Head Shepherd

Most breeders pick one thing to improve. Peter Blackwood picked several. When he and his wife Claire took over a Corriedale stud in 2006, they committed to lifting fertility, carcass shape and wool fineness - all at once - by using ASBVs. Two decades later, they've lifted lambing from 110% to 150%, and reduced micron from 28 to 22-24. Peter also says his sheep are shorter and stockier, with better shape and cleaner points, including bare heads. Apparently 10 years on the crutching trailers wi...

What is a trait actually worth to a farming business? Ferg has spent much of his career talking about the value of genetics, but it hasn't always been easy to put that value into real dollar terms that apply to individual farming businesses. In this episode, Ferg explains how we plan to work out the dollar value of genetic performance with the use of our new tool, neXtProfit. Ferg explains that it's not as simple as putting a price on an extra lamb or another kilogram of wool, because e...

Ever wondered what's actually happening inside an overgrown hoof? And can you fix it once the damage is done? Our guest this week looked into just that. Dr Laura Deeming did her PhD with Massey University and AgResearch on dairy goat hoof health. Many dairy goats are not hoof trimmed until their first lactation, which, at that point, feet can already be very overgrown. One of her key questions was whether starting trimming earlier would help lifetime foot health. Laura worked with equine vets...