The Sheep Geeks

Matt Colston is a vet and works for Elanco. He is heavily involved with Sheep Veterinary Society and Moredun Foundation. He was previously in practice in Scotland and Cumbria.  He talks us through the issues around ticks and how our thinking around control needs to change as the hills alters with more vegetation and different stock being grazed. Let alone the changing weather patterns! Links menti...

Nerys finally gets her dream to talk about parasites for an entire episode. We answered submitted questions and talk through some of our client work.  Links mentioned: Support the New Louping Ill Vaccine – Moredun Research Institute  Survey on PhD with Moredun https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/moredungroup/pasture-management-and-grazing-strategies-on-uk-farms  FAMACHA course Sustainable contr...

Tom Bird farms with his dad in south Derbyshire. They run sheep and also have combinable crops. He is the current Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer of the Year and also involved in the OptiEwe programme with Liz and Nerys. He talks through his system of indoor lambing mule ewes and the use of creep to get the lambs away as soon as possible to balance labour requirements on the mixed farm.  Links mention...

Jennifer Duncan is a Professor of Sheep Health and Welfare at University of Liverpoo l. She has been involved with a recent project exploring joint ill in young lambs in more details, and this podcast covers the main findings of that project. We also touch on her interests on Schmallenberg virus and contagious ovine digital dermatitis.  She teaches vet students animal welfare and sheep veterinary...

Anna and Ian Wilson are mixed farmers (sheep and combinable crops) from North Yorkshire, and Anna also works for the National Sheep Association. They talk about their experience of using No Bacz Navel as part of the trial we spoke to Fiona Lovatt about on episode 4 . They also use it when tagging newborn lambs. We also catch up on the work as part of the AHDB-funded Challenge Sheep project and how...

Kate Phillips is an independent sheep consultant. She previously worked at ADAS for 30 years. She continues to be heavily involved in research within the sheep sector. She is renowned for her pragmatic approach.  We talk through various projects (see links below) and also the role that Kate played in developing both Liz and Nerys' knowledge and skills.  Links mentioned: Sheep Breeding UK | Lo...

This special episode features an experimental recording at the East of England Agricultural Society's Scholars Day. Both Liz and Nerys are scholars and were invited to join the training day. The recording features other scholars, and was done on a roaming mic in the bar, so forgive the slightly interesting audio.  See here  for more information on the Scholars Programme. The next application...

Join Liz and Nerys for a catch-up before Christmas and our first Q&A. We almost talk about books more than sheep in this one. The guest format will be back in January.  Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.  Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS. Podcast Disclaimer: The views and information shared in this podcast are for gene...

Richard Stanbury is a fourth generation beef and sheep farmer from near the edge of Exmoor in Devon. He has changed his system towards a high grass and forge system, with a focus on reducing inputs and maxmising profit. He has moved towards Easycare ewes. He is working with Nerys of the ParaSight project, so they talk about his plans to make sure he is using his data effective and the technology i...

Matt Harding is a third generation ram breeder based in Warwickshire. He has changed from a higher input ram breeding approach to selling shearlings who have been raised on grass and forage. He breeds Suffolk rams, and also breeds rams for Innovis.  Links mentioned: Link to Bentley Suffolks   Link to Innovis   Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.  Dr Nerys W...

Mark "Ferg" Ferguson is a consultant who works with sheep farmers and breeders in New Zealand and Australia. He is CEO of neXtgen Agri who runs consultants in most places with sheep in New Zealand and Australia. He was involved in the science behind Lifetime Wool, which was very influential in the development of Challenge Sheep - AHDB-funded project that Nerys and Liz worked on.  We talk...

Ben Strugnell is a vet with an obsession of learning as much as possible from dead animals. He runs Farm Post Mortems up in County Durham and also presents at various events around the country. This is a legacy from an EBLEX/AHDB funded project work with him over ten years ago.  We talk about his findings and how he works with farmers to try and prevent further losses. He shares his frustration ab...

Kevin Harrison is a farm manager on a sheep and arable farm near Bath. He spends time representing the UK sheep industry through the positions of Policy and Technical Chairman for the National Sheep Association (NSA),  and Chairman of SCOPS - Sustainable Control of Parasite in Sheep. He is also a member of the Register of Sheep Advisers, and has been seen helping Jeremy on Clarkson's Farm! He...

Dr Awal Fuselini is AHDB's Halal sector senior manager and also a 2025 Nuffield Scholar. He shares his knowledge about the Halal market in the UK and in other countries. We discuss stun and non-stun options for Halal slaughterings, and also the importance of people understanding more about the production systems. Maybe not one to listen to if you, or someone who is listening with you, is of a...

David and Cora Cooper are sheep farmers from Ayrshire. They have made significant changes to their system over the last few years to reduce costs and inputs. They are using mob grazing to drive nature recovery on their farm.  In this podcast we talk about the changes they had made, the focus on low input sheep and their passion for regenerating their land.  Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant a...

Dave Cross is a mixed farmer in Norfolk with sheep, beef, arable and layers. He farms within a family partnership. He has been very strategic with the use of sustainable farming incentive (SFI) to transform their arable fields into lanes of herbal leys. He has been an AHDB monitor farm for the last four years.  In this podcast we talk about the changes he has made to his farming systems in the las...

Dr Suzanne Rowe is a geneticist at AgResearch in New Zealand, and is passionate about improving profitability and sustainability of global livestock systems using genomic technology. She presented at Sheep Breeders Round Table in November 2024 on breeding for methane reduction in sheep.  In this podcast she talks about the work that is being done on collecting phenotypes for methane production in...

Dr Fiona Lovatt is a vet and consultant, and founder of Flock Health Limited. She has been heavily involved in reducing antibiotic use in the sheep sector. She is passionate about improving the relationship between farmers and their vets.  In this podcast she talks about a project she did with NoBacz Navel - a non-antibiotic barrier. It was compared against iodine for treating navels in young lamb...

Michael Blanche is a sheep and cattle farmer from Perth in Scotland. He is also the genius behind the Pasture Pod podcast. We talk about how he is trying to build lean management techniques into his daily habits to target his weaker areas - organisation and order!!  He is passionate about low input systems and he talks us through the areas he focuses on and how he selects functional sheep.  We als...

Katie Evans is a sheep and beef farmer from Norfolk. She was sponsored to attended the Global Sheep Forum's Next Gen programme and has recently returned from a trip to Australia. We talked through the best bits of the trip and also a bit about her system at home. Bear with us, we are still warming up to this podcast life.  Links:  https://www.globalsheepforum.com/2024nextgencohort https://nat...

Welcome to the launch of the Sheep Geeks podcast with Nerys Wright and Liz Genever. There are both independent sheep consultants, and work with sheep farmers in the UK. Nerys likes talking about parasites and body condition score, and Liz likes talking about grass and forage, and soil.  This launch podcast introduces Liz and Nerys. In future episodes they will be talking to a range of sheep farmer...