
Forty years at Wairere Romneys with Simon Buckley
From Head Shepherd by Mark Ferguson
June 7, 2026 · 1h 0m · Season 2026 · Episode 286
About this episode
Simon Buckley discusses his four decades of experience in sheep breeding at Wairere Romneys and the evolution of the industry.
Few people have had a front-row seat to the genetic improvement of New Zealand sheep quite like our guest this week, Simon Buckley. After growing up in Whangārei and starting his farming career at Castlepoint Station, Simon joined Wairere Romneys and has never left. Four decades later, he has helped one of New Zealand's most influential sheep breeding programmes through the transition from visual selection and paper records to EID, genomics and data-driven breeding. In this episode, Simon cha...
People in this episode
Host: Mark Ferguson
Guest: Simon Buckley
Topics covered
- sheep breeding
- genetic improvement
- farming
- data-driven breeding
- EID
- genomics
Keywords
- sheep
- breeding
- genetics
- New Zealand
- farming
- EID
- genomics
- data-driven
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Wairere Romneys
Places: New Zealand, Whangārei, Castlepoint Station
More episodes of Head Shepherd
- Refugia, resistance testing, and the future of worm management with Chloe Frank · May 31, 2026 · 30 min
- Data driven sheep breeding with James Trowbridge · May 24, 2026 · 17 min
- Genomic data management and the future of breeding values with Dan Garrick · May 17, 2026 · 56 min
- Lessons learned from LambEx with Jane Kellock · May 10, 2026 · 26 min
- How to run a farm business your bank trusts, with Matt Hood · May 3, 2026 · 1h 2m
- Feet, finances and faster genetic gain with Chad Taylor from Mumblebone · April 26, 2026 · 43 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Head Shepherd podcast page.