began to work for sheep breeders associations in her home country then one day, Dayannes friend suggested she travel to New Zealand to...

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...

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 20...

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 Manag...

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 Centr...

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 withi...

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 gener...

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 hel...

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 resp...

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 breedi...

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 p...

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 ca...

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. T...

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...

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 talent...

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...

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 Ave...

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...

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...

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...

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 Ca...

This week we have Emeritus Professor Herman Raadsma on the podcast. Herman's career started by accident- after training, he received a job opportunity to work at Trangie, the Agricultural Research Center run by the NSW Department of Agriculture, known as one of the best sheep breeding centres in the world. The rest, as they say, was history. Herman worked on pivotal research revolving around...