Growing Cashmere in NZ with David Shaw

What are breeding values? And why do you need a breeding objective? Our guest this week, Dr Jamie Courter, Mizzou Beef Genetics Extension Specialist, explains why they are so important for reaching our breeding goals. 

Do you have a breeding objective? This is the first question Jamie asks every producer. “I don't care what your breeding objective is if it makes sense for you,” says Jamie, “I just hope that you have one.” With no farm being the same as another, a breeding objective needs to be personalised to the goals of each individual business.

But why are they so important? “That's how we can be profitable. We have to identify an end goal and we have to keep making consistent selection decisions that get us towards that goal. You won't see the impact of this year's bull decisions until five years down the road. If we don't have that objective in mind, we're just shooting in the dark. We're not heading towards that steady upward trajectory of the traits that really matter,” explains Jamie.

So, once you know where you want to be, how do you get there? Breeding values, be it an ASBV, EBV or EPD are the best tool we have to reach that goal. 

Jamie does a great job of explaining how breeding values work and why results can vary. “I always ask producers, do you have siblings? Do you act the same, do you look the same? Light bulbs come on kind of at that point,” she shares. “In the beef cattle industry, we put pens of full sibling bulls together. It's a great way to get genetic uniformity, but it's not identical, right? They're as similar as they can be, but they're never identical.”

Keeping in mind that there are always outliers is useful. “If we have a hundred full siblings, then we would expect the average performance of those hundred calves to be the parent average, right? Most of the calf crop will have a weight right around what we expect, but we're going to have outliers on either side,” says Jamie. “It's just a result of the shuffling of the DNA. A lot of times people expect it to be perfect and unfortunately with statistics, there's always outliers one way or the other.”

Jamie points out, “We can get a good picture of the true genetic merit of those animals and which pieces of DNA they inherited from their sire or their dam. It's 50% both times, but there are 30 pairs of chromosomes and there are however many million base pairs that could have been inherited. And so we're able to get at the true genetic difference that those animals have, with genetics.”

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Tune in to our latest podcast episode as Emily Riggs, the founder and creative force behind Iris and Wool, shares her inspiring journey. 

Emily and her husband live on a sheep property outside of Burra, South Australia. “I fell in love with my farmer and also fell in love with wool,” explains Emily. “I don't actually work hands-on on the farm. So, I thought, how can I contribute to the industry?” Out of this, Iris and Wool was born, offering 100% certified Australian Merino wool knitwear, Merino denim, and accessories.

But why fashion and clothing? “I think I've always had a love for fashion. When I was a little girl, I was actually diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes. I knew that I was going to lose my hair,” Emily explains. “I was often mistaken for a boy. And that really shattered my confidence. It was then that I really turned to fashion. It was a way for me to express my creativity and for people to actually look beyond my illness.”

Iris and Wool started as an online fashion brand, with their family home as their ‘warehouse’. They have since expanded into a brick-and-mortar store in Burra, meaning their home has gone back to being a home and their customers can now try on the clothes before buying. 

For every sale at Iris and Wool, $1 goes to the Childhood Cancer Association and knitted beanies are donated to recently diagnosed children in South Australia.

Emily’s story is a heart-warming example of how, with “...a lot of hustling”, you can turn your dreams into a reality.

 #IrisAndWool #FashionWithHeart #MerinoWool #Podcast

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, Darren Spencer, President of the Western Australian Shearing Industry Association (WASIA), discusses some of the key issues faced by the wool industry, as well as how wool producers and the shearing industry can work together more effectively in the future.

First up, Darren runs us through what WASIA has done to address the much talked about “shearers’ shortage”. 

In the wake of COVID, it was obvious to WASIA that there were not enough new entrants coming into the Australian shearing industry, “So, that meant we had to actually do some training,” he explains. “Through AWI, there was a lot more emphasis put on training new entrants and novices. For the first time ever, you could see guys go to a shearing school, learn how to shear, shearing 50 or 60 a day and they could jump on a stand because the stands were empty.” 

Darren says they now have enough shearers in WA and the emphasis has shifted to upskilling them. WASIA have noticed a shortage in shed staff, so that is their new focus.

The next question, if we have enough shearers, is how do we retain them in the industry?

WASIA and AWI have developed the “Safe Sheds - The Shearing Shed Safety Program”. The aim is to help improve safety and efficiency in the shearing shed. The program assists woolgrowers to identify what needs to be fixed and provides a process to follow. “We developed the program and also developed an app with it. The program is set up with four parts. You have an induction, a pre-shearing, a post-shearing and a main full inspection program,” explains Darren.

“That was set up so that we could go to a shed, preferably well before shearing, and run through the program with the farmer and leave him with a list or whatever that needed to be fixed and we could discuss with him the priorities about what needed to happen first,” says Darren. 

Follow the link below to find this great resource: 

https://www.wool.com/globalassets/wool/people/shearing-sheds-and-sheep-yard-design/shearing-shed-assessment-manual.pdf.

Shearing is an incredibly demanding task and Darren emphasises how important it is for farmers to keep thinking about how they can make the job easier for shearers. There are recent innovations in shearing shed design, such as race delivery systems, that can improve productivity, as well as reduce physical strain on shearers.

Thanks to our sponsors, Heiniger, for setting up this interview. Darren has great insight into the core issues within the shearing industry and we think this episode is a must-listen for all woolgrowers! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

The agricultural trading sector faces challenges with volatile prices and increased government regulations. Our guest this week, David Cornish, explains how strategic planning is crucial to position your business to successfully navigate these issues. 

In the current environment, “We've seen businesses that were quite profitable or quite sustainable, even 12 months ago, now making a loss,” explains David. With high inflation, high-interest rates, potentially low capital appreciation and low commodity prices, David points out that it doesn’t make sense right now to purchase more land. Instead, investing within your boundary fence, rather than expanding it, is a better plan. 

David encourages business owners to take a hard look at where that on-farm investment is made. “Often what we have is that our costs have to increase, to increase our income. Here's our opportunity to go, no, we're not gonna let that happen. We're gonna have a look at everything that we spend our dollars on and say, can we do that better or do we need to do that?” 

David admits that thinking about strategy doesn't seem like an appealing task for anyone when there are plenty of other things to do on the farm. But he suggests that spending the time to identify those small 1% changes, that result in a thriving and resilient business, is worth it. 

“When we look at those incremental performances, and you listen to leading teams, one of the things they often talk about is this concept of ‘It's the one percenters that give you the big return’,” he explains. “It's those one or two percenters that add up to the 20 percenters that makes it worthwhile. And, for most of us, we are in a commodity industry, so let's manage what we can manage and control what we control.”

David and Ferg discuss how to decide what those small incremental improvements can be. It can be difficult to know what to cut out of a farming business when it is so complex. Is it saving money by buying fewer rams this year or reducing fertiliser? Is it spending money to save you time by putting in laneways? 

You’ll have to tune in to hear David's advice there! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

This week on the podcast, we’re discussing technology adoption and genetics with Dr Penny Schulz.

Penny farms in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia (SA) with her husband Jason. She is a livestock technical specialist at the SA Drought Hub, as well as holding several other advisory positions. 

“My role here with The (SA Drought) Hub is very much focused on farmer adoption,” Penny explains. “I do a lot of farmer-facing workshop work or developing new projects. So a lot of it might be about filling seasonal feed gaps or it could be around business. We've got things to do with service providers as well. But also outside of that, I do a bit of mentoring and coaching with young people and rural women's networks as well.”

Mark and Penny discuss the adoption of electronic identification (EID) technology by farmers. She explains that it's not necessarily farmer reluctance slowing down the uptake of new technologies. Rather, the existing technology infrastructure doesn't fully support farmers in leveraging the data that they collect. “We always cop it as farmers. They think that we're just not digitally savvy enough and that farmers need to get digital literacy training. And I say, ‘No, they don't’,” explains Penny. “I think their digital technology needs to catch up with everything else.”

“Farmers are fine using iPhones and laptops to get by with other parts of their life. And then when it comes to technology, whether it's physical tech or software to do with their sheep enterprise, it's clunky and it's not intuitive. And it doesn't talk to things sometimes and it does others. And we've just come to accept that that's what happens - even though it costs us $30,000 to set it up.”

Yet Mark and Penny both remain optimistic. With the recent advances in artificial intelligence, innovation in the ag sector continues to evolve. Penny points out that identifying the problem - and finding the right technology to solve it - is the key to successful technology adoption in agriculture, not the other way around. 

Mark and Penny also discuss the genetics used on her family farm. Penny gained a passion for genetics when showing dairy cattle, so it is no wonder she now uses breeding values for her livestock. “In farming, there's so much you can't control. So you try and look for the information where you can get it,” she explains. “And when it comes to breeding animals, the breeding values that we have in the system, that's the information we do know. And we use it quite heavily.”

This episode is a great discussion about how data-driven strategies and technology (and genetics, of course!) are charting the course toward a more robust and productive future in agriculture. 

Find out more about the SA Drought Hub by following the link below.
https://sadroughthub.com.au/about/

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are you passionate about breeding robust and resilient animals? If so, this is the podcast for you.

Our guest this week is Dr Wendy Rauw, a renowned expert in animal genetics and breeding. Wendy's career has taken her to various corners of the world, working with a diverse range of species, from sheep and cattle to chickens and even fish. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.

In this episode, Wendy and Mark explore topics ranging from 'genotype by environment  (GxE) interaction' to the significance of prioritising robustness and resilience in breeding strategies, especially in our ever-changing climate. 

Wendy also tackles the challenges of integrating welfare and production traits into breeding objectives, emphasising the importance of striking a balance in various production systems.

If you're intrigued by the art and science of breeding animals for a sustainable and resilient future, this podcast is a must-listen!

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

📢 Calling all sheep enthusiasts! This week's guest is Mark Mortimer, aka @sheepgeekCP on Twitter. Mark is both a sheep farmer and an innovator with an incredible mind for numbers and technology.

Raised on a merino stud, Mark has been recording sheep data for as long as he can remember. One of his first 'inventions' was voice-to-text software so that he didn’t have to write down the numbers his dad called out to him all day in the yards. He soon realised that talking in dusty sheep yards was equally as tiresome as writing things down all day, but the foundations of innovation were now there to be built upon.

Mark shares his journey of learning to code from a “good old-fashioned book” and how he then created very specific problem-solving technology with that knowledge.

From using some of the first electronic identification tags as part of the sheep CRC, to developing a walk-through pedigree matchmaking set-up, to a whisper-silent modular auto drafter capable of drafting up to 21 ways (which he also tested with his own head, to ensure the front gate closed softly enough on the sheep), Mark's innovations are what many sheep farmers dream about creating. And this is only the tip of the iceberg!

Mark also discusses Centre Plus and his father's approach to breeding merinos in the 1980s. He emphasises the power of collective decision-making to help drive genetic gain across the industry.

We hope that this podcast and Mark's insights into invention inspire you to think a little more creatively about solving your on-farm problems.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

Are you proactive when it comes to your livestock's health? This week on the podcast, we have vet and “animal agronomist”, Jillian Kelly, on the show talking about forward planning when it comes to livestock health and husbandry. 

After working as a practising vet around the world, Jillian decided she wanted to approach her job a little differently. She didn’t want to just help calve a cow, for example, she wanted to help make sure that problem never occurred in the first place.

“I thought, ​​I'd love to attack this from the other end," she shares. “If we can feed them properly and look after them and set up their animal health programme properly, they probably don't need to do the postmortems. And so that's where my business, Animal Health & Nutrition Consulting came from.”

Jillian now works with multiple clients offering a proactive annual approach to managing livestock. “We look at their farm calendar and their management activities and how that aligns with their feed base and where the excesses and the gaps are and how we can best address that,” she explains. In her business, she also covers animal health treatments and rising issues such as drench resistance. 

Her business, AHN Consulting, also offers a fortnightly newsletter that Jillian writes herself, which has “...​​practical, in-the-paddock advice that might just save your stock”. 

Not content with improving the lives of just animals, Jillian also spends her evenings watercolour painting, providing beautiful artwork to improve our lives, too! 

If you’d like to find out more about AHN Consulting, visit this link:
https://www.ahnconsulting.com.au/.

If you’d like to see Jillian's artwork, visit her website here:
https://www.missvet.com.au/.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

With extensive experience working with AgResearch, Abacus Bio, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, the New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council and (in her current role) as Genetics Programme Manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ), our guest this week, Dr Gemma Jenkins, has a passion for genetics.

Gemma's primary focus at B+LNZ is genetic improvement in the beef industry via the Informing New Zealand Beef Programme (INZB).

“Our main objectives are to drive genetic gain in the beef industry; enhancing it through superior genetics, AI use and promoting genomic selection by stud breeders," she explains. "The goal is to generate an additional $460 million in income for the beef industry by 2045. We aim to create genetic evaluations tailored for New Zealand, focusing on traits important to local farmers, and develop easy-to-use genetic tools like n-Prove, but for beef. These tools will assist farmers in making informed breeding decisions.”

Listen in for Gemma's excellent explanation of industry indexes and how the weightings of individual traits work to drive overall industry improvement.

We also dive into the world of medicinal cannabis. Gemma shares her experience as a science and technical advisor for the New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council. The complexity of the cannabis plant and its chemical components presents unique challenges for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly when it comes to replicating its components.

“There's lots of different parts of the plant and so it’s very hard for pharmaceutical companies to replicate because it wasn't just looking at a single product like THC or CBD. There's what they call the “entourage effect”. So it's more than just the sum of the parts, it's not just the THC and CBD together but it's all of them combined.”

Gemma explains the parallels between cannabis breeding and animal breeding, emphasising the importance of considering genetic background and interactions.

“I guess that's the same as animal breeding, at the end of the day. Some genes have a major effect, but then you know there's a different genetic landscape for each individual and ultimately, the way the genes express each other can be different based on what the genetic background is for the animal too.”

Whatever we're breeding, genetics plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of agriculture.

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE

In this week's podcast, discover how optimising soil health is your key to farming profitability. We're joined by Melinda Turner from Farm Nutrient Advisory, a specialist in the fields of animal science, soil and plant sciences. Melinda brings a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to this complex subject. 

Melinda discusses some of the common challenges in nutrient management. It's such a vast topic and, with many 'snake oil' sales people out there, it’s no wonder many farmers find it overwhelming. Melinda runs us through mineral imbalances in the soil, like low levels of calcium among others, and how they affect other nutrients and their availability. 

“You quite often get high potassium soils that can play havoc with magnesium interaction and also in terms of your calcium uptake, because the magnesium is needed for the hormone release that triggers calcium absorption,” she explains. “So, if you've got too much potassium in your soil and you're not applying appropriate magnesium and calcium, you can have quite a knock-on effect with a number of those minerals and vitamins as well. "

Melinda also shares her expertise in soil testing and analysis, underscoring its importance in maintaining optimal nutrient levels. She advises regular testing, "For both soil and herbage, every couple of years would be a minimum." She highlights that the cost of extra testing is soon reaped by the benefits of healthier, productive and, more importantly, optimised livestock, soils and forage. 

She also highlights the importance of how variable soil conditions are from farm to farm, so relying on what your neighbours, or the local fert rep, tells you to do, without proper scientific testing beforehand, can waste a lot of time and money. 

And, of course, we dive briefly into the world of genetics with Melinda explaining how soil health influences genetic expression in plants, much like nutrition does in livestock. Tune in to gain valuable insights into nutrient management and its crucial role in successful farming. 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, and Heiniger Australia and New Zealand.

These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE
Check out the MSD range HERE
Check out Allflex products HERE