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 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...

This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, Mark catches up with long-time friend, Andrew Kennedy. Mark and Andrew worked together back in 2001 at the start of the Lifetime Ewe Management project, and have kept in touch ever since. Andrew completed a PhD at the University of Western Australia and has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Melbourne. Andrews career and experience...

This week Mark chats with Daniel Wheeler, sheep scanner and sheep fanatic. Daniel has scanned over 6.5 million sheep in his time as a scanner, a career path Daniel was never intending on taking. After getting off at the wrong tube stop on his OE in London, Daniel decided to take up a position of sheep scanning assistant up in Scotland. The rest is history. Scanning so many sheep across the world h...

On the Head Shepherd podcast this week, we have Ross Paterson of Waikaka Genetics, Southland NZ. Ross is fifth generation at Waikaka Station. The family farm 200 Hereford Stud cows and run 4,000 ewes which includes a Texel, Romney, Romtex and Romdale studs. The Patersons are well known for their Hereford stud, and breeding a functional cow that their buyers want is priority. Ross highlights it&apo...

This week on the podcast, Mark Ferguson chats with Gundy (David) Anderson and Angus Fraser, of Bog Roy Station.  Gundy and Lisa Anderson are fourth generation owners of Bog Roy station, farming just under 3,000 Ha with 4,000 merino ewes and 140 Hereford cows on the shores of Lake Benmore, Omarama, New Zealand. Gundy and Angus go through the past, present and future of Bog Roy. When they arrived in...

This week Mark Ferguson chats with Emeritus Professor Graeme Martin about the role of the brain in sheep reproduction and how teasing works.  Graeme has had a long and distinguished career in sheep reproduction. He was raised on a sheep and cereal farm in Western Australia. After studying at university, Graeme went on to complete a PhD in the area of sheep reproduction. He then worked in France an...

This week Mark catches up with Kate Broadbent, president of Coopworth Genetics and is stud farming in the Waikato, NZ. Kate spent 20 years chasing sheep filled summers around the world, and finally settled in New Zealand 12 years ago. At this point she purchased Nikau Coopworth sheep stud, and has been passionate about the breed ever since. Facial Eczema is a serious concern in the North Island of...

This week we change tracks a little and catch up with Dr Richard Shephard of Herd Health, a specialist animal health company which Richard founded in 1998 to address multi-disciplinary problems of animal and human health and animal production. Richards started as a clinical dairy veterinarian, who then went on to do post-grad training in epidemiology, whilst also working as a  farm management cons...

This week we have the fantastic Shane McManaway. Shane is Chair of PPP, Chair of the Wiararapa Development Group, among many other things. From spraying ragwort with a knapsack as a teen around the Wairarapa, to 17 years as CEO of Allflex in the Asia/Pacific region, Shane shares his story of how he got to lead some of Australasia's biggest operations. Mark and Shane discuss the evolution of d...

Welcome back to Season 5 of the Head Shepherd podcast. We have a fantastic season lined up for you, and we're starting with a bang! Sarah Nolet is an internationally recognised food systems innovation expert, the CEO and Founder of AgThentic , a global food and agriculture strategy firm, and co-founder of Tenacious Ventures , Australia’s first dedicated agrifood tech VC firm AND podcast host...

Welcome back to the 50th episode of Head Shepherd! This week we hosted a live Q&A where Mark answered your questions. This is a recording of that live stream. Mark answers questions about the polled gene and the variations that exist there, about breeding for lamb growth without ending up with excess adult weight and more. Thank you to everyone who has listened so far, we have thoroughly enjoy...

This week Mark chats with Dr Leo Cummins of Byaduk North, Aus. With the world favouring environmental efficiency, why is it that we don't breed cattle to have twins? Mark and Leo go through the ins and outs of Beef Twinners, a composite from Nebraska that Leo has been working with for the past 17 years. During Leos research career, he investigated high fecundity beef and sheep livestock syste...

Black Box Co is the brain child of Shannon Speight and Emma Black who both have backgrounds in the beef industry and have both won the Zanda McDonald award. After seeing how little data was utilised at all levels in the industry, Shannon was inspired to find a way to capture and standardise the data that potentially existed all along the value chain. She met Emmathrough the Zanda McDonald award, E...

Mark chats with Richard Scholefield of Whangara Farms, Gisborne NZ on this weeks Head Shepherd podcast. Whangara Farms comprises of 7 farms, making up 9,500 Ha overall. Across the seven farms, there are 20 staff to manage the 37,000 breeding ewes (all of which are EID tagged), 10,000 replacement hoggets and 3,500 breeding cows. They regularly scan over 200% and mark over 50,000 lambs a year, an ev...

This week Mark catches up with long-time friend, Dawson Bradford. Dawson started off in pigs, and bought some sheep to 'keep himself entertained' whilst he waited around to feed twice a day. What started off as a hobby, led to Dawson becoming one of Australia's most successful performance breeders. The Hillcroft Farms name can be found in many high performance Poll Dorset and White...