Head Shepherd

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 large scale genetic movement between countries.
Ian shares the lessons he's learnt about farming foreign genetics in different environments and he and Mark also discuss the rise in popularity of shedding sheep across the globe. 
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: [email protected].

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

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 development of the world-first automated wool handling facility in Melbourne. Sam also shares why understanding the full journey of wool matters, from on-farm decisions through to market outcomes 
Sam is a great example of what you can achieve if you really chase your goals and is a true asset to the Agricultural industry. 
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: [email protected].

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

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 different systems and breeds.
Carel begins by sharing the story behind South Africa's groundbreaking work in livestock genetics during the 1990s, as well as his early days tackling genetic conditions in Angus, and his time at the Australian Wagyu Association.
After 10 years at the Australian Wagyu Association, Carel returned to Angus Australia in 2025 as Chief Operating Officer, where he's overseeing the parallel running of the Trans-Tasman (TACE) analysis and Angus's new internal analysis. 
He explains how the internal system has been in development for almost five years, includes new traits like immune competence and body condition, and uses different methodological approaches such as avoiding pre-adjustments on carcass data. 
Angus Australia is letting breeders compare both systems to see how they re-rank animals. Carel explains that while there will be some re-ranking, both point in the same direction and will still guide breeders toward genetic improvement.
Carel and Mark also cover
Commercial breeding strategies
The value of female data in maternal breeds
How to identify and cull poor-performing dams
Why commercial producers should pay attention to breeding values even without recording full pedigrees.

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: [email protected].

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

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 be looking at to optimise performance. Some traits benefit all farms, no matter the location (things like worms, dags and feet), and others that are more system-specific.  

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: [email protected].

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

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 mixed infections and with species that regulate egg production, and how this affects breeding and management decisions in well-managed, low challenge systems.
They also discuss where they are with the development and validation of Swabtec. They are currently working to validate the test across breeds and environments and are planning to develop breeding values as the data builds. The test has been found to have a heritability of 0.4 compared to the WEC of 0.2 meaning flock improvements based on insights and data from Swabtec can occur twice as fast!
Find out more below:
https://swabtec.com/
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: [email protected].

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