Explore this collection of articles from the neXtgen Agri team and beyond. You'll discover practical advice, along with research, 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.
Ewes that are performing in your flock are those that are consistently rearing lambs each year and weaning more kilograms of lamb each year. Retaining these ewes and removing those that aren’t performing will increase reproductive efficiency and ...
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