Head Shepherd

John Yates has spent the past 18 years helping develop the British Texel Sheep Society, including bringing performance recording in house and building the iTexel database. Rather than relying on an external system, the Society has developed an evaluation around the information its breeders are collecting and the breeding goals of a terminal sire breed.

John chats with Ferg about that evolution and the thinking behind it. For him, br...

Our newest consultant, Reece Michelle, took a slightly roundabout route into his new role with neXtgen Agri, from studying agricultural science at Lincoln and working with Headwaters to shearing and fencing before moving across the Tasman. 

Now splitting his time between neXtgen Agri and Murdoch University, Reece chats with Ferg about his move to WA, the work he’ll be doing with sheep breeders and researchers which includ...

This episode comes from our Productivity & Profitability podcast, produced in partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia.

How do you breed a lamb that consistently delivers a better eating experience?

For decades, sheep producers have been selecting for traits they could easily measure, including growth, fertility and lean meat yield. But eating quality has remained far more difficult to quantify, despite being one of the bi...

Most breeders pick one thing to improve. Peter Blackwood picked several. When he and his wife Claire took over a Corriedale stud in 2006, they committed to lifting fertility, carcass shape and wool fineness - all at once - by using ASBVs.

Two decades later, they've lifted lambing from 110% to 150%, and reduced micron from 28 to 22-24. Peter also says his sheep are shorter and stockier, with better shape and cleaner points, including...

Looking to change your Merino genetics? What actually happens when you switch types? For our guest this week, Dom Hallam, it started with his parents.

Coming from a traditional fine wool background, they began looking for something different, eventually bringing sheep from New England into their flock. The change was rapid, and before long the sheep looked very different. His parents' willingness to try something new eventually led ...

What is a trait actually worth to a farming business?

Ferg has spent much of his career talking about the value of genetics, but it hasn't always been easy to put that value into real dollar terms that apply to individual farming businesses.

In this episode, Ferg explains how we plan to work out the dollar value of genetic performance with the use of our new tool, neXtProfit. 

Ferg explains that it's not as simple as putting a pr...

What's the difference between a sheep that looks "right" and a sheep that breeds "right"? Jonno Hicks from Hannaton Poll Merinos and White Suffolks, reckons he's finally found the answer.

In this week's episode, Jonno talks through his shift from visual assessment to genomics and data-driven breeding, and why the first years weren't the easiest- despite employing a "guy in New Zealand he heard on a podcast". 

At Hannaton, they n...

Ever wondered what's actually happening inside an overgrown hoof? And can you fix it once the damage is done?

Our guest this week looked into just that. Dr Laura Deeming did her PhD with Massey University and AgResearch on dairy goat hoof health. Many dairy goats are not hoof trimmed until their first lactation, which, at that point, feet can already be very overgrown.

One of her key questions was whether starting trimming earlier wo...

Willy McSkimming is modernising the shearing industry with a new app and an improved focus on wool classing and quality. After 23 years running a major contracting operation with his wife Tess, he's now doing things differently. Not happy with being left behind in comparison to other industries, and considering theres an "app for everything", Willy decided to develop an app for the shearing industry whilst healing from a knee repla...

How do you actually pick which heifers to keep? For many, selecting the top ones is easy, but it's those middle ones that are hard to choose between. 

For this week's guest, Geoff Hayes, the answer is genomics. Geoff and his wife Belinda started their Angus stud just 5 years ago, but began their genomic journey early, not wanting to pick bulls on looks alone from the very beginning. 

"I was hesitant just to go and pick them...

Pete Fennessy has spent more than fifty years involved in science, genetics and livestock production, helping shape many of the ideas that transformed New Zealand’s sheep and deer industries. 

Pete spent two decades at Invermay before becoming General Manager of AgResearch’s Sheep, Deer and Equine Division, later founding AbacusBio alongside a group of colleagues and helping build it into an internationally recognis...

This week on the podcast we have Joshua Barton chatting to Mark about the benefits of precision sheep management and the results it can get you. 

Josh is currently stockman at Hillcroft Farms and recently shared some great scanning results with us as the outcome of well-planned precision lambing. Josh shares these results as well as discussing how Hillcroft’s ultra-white breeding program has evolved.

Josh and Mark ...

How do Australian and New Zealand farmers stay competitive when the rest of the world is changing faster than ever?

For our guest this week, Richard Green, it starts by accepting that yesterday's thinking will not solve tomorrow's problems.

"It frustrates the hell out of me when I hear us talk about 'We're the best farmers in the world.'" explains Richard. "And we may have been, but that's a moment in time. There's so much change, pr...

Long before performance recording became mainstream, George Fell's grandfather was building a sheep breeding programme around growth, efficiency and measured performance on pasture. Unable to find the genetics he wanted, he created them himself.

Today, that same mindset runs through everything at Fell's Yorkshire farming business. Alongside the Meatlinc sheep breeding programme, the family operates a diverse farming enterprise that ...

What does a cow actually cost to run?

At Kerin Ag, every kilogram of utilisable feed has a value attached to it. That allows Joe Kerin and the team to measure whether an animal is genuinely paying its way.

In this episode, Joe joins Mark to discuss how putting a dollar value on each kilogram of grass they grow led them to choose Wagyu over Angus. As any Kerin would, Joe has done the numbers and compared Wagyu cows with larger recipie...

Few people have had a front-row seat to the genetic improvement of New Zealand sheep quite like our guest this week, Simon Buckley.

After growing up in Whangārei and starting his farming career at Castlepoint Station, Simon joined Wairere Romneys and has never left. Four decades later, he has helped one of New Zealand's most influential sheep breeding programmes through the transition from visual selection and paper records to EID, ...

Most sheep producers assume their drenches are working. Chloe Frank's job is finding out whether they actually are.

After discovering how few producers in her region were monitoring worm burdens, Chloe launched Central Stock Health while still at university. She now travels from farm to farm delivering on-site worm egg counts and helping producers make better management decisions.

In this episode, Chloe joins Mark to ...

This week on the podcast, Ferg introduces James Trowbridge, the newest consultant to join the neXtgen Agri team.

James grew up in South Australia working alongside his parents, Margie and Bill Trowbridge, in both Merinos and the family artificial breeding business. After working across a range of farming and agribusiness roles around Australia, James now joins the neXtgen Agri team, bringing with him a strong practical background in...

What does it take to build the data systems that sit behind your genetic evaluations?

This week on the podcast, Ferg catches up with Dan Garrick from Helical. Dan grew up on a sheep, beef and venison farm in the Manawatu before moving to the US at 13, where he went on to complete a PhD in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University. He's the son of Professor Dorian Garrick, one of New Zealand's most respected animal breeding gene...