neXtResist can tell you which sheep are fighting off worms, even when worm numbers are low. Emma Noble-Campbell has been running the test for New Zealand breeders since she joined us in February.

Emma grew up on a sheep and beef farm in the North Island, studied agricultural science at Lincoln and did her honours on worm resistance and immunity in sheep. Since joining neXtgen, she has set up our "Spit Lab" (in Ferg's garage!) and is now running neXtResist, the SwabTec saliva test, for New Zealand breeders.

Emma and Ferg talk through how the test works. It measures the antibodies in a sheep's saliva against a protein worms release during infection, so it picks up variation between animals even when worm pressure is low, meaning it is not a requirement to push sheep to high egg counts to measure resistance.

Mark and Emma also discuss SHIELD, our new project on immune competence, worm resistance, whole body energy and hoof health. These are the four things we see going wrong most often on farms, and once one element fails, others tend to follow, and the sheep goes downhill. The aim is to breed sheep that are less likely to start down that path, without giving up production.

Tune in to hear more about SHIELD and how you can get involved.

Sign up to our newsletter to read more about SwabTec

If you would like to test your antibody levels with neXtResist, get in touch with Emma at emma.noble-campbell@nextgenagri.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: info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

Join us to celebrate our 300th episode!

For anyone lucky enough to attend LambEx this year, Gus Balbontin was one of our favourite speakers. So, when he agreed to come on for our special 300th episode, we were beyond excited.

The messages Gus shared during his talk have stuck with many. He challenged (and succeeded) in getting us to think differently and to question any long-standing assumptions we'd had.

Gus grew up in sheep country in Patagonia before leaving Argentina at the age of 17 because of "a healthy disregard for the status quo". By 22, he'd dropped out of university, hitchhiked across South America, started his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet, giving him a front-row seat to the disruption that came alongside the internet and ensuing technology boom.

These days, Gus is an investor, founder, advisor, and speaker, working across startups, AI, robotics, 3D-printed wheelchairs, and climate technology. Gus doesn’t claim to know exactly what the future will look like. Instead, he argues that we should be getting better at adapting to whatever comes next.

He talks about why successful businesses and farms can become comfortable with systems that have worked for years, which is why disruption often looks ridiculous before it becomes obvious.

His advice is to stop waiting for the future to become clear and start playing with it now. Try something unfamiliar. Follow a new idea down a rabbit hole. Make a small experiment. See what happens.

We couldn't have asked for a better guest for our 300th episode. We hope this gives you a chance to think about staying relevant, challenging assumptions and being willing to rethink things that have worked well for a long time.

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: info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE

John Yates has spent the past 18 years helping develop the British Texel Sheep Society, including bringing performance recording in house and building the iTexel database. Rather than relying on an external system, the Society has developed an evaluation around the information its breeders are collecting and the breeding goals of a terminal sire breed.

John chats with Ferg about that evolution and the thinking behind it. For him, breed development has to maintain focus on what commercial producers need from a terminal sire, which means making data easier for breeders to collect and use, putting economic value on traits, and using genomics to ensure accuracy within the breed.

With around a third of UK sires having texel genetics, this development has been quite influential for sheep producers there. It is an interesting concept, and worth a listen for anyone wondering what a breed society could be doing with the data it already holds.

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: info@nextgenagri.com.

Thanks to our sponsors at MSD Animal Health and Allflex, Heiniger Australia and New Zealand, and ProWay Livestock Equipment. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

Check out the MSD range HERE

Check out Allflex products HERE

Check out Heiniger's product range HERE

Check out ProWay's product range HERE