Advertise on podcast: Head Shepherd

We started this podcast with three episodes of Ferg telling us what he thinks about genetics.  We thought it was time to hear his latest thoughts a couple of years on.   This episode provides you a few thoughts 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 planning document that Ferg has written.  If you would like a copy of this template, please send through an email to info@nextgenagri.com and we will send it out to you.   Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on. Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/

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. Ross has spent the last 16  years breeding what he terms a "biologically efficient" sheep to counteract these challenges. Ross has reduced chemical and labour inputs by not dipping or drenching his adult ewes, or treating for facial eczema. He aims to breed to animals that are fit for the environment they are farmed in. Ones that don’t need constant propping up with chemicals or management inputs.  Like many forward thinking ram breeders, once Ross realised his clients were going elsewhere for shedding sheep, Ross began to breed some of his own. Currently they're no match for the efficiency of Ross's Coopworths, but they're well on their way. Ross's initial plan was to breed a terminal that complemented the Coopworth. Ross has some. first cross sheep that are performing exceptionally well, but hybrid vigour is at play there.  Ross says "Why go through the effort of growing wool just to shed it?" and is approaching the hair sheep route, rather than shedding.  Ross is also looking at tail length and dag score. "What's the point in making their tail shorter if you still have to dag it?" Reducing both chemical and labour input is important to Ross and he's aware that come sale time his rams may not be the biggest or shiniest. But the time and effort has gone in to test these animals to the absolute limit to really find the top performers.  Ross is a firm believer in "asking the silly questions," and says it's often younger or external eyes on his business, asking "but why do you do it this way?" which brings in change. This year he has employed a new full time shepherd which he says has made a significant difference to their business. Ross and Mark run through the once bred heifer system Ross implements on his six different lease blocks. The benefits of using dairy heifers gives him the extra finishing stock he needs without having to over winter too many breeding cows or buy in store stock. This improves his control over the animals (and genetics) but also farm biosecurity which is especially important in these times of M. Bovis.  Ross and Marks passions both align in breeding a sheep with high welfare traits that are both easy and productive to farm. It is a great insight into the mind of a sheep breeder.

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 she wanted to focus on wool as it goes into apparel. Monica interned in Texas at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research centre.  Monica returned to Texas AgriLife Research to complete her masters degree focusing on wool supply chains. There she focused on a genetic study crossing Australian Merino genetics to try and fine up the Rambouillet (Merino) in the US.  From there she went to Montana State University to manage the Wool Research Lab for a year, focusing on working with local wool growers in the state of Montana.  Mark and Monica worked together at the NZ Merino company and both left at similar times. Mark to start neXtgen Agri and Monica to South Africa. Monica is working for South Africa's (SA) biggest wool broker, BKB, managing a brand named Core Merino. Monica has been there for the past four years and she's been focusing on the environmental impact on fibre growing and what that means globally to both the producer and the consumer.  Core merino is a wool athleisure brand started in 2012. Monica came on board in 2018 and gave the whole brand a revamp.  "South Africa is a beautiful country, people enjoy being outdoors and being active" The perfect market for a merino athleisure brand but at the time they were only marketing it towards farmers. Monica increased the Core Merino online presence and the orders started adding up. Monica also gives Mark a run down of the farming systems in SA. Sheep are a massive part of the economy but as are crops and Angora goats- with South Africa having the largest agoria goat population in the world.  “The farmers here are incredibly resilient.” It’s not an easy place to farm with the weather, natural predators and animal health issues like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) disrupting supply chains. With no first stage processing in SA, and Chinese borders closed to South African raw wool due to a FMD outbreak, it is getting increasingly harder for wool brokers to shift wool.  This is the second time in the four years that Monica has lived in SA that a FMD outbreak has resulted in China closing their borders. “It has made the industry wake up and realise maybe we’re too reliant on others. They are now looking at what they can do, but it won’t be an overnight fix. "We could fine-up the wool and target the European market or process wool ourselves.” Monica says. After four years in SA, Monica is now back off to the US. She’ll be working with the Woolmark company in North America working with multiple active outdoor brands. “I think we can see the need to collaborate as a wider industry to make sure consumers know that wool is the clean green fibre it is”. Monica has been championing wool her entire career so we imagine her upcoming role will be no different. 

This week on the podcast we have Robin Smith of Numnuts. Numnuts is a device that simultaneously  castrates or tails a lamb whilst also administering pain relief. Mark chats with Robin, a Product Design Engineer and creator of Numnuts, but is originally from a family of sheep vets. "You end up back in the flock as you get older" The Numnuts story began when Robins father developed a vaccine for barbers pole. Robins company, 4C design, developed the machine that produced the vaccine. That bought Robin over to Australia, where he had a chance meeting with Meat and Livestock Australia. Here he came across the need for a pain relief administering device during lamb marking. Research had suggested that local anaesthetics were the best option to provide relief during the castration and tailing process but there wasn't a way to make that process repeatable, reliable and accessible to farmers. And so, Numnuts was born. Robin says the interesting thing about this challenge, was that the drug, the anaesthetic, was already readily available but the method of administrating it in a time-effective method wasn't.   The initial concept was born 12 years ago and the device has gone through many different stages. The first prototype involved a form of a lasso and a chainsaw priming bulb. Numnuts was an international collaboration between welfare scientists at CSRIO and Moredun in combination with product design engineers 4c Design. Numnuts has been refined over the years to castrate and  give local anaesthetic to the exact correct point, down to a millimeter, meaning the most effective pain relief possible. You can watch it in use here. Launched officially in 2019, what Robin explains wasn't ideal timing. "I've experienced drought, plague and a global pandemic, so it's not been the best three or four years to launch a product in the welfare space". There's currently around 1,500 farms across the world using the Numnuts device which is "not bad going". Robin hopes there will be more wool and meat schemes that reward the producer for higher welfare practices in the future, meaning more uptake of Numnuts. Numnuts is the best solution to the problem. Robin says their market driver is first and formost welfare, secondly increasing production for the farmer via the high welfare wool schemes, but there is also a driver in the form of increased survivability in the paddock post tailing and castrating. As always with anything neXtgen Agri, Mark briefly touched on genetics. Robin discusses "high/low responders" when it comes to pain. There is a gene related to pain response so in the future, could we select animals that are resilient to the necessary procedures? If you would like to find out more about numnuts, you can visit their website below https://numnuts.store/ You can find a map of NZ suppliers here Check us out The Hub! thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community is where our members have the opportunity to network with like-minded people and keep up to date with everything that we're working on.  Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering animal monitoring, identification, and tr

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 learn more about sheep farming. To which she laughed! Dayanne didn't know English at the time. But, she didn't let this stop her and with her friends help she sent out over 800 emails to farms, studs and breed associations in New Zealand asking if they would share their wisdom with her. She finally received a reply from a farmer in Gisborne, NZ and after a few conversations, she booked her flights to NZ in 2009. Dayanne worked there for the next five years learning all there was to New Zealand Sheep and Beef farming. That short trip she planned never ended and now she has citizenship here in New Zealand. After five years, Dayanne moved to Wairere in the Wairarapa where she got more involved with the stud work. She began sharing her work day on Facebook to friends and family back home in Brazil. When Facebook allowed Dayanne to go live whilst in the yards, her social media profile grew exponentially. Scanning, drafting, shearing- she shared it all live. "Maybe this will motivate them," Dayanee says. The idea of sharing knowledge with the people back in her home country really excites her. That happiness was infectious and people shared her story all over social media. This lead to her getting invites to lots of workshops Brazil. In 2016 she re-scheduled a few things and managed to do 22 presentations in three and a half weeks. This even snowballed into Dayanne being on Brazilian TV! Dayanne returned to Brazil every year for her "Marathons" until Covid hit. She is currently lining up her agenda for her return in May next year where she already has 12 talks planned. When asked what the secret of successful farming is,  Dayanne explains "It's nothing to do with the breed or the stuff we use on the farm, that is just a consequence of the mindset The point of difference is the kiwi, the person... the farmer".  "Kiwis could be farming snakes (...) whatever they choose, they're going to be good at it" Dayanne and her partner now Paul run their own Romney stud, she shares the behind the scenes into what it takes to run a farm. Bills and expenses included! She wants transparency and for people to know what it's really like to run a farm in New Zealand. When it came to farming, Dayanne knew she wanted more than just a commercial sheep and beef farm. She loved the data and recording that came with running a stud. She says she needs SOMETHING other than day to day farm jobs. They are focusing on Health Traits in their stud. They do not currently have facial eczema on their lease block, but they know it's coming. "What we breed today, has been set up for you five years ago (...) we have to look to the future".  Dayanne is also North Island Area Manager and Technical Lead (Sheep) for Zoetis. In this role she deals with breeders that test with Zoetis in the UK, USA and Canada helping anyone who uses Zoetis for DNA and parentage testing in sheep. Watch Dayanne on Country Calendar here You can visit Dayannes Facebook page here Thanks to our Sponsors A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/

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 and marketing campaigns, to sales training and farmer panel research.  St John says "In order to sell you have to get curious about the buyers brain and how it buys and the process in which the buyers brain goes through. Mark and St John cover the "buyers" brain and the "farmers" brain- and where they combine when farmers buy breeding stock. They discuss why the biggest, fattest animal usually sells for the highest figure, rather than the ones with the best data. "We have three main drivers in life; status, significance and survival" St John says. "We are signalling our genetic merit in the purchases we buy..." We'll leave that one there. They also discuss the power of mindset. St John chats about working efficiently with the "power hour" to make the most out of yourself. St John says staying curious is key and that it's never been easier to BE curious. Becoming a life long learner, St John says, brings success.  This podcast delves into marketing, the psychology of buying and also the power of mindset and curiosity. There are many gems in this podcast and it's definitely one to listen to more than once.  If you would like to find out more about Agrarian, you can visit their website below https://www.agrarian.co.nz St Johns email address: stjohn@agrarian.co.nz Recommended book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck. Atomic Habits by James Clear Check us out The Hub! thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community is where our members have the opportunity to network with like-minded people and keep up to date with everything that we're working on.  Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven so

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 2018 with a curious question, which was, thanks to funding from AGMARDT, soon followed by a trip to Shanghai to investigate the complexities of Siobhan and Paul's vision.  The research and development phase began abroad, but production delays associated with COVID threatened to halt progress. So, the decision was made to bring all manufacturing and R&D back to New Zealand, where it proudly remains! As you'll hear in this episode, all three co-founders wear a lot of hats! Aside from trying to get Hemprino™ off the ground, Siobhan O'Malley is a full-time teacher, a share-milker, and a co-founder of the charity Meat the Need. To top it all off, she and her partner have just purchased their first dairy farm! Paul Ensor is busy running his family farm up the Rakaia Gorge. The property is a bit over 1000ha and runs around 7500 stock units. He is in the process of transitioning their ultra-fine ewes to a poll flock with high fertility genes. As well as being heavily involved in Hemprino™ since its inception, Paul also sits on the board of the NZ merino company. While on Maternity leave from Farmlands, Harriet Bell jumped at the opportunity to join the Hemprino™ team in June 2021. Since coming on board, Harriet has played a big role in the marketing side of the business, as well as overseeing and fast tracking production throughout the supply chain.   After a long R&D process, the trio have settled on an 80:20 mix of Merino to hemp, and the beauty of this product is that it only gets softer with every wear!   Want to know more? Website:  Hemprino.co.nz Instagram: nzhemprino Facebook: Hemprino  Check us out The Hub! thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community is where our members have the opportunity to network with like-minded people and keep up to date with everything that we're working on.  Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/ 

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 Management program. Darren speaks of his various roles within the industry and the research projects that have shaped his consulting career and galvanized what he thought animals to be capable of. The pair both attribute a lot of their career success to the years of continuous assessment of pasture and animals and seeing how different genetics respond in different scenarios. From their years of research, both Mark and Darren agree that stock performance comes down to 70% management and 30% genetics.  Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community is where our members have the opportunity to network with like-minded people and keep up to date with everything we are working on.  Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in designing, developing, manufacturing, and delivering animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/ 

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 Central Otago. Her rural upbringing, alongside influential figures such as John Perriam, shaped her love for the industry at an early age. A big part of her production role is to assist clients in creating their own shows. Typically the focus of these partnerships is to present emerging Ag research in a way that's engaging, easy to digest and accessible to farmers.   A great conversation between fellow podcast producers who share a similar view on telling and taking ownership of our stories; people don't know what they don't know.  Sarah's Country We highly recommend that you check out Sarah's podcast for yourself. Just like Head Shepherd, search for 'Sarah's country on your podcast platforms. Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community where our members have the opportunity to network with likeminded people and keep up to date with everything we are working on. Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers' hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/

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 within the agricultural industry.  Thank you for taking the time to listen to season 6 of Head Shepherd; we will be back soon with more fantastic guests! If you're enjoying listening to the podcast, feel free to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!   Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on. Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/

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 generations of farmers, and none had all of the things they both wanted. And so, Mobble was born. "Everything you need to help manage your livestock farming business. Simple, practical, flexible livestock farm management software." There has been great feedback so far on Mobble, with farmers finding it solving their communications issues between teams and family members without any complications. Being a "mob" based app, you can't get caught up in the complications of individual animals which is where some software goes wrong. "The data the farmer needs most, is up in their face. We want to give them quick access to the information they need, giving them more time in their day" Eventually, Jock hopes to add individual animals as an "add on" to Mobble. Jocks favourite part of his role is connecting with farmers and finding out how they can make the software work for them. Mark and Jock agree that it's not always about making money, sometimes it's about efficiency and saving time. With clients across Australia and New Zealand, Jock gets to connect with a wide range of clients who all have different ideas and inputs.    Mark and Jock discuss the future of Agtech and where application connectivity will take farming in the future- a pretty exciting place!  If you would like to find out more about Mobble, you can visit their website below. https://www.mobble.io/ Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on. Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/

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 helping Apple growers get their head around the changes.  She then went back into red meat, working as Supply Chain Manager for Rissington Breedline Logistics and Marketing, establishing value added products for Marks and Spencer, a higher end supermarket in the UK. For the past six years, Renée has been running her own consultancy business, Inside New Zealand, specialising in production agriculture and the associated value chains. Inside Edge is split into three 'categories', all with a primary sector focus. Governance roles, analysis and consultancy keep all of Renées eggs all in different baskets and keeps her involved in all aspects of agriculture. If you'd like to get in touch with Renée, her contact details are below. Mobile: 027 439 2095 Office: 06 372 7544 Email: renee@insidenewzealand.co.nz Check out The Hub thehub.nextgenagri.com Our community where our members have the opportunity to keep up to date with everything we are working on. Thanks to our Sponsors Allflex Livestock Intelligence is the leader in the design, development, manufacturing, and delivery of animal monitoring, identification, and traceability solutions. Their data-driven solutions are used by farmers to manage animals. By putting intelligent, actionable information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner for optimal outcomes. A big thank you to our sponsors, Allflex Livestock Intelligence and MSD Animal Health Intelligence www.allflex.global/nz/