Explore this collection of articles from the neXtgen Agri team, along with research results, producer profiles, interviews with industry innovators and highlights from the Head Shepherd podcast. We also share reports and articles published by the wider industry from time to time.
You can find more great articles, along with webinar recordings and other resources, on The Hub, where the team regularly posts new content for the neXtgen Agri community.
In the Murray River country north of Swan Hill – Tim and Tam Mulholland are the last ones standing. While they’ve endured water allocation cuts and periods of zero allocation “completely decimating” other local livestock operations, it’s been...
Making every ram purchase count, we touch on knowing your plan, prepping for sale day and what to look for on the day. When was the last time you considered not only which ram you would buy, but where you will be buying it from and why?
Hands-on approach keeps ewes in best condition. The old adage; “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” rings true for much of modern life. But in the sheepyards, there’s a tool that comes completely free of charge, and...
With lambing on the horizon, and scanning behind us, I’d hope that most farmers now know how many lambs they’re expecting in the coming months. Be it more or less than previous years, from now on, to maximise potential, it’s all about lamb survivabil
Since 1986 there has been a divergent selection experiment running at Stellenbosch University, near Capetown in South Africa. The two lines started from the same base population of Merino ewes and have been selected either...
In the late 1980’s, a conversation with a meat buyer ignited a spark in Border Leicester breeder Lynton Arney that would set the course for a 30-year quest to integrate technology and client needs in meeting a modern market. “I’d not long taken the..
In intensive animal production systems, like pig or chicken production, or even a beef feedlot, the aim is to produce animals that grow fast while eating less, often referred to as feed efficiency. This, of course, makes perfect sense. The biggest...
Almost without exception, if I ask a sheep producer what they would like to improve in their sheep they tell me they would like to wean more lambs. Sometimes they are keen to improve the scanning percentage but mostly they are keen to improve lamb...
Getting a good lambing result out of maiden ewes remains as a challenge for many producers. The traditional maiden ewe is one that goes to the ram for the first time at 19 months of age. However, in a maternal composite, first cross ewe...
The trait ‘susceptibility to footrot’ is quoted as FR. FR describes a sheep’s susceptibility to footrot using it’s genetic difference in footrot score. This score measures how well a sheep retains foot health under a challenge with virulent footrot.
Dawson Bradford is one of Australia's most successful performance breeders and the Hillcroft Farms name can be found in many high performance Poll Dorset and White Suffolk pedigrees. He is now focussed on breeding shedding sheep and is again topping
There are filing cabinets full of data that show that using breeding values is the best method of achieving rapid genetic gain across lots of different species and applications. In this zoom meeting Ferg provides some of this evidence.....
There is a sweet spot of combining traditional skills with the latest science to enable rapid genetic gain. It is important to not confuse the tools with the desired outcome. The type of sheep or cattle people want to breed is a personal decision..
Ian Robertson is the manager of the nucleus flock for Merinotech WA and has been since its inception. He is responsible for achieving an amazing rate of genetic gain across a range of traits and breeding...
By optimising ewe nutrition between scanning and lambing, we can give ewes the best chance of having thriving lambs in spring. Managing ewes based on their condition score and the number of lambs they are carrying helps us do this most effectively.
Having more lambs weaned per ewe put to the ram has a multitude of benefits to a sheep enterprise. The beautiful thing is that these benefits are compounding or in other words these benefits snowball. If you are running a sheep enterprise...
As technology develops so does our ability to understand sheep behaviour at a whole new level. Our collaborative project with AWI, Murdoch Universtiy, Muresk and Agriculture Victoria is looking to measure feed intake in sheep in real time...
Recently we've been working with Dr Scobie on the flystrike work on behalf of MLA. Scobie, as he prefers to be known, is originally from South Australia and has been living and working in NZ since completing his PhD. Ferg had a chance to speak....