Head Shepherd

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...

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 re...

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 abou...

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...

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 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 un...

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?" Ma...

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...

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 dee...

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 de...

This week, we have another in our 'Ferg's thoughts' series. Dr Mark Ferguson talks us through the benefits of using EID and how it can help you make better decisions when selecting replacement ewes for your flock.   Weaning weight, condition scores, wool traits, reproductive performance, birth litter size ... The list of things you can record to an EID is endless. To help reduce env...

 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 s...

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 fa...

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...

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 start...

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 passion...

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have a guest from our recent event, the neXtgen Agri Muster. Tom Fraser is a scientist at AgResearch.  Tom spoke at the Muster about pasture allocation and making the most of your genetics. It was such a great talk, we decided to get Tom on the podcast to share the knowledge with our podcast listeners.  Tom underlines the importance of body condition scori...

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Rob Bell, co-founder and CTO at ProAgni and CEO and Principal Consultant at Formula Ag. In this episode, we're focusing on weaning, a process not too far away in parts of Australia. Rob initially started off as an agronomist in the cotton industry but the droughts soon led to a change of career. One thing that really struck him was that, regardle...

Welcome back to season 8 of the Head Shepherd podcast. As ever, we're starting off with a bang and have the fantastic Julie McDonald as our first guest. Julie is the CFO of McDonalds Holdings- 3.36 million hectares based in Queensland Australia. Julie credits many things to the success of such a large scale enterprise but one of the defining reasons is the intergenerational knowledge. Having...

We are currently busily recording season 8 of the podcast.  While we do that we thought we would share with you one of the podcasts from the private podcast we run within The Hub - Head Shepherd Radio.  Ferg has been recording a breeding series and this week we are sharing one of those with you.   We are sharing the reproduction episode from the breeding series this week and Ferg goes through the...

This week is our season finale of Season 7 of the Head Shepherd podcast. As ever, we asked our listeners if they had any questions for Mark Ferguson to answer. Mark covers questions such as:  "Are the commercial farmers still planning to invest similar this up coming ram selling season in Australia, at the same level they have in previous years?  Is there any uncertainty in higher interest ra...

This week on the podcast we have Sophie Barnes- sheep fan and producer of the Head Shepherd Podcast. Sophie isn't from a farming background but is now one of the biggest fans of sheep you could find. Sophie came across farming when she was 18 and has been hooked ever since. Sophie moved to New Zealand seven years ago for a "two year trip".  Sophie runs through her time here in New Z...

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Sally Murfet of Inspire Ag.  Sally is a farmer's daughter born and raised in northwest Tasmania on a farm producing beef cattle and seed potatoes. Sally established Inspire Ag after seeing a gap in the support system for the agriculture industry. There was no one helping farmers increase business performance through human capital. 'If you ha...

In this episode we are providing a recording of Associate Professor Andrew Thompson from Murdoch University.  Thommo, as he is better known, presented this talk at workshops in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  There are loads of tips in here and I'm sure you are going to enjoy the depth of knowledge that this man has. The workshops were for an MLA funded project that involves d...

We started this podcast with three episodes of Ferg sharing his perspective about genetics. We thought it was time to hear more of his thoughts, a couple of years on.  Whether you breed sheep, cattle or goats, this episode provides you with guidance and tips on setting a breeding objective (or genetic plan) and then implementing strategies to put the plan into action. It refers to a genetic planni...