articles.

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.
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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.
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Latest article.

Subdividing paddocks to lamb ewes in smaller mobs

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December 20, 2019

Farmer = People that Farm - #3

Growing up on our family farm in the Victoria Mallee, I had four fantastic role models, Mum and Dad on one side of the dam, and Dad's parents, Mama and Pa on the other. Pa had suffered a blood-clot in his leg and lost his leg from above the knee...

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November 13, 2019

Farmer = People that Farm - #2

In the first article in this series, I discussed how the large variation in uptake of technology across agriculture is actually not different to the level of technology use within the (very much larger) non-farming population...

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October 6, 2019

Farmer = People that Farm - #1

Maybe I am stating the obvious, but farmers are indeed humans that farm. The reason I am making this obvious statement is two-fold. Firstly, for much of my career I have been involved in discussions, work shops and funding bids to improve the...

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September 22, 2019

Structural faults - what are we missing?

If sheep and cows were born with wheels, breeding them would be a whole lot easier! I know much has been said about us “numbers breeders” but as you hopefully know by now, we are also keen on functional animals with good structure and in merino...

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August 24, 2019

CV or not CV

During my PhD I did a very large experiment to try and further understand the physiological consequences of differences in muscling, fatness and growth breeding values in Merino sheep. It was the last and largest of the five experiments that I...

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August 10, 2019

Whole body energy and it's importance in sheep breeding

What is whole-body energy and why is it important? Whole-body energy is a term that we use to describe the total stores of energy that an animal has to draw from in tough times or lactation. It is largely driven by the total amount of fat the...

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July 6, 2019

Seen one, seen them all?

For the general population that hasn’t spent as long in the sheep yards as this readership, all sheep look the same. Even us sheep enthusiasts could be forgiven for thinking that there isn’t really a lot that sets them apart from each other...

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June 19, 2019

Genetics of Condition Score

Since 2013, we've been running a central progeny test on behalf of The New Zealand Merino Company and the Merino industry in New Zealand. Any form of progeny testing is fantastic because it is a fantastic demonstration of the power of genetics...

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May 25, 2019

Does 90% of their breeding go down their throat?

"90% of the breeding goes down their throat"... most of us will have heard this statement, probably hundreds of times. It is often said to justify a belief that one should worry less about the genetics of the animals and more about how...

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