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PODCAST

Head Shepherd

Mark Ferguson from neXtgen Agri brings you the latest in livestock, genetics, innovation and technology. We focus on sheep and beef farming in Australia and New Zealand, and the people doing great things in those industries. To learn more about neXtgen Agri, visit www.nextgenagri.com.

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All Episodes

37:01

Using Genomics to Improve Heifer Selection in...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/03/08

Choosing replacement heifers shapes the productivity of a breeding herd for years to come. This week on the Head Shepherd podcast, James Starling joins Mark Ferguson to discuss the 'Optimised Heifer Selection' project, which focuses on combining genomic tools with visual assessment to improve heifer selection. Based on the Limestone Coast in South Australia, James runs a self-replacing Angus herd alongside a prime lamb enterprise. After two decades working in global financial markets, h...

en-nz

27:28

Understanding the wool industry pipeline with Shannon...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/03/01

This week on the podcast, Shannon Donoghue joins us to talk about telling the story of wool and why she's so passionate about it. Growing up on a sheep property in South Australia, Shannon started off in the industry through wool classing before stepping into her current role as an industry relations officer with AWI. Her work now involves helping producers better understand where levy investment goes and ensuring their feedback shapes research, development and marketing Alongside...

en-nz

40:06

40 years of sheep selection lessons: worm resistance,...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/02/22

How much do you hate daggy sheep? Well, what started as a frustration with daggy sheep ended up reshaping this week's guest’s entire farming system. This week, Allan Richardson explains how his determination to eliminate daggy sheep ultimately led to three decades of organic farming and the adoption of regenerative principles. He began by wanting to select for low dag score, but a local vet encouraged him to focus instead on worm resistance. Selecting for worm resistance made organic certifi...

en-nz

26:27

Ferg’s thoughts on the 25/26 ram sale season, how to...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/02/15

Tune in this week on the Head Shepherd podcast to hear Ferg discuss the 2025/2026 ram sale period across Australia and New Zealand. He explains his approach to selecting the right ram team and the decisions breeders have been facing when producing rams for sale in an increasingly data-driven market. Ferg discusses the breeding values gaining attention, as well as buyer behaviour when information is available AND when it is missing. He also explains the neXtPredict tool developed in part...

en-nz

20:55

Why you can't miss LambEx 2026 with Jamie Heinrich

Head Shepherd ·

2026/02/08

Are you heading to LambEx2026? This week on the podcast we have Lambex chair, Jamie Heinrich, on the podcast to discuss one of the sheep industry’s largest gatherings, bringing together producers, researchers, service providers and supply chain leaders from around the world. Held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, the event covers productivity, profitability, genetics, sustainability and the future direction of the sheep and lamb sector. Tune in to hear more about how you can join the c...

en-nz

58:14

Leading The New Zealand Merino Company into its next...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/02/01

Our guest this week, Angus Street, has worked across journalism, global agricultural marketing, Asian supply chains and livestock trading before stepping into the role of CEO at New Zealand Merino. In this episode, Angus reflects on taking on the role and guiding the organisation through a period of ongoing change across wool markets and supply chains. He and Mark chat about New Zealand Merinos’ role in connecting growers directly with global brands, the thinking behind ZQ and ZQRX and also t...

en-nz

59:08

Breeding Romneys for the rain at Kaituna Ridges

Head Shepherd ·

2026/01/25

How do you breed sheep that thrive in wet coastal hill country without routine drenching? What traits actually matter when you're selecting for challenging conditions? This week on the podcast, Mark is chatting to Fred Gane, who runs Kaituna Ridges, an 800-hectare farm near Havelock and the Pelorus Sound in the South Island of New Zealand, alongside his wife Nikita. Kaituna Ridges comprises a mixed grazing operation that includes over 5,000 Romney sheep and 200 head of cattle, as well as a Ro...

en-nz

55:13

Lessons from moving sheep genetics around the world...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/01/18

Ever wondered about farming New Zealand sheep in the UK, or considered farming UK shedding genetics in Australia? In this episode of Head Shepherd, Ferg speaks with Ian McDougall, a veterinarian whose career - and sheep - have taken him across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Ian grew up on marginal country on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula before moving into veterinary work and artificial breeding. Over the past four decades, his work has involved embryo transfer, semen freezing and larg...

en-nz

33:00

How innovation is changing the wool industry with Sam...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/01/11

Growing up in Western Sydney with no connection to agriculture, Samantha Wan’s path into the wool industry was anything but typical. In this week's episode, Sam talks with Ferg about finding agriculture through high school ag, building confidence without a family farming background, and the role mentors and community played in shaping her career. She and Mark discuss her work across the wool value chain, including auctioneering, technology and systems innovation within Elders, and the d...

en-nz

60:55

Practical Breeding Strategies for Commercial Cattle...

Head Shepherd ·

2026/01/04

How can commercial producers use breeding values without recording full pedigrees? This week, Mark chats with Carel Teseling, Chief Operating Officer at Angus Australia, to find out. Carel's career has taken him from South Africa's regional performance recording programs to 14 years of developing genetic tools for Angus Australia, a decade leading Australian Wagyu Association's genetics, and now back to Angus again, giving him unique insight into what actually works for producers across...

en-nz

25:39

Ferg's thoughts on genetic gain

Head Shepherd ·

2025/12/28

Ferg shares his thoughts on genetic gain in the sheep and beef industries. He has often said that we should be seeking to achieve a minimum of 2% genetic gain, but the top operators we deal with here at neXtgen Agri are consistently achieving 3-4%. Ferg explains how they’ve achieved that with the use of selection accuracy and the compounding effect of disciplined breeding decisions over time. Ferg also talks about what that genetic gain actually means for each farm and what traits we should b...

en-nz

37:40

Selecting for Worm Resistance in Low-Challenge...

Head Shepherd ·

2025/12/21

What if measuring worm resistance didn't require high parasite burdens and ALSO delivered double the heritability of egg counts? Sarah Preston, Lecturer at Federation University and cofounder of Swabtec, explains the development of their saliva-based test designed to measure immune responses to gastrointestinal worms in sheep, allowing resistance to be assessed without relying on high worm egg counts. She and Mark discuss why egg counts often fail to reflect adult worm burden, particularly in...

en-nz

43:54

Individual ewe performance and the future of sheep...

Head Shepherd ·

2025/12/14

What limits ewe productivity in current sheep systems? Our guest this week, Tara Dwyer is breeding manager at Headwaters Genetics and a farm manager within the Lone Star Farms group. Her work covers stud breeding, commercial supply chains, and large-scale sheep systems, and in amongst all of that, she found time to do a Kellogg report, "A New Fleece on Life: How the Sheep Farming Sector in Aotearoa Can Halt Terminal Decline to Secure a Sustainable and More Secure Future" Starting with her "da...

en-nz

32:06

Results from the 'Genetics of foot health in Merinos'...

Head Shepherd ·

2025/12/07

Gus Rose shares the recent results from the 'Genetics of foot health in Merinos' project, which is looking at footrot and foot structure in sheep in Australia. Gus shares what the data shows on the heritability of foot shape and its relationship with footrot, as well as other foot structure traits. Gus Rose explains how the dataset is being built, which traits are proving to be correlated, and where the current limits sit. Gus and Mark discuss the project's future and the significance o...

en-nz

46:13

Proactive sheep management strategies with Tim Gole

Head Shepherd ·

2025/11/30

On this week's episode, Tim Gole shares how sheep farmers can increase their profits by shifting from responding to problems to preventing them in the first place. Tim runs ForFlocksSake, a vet-based sheep consultancy company. After a lightbulb moment during the drought, Tim became a self-confessed sheep fanatic. With both Tim and Mark clearly in their element, they spend nearly an hour talking all things sheep. They discuss lifetime ewe programs, scanning strategies, the use of genetics to m...

en-nz

31:56

How Do You Breed Short-Tailed Sheep? with Marnie Hodge

Head Shepherd ·

2025/11/23

What do the genetics of tail length and the genetics of semen quality have in common? Not much, except that our guest, Marnie Hodge, Sheep Genetics Senior Development Officer, has researched them both. Tail length is moderately to highly heritable, but in her research, Marnie found that measuring tail length in centimetres versus a scored system gives you far more accuracy and picks up significantly more genetic variation, which means faster rates of genetic gain if you're selecting for it. B...

en-nz

67:15

Growing More Grass and Turning It Into Growth with...

Head Shepherd ·

2025/11/16

How simple rotations and tight feed management lift whole farm performance. Mark chats with Bevan Ravenhill, WA General Manager for Lawson Angus WA, to talk about what really drives a productive grazing business. Bevan grew up on a dairy farm, and that early training in grass, rotation, and pressure has shaped the way he now runs sheep and beef across a mixed enterprise. Bevan explains how a simple rotation, tight feed management and a focus on leaf stage have transformed grass utilisat...

en-nz

42:12

How to Start a Cattle Business with Summit Livestock

Head Shepherd ·

2025/11/09

Ever wondered what it takes to build a succesfull seedstock buisness from the ground up? Well, this is the podcast for you. This week, Mark chats with Jasmine and Hayden Green, owners of Summit Livestock, about how they built their Angus and Limousin seedstock business from the ground up (and the challenges they faced), the importance of crossbreeding for production, how they balance phenotype with data, and the challenges of getting started without your own land. Jasmine and Hayden hav...

en-nz

46:49

Financial skills for more profitable farming with...

Head Shepherd ·

2025/11/02

Accounting may not be every farmer’s favourite topic, but it is one of the most powerful tools on the farm. This week’s Head Shepherd guest, David Egerton-Warburton, explains why. Raised on a sixth-generation farm in Kojonup, Western Australia, David learned early that every on-farm decision ties back to sound business practice. His father, Kent, founded Agrimaster in 1981, bringing farm records into the computer age long before most households had a computer, and David and his wife have been...

en-nz

47:52

Trust and Farm Advice with Dr Ruth Nettle

Head Shepherd ·

2025/10/26

What makes farmers change? And what holds them back? Our guest this week, Dr Ruth Nettle, has spent 25 years studying just that. Ruth has spent her career looking into how people in agriculture learn, adapt, and lead. Now leading the Rural Innovation Research Group at the University of Melbourne, Ruth has seen how agricultural extension, advisory networks, and rural communities have evolved through time. In this episode, she and Ferg chat about trust, workforce challenges, and what the future...

en-nz

278 results

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