Mark "Ferg" Ferguson is a consultant who works with sheep farmers and breeders in New Zealand and Australia. He is CEO of neXtgen Agri who runs consultants in most places with sheep in New Zealand and Australia. He was involved in the science behind Lifetime Wool, which was very influential in the development of Challenge Sheep - AHDB-funded project that Nerys and Liz worked on.

We talk about how their Optiewe programme is being brought to the UK, with Nerys and Liz currently collecting expressions of interest. The programme will launch on the 16th of October.

Links mentioned:

Link to Optiewe UK expression of interest

Link to neXtgen Agri

Link to Head Shepherd podcast

Link to Lifetime Wool

Link to Challenge Sheep

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Podcast Disclaimer:
The views and information shared in this podcast are for general guidance only and do not constitute professional advice. The Sheep Geeks make no guarantees about the accuracy or completeness of the content. Always consult your own vet or advisor before making changes to your animal health or farm management practices. Any reliance on the information is at your own risk. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheep Geeks.

Ben Strugnell is a vet with an obsession of learning as much as possible from dead animals. He runs Farm Post Mortems up in County Durham and also presents at various events around the country. This is a legacy from an EBLEX/AHDB funded project work with him over ten years ago.

We talk about his findings and how he works with farmers to try and prevent further losses. He shares his frustration about the limited amount of applied research that is being funded in the UK at the moment.

Links mentioned:

Link to iceberg diseases manual - Iceberg diseases of ewes | AHDB

Link to the fallen stock project from 2013 - Fallen stock: phase II | AHDB

Link to SCOPS podcasts - Podcasts | SCOPS

Song alamycin link - I’ll definitely be singing this... - Beltex Sheep Society | Facebook

Farm post mortems - Farm Post Mortems Ltd.

Carbon calling webpage

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Podcast Disclaimer:
The views and information shared in this podcast are for general guidance only and do not constitute professional advice. The Sheep Geeks make no guarantees about the accuracy or completeness of the content. Always consult your own vet or advisor before making changes to your animal health or farm management practices. Any reliance on the information is at your own risk. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheep Geeks.

Kevin Harrison is a farm manager on a sheep and arable farm near Bath. He spends time representing the UK sheep industry through the positions of Policy and Technical Chairman for the National Sheep Association (NSA), and Chairman of SCOPS - Sustainable Control of Parasite in Sheep. He is also a member of the Register of Sheep Advisers, and has been seen helping Jeremy on Clarkson's Farm! He is not a bad sax player either, and plays with the Harlem Rhythm Cats.

We talk about how he has been changing the flock from an intensive mule based system to a outdoor lambing system with Exlanas.

Links mentioned:

-https://www.scops.org.uk/

- https://www.facebook.com/harlemrhythmcats/?locale=en_GB

- https://www.eastofengland.org.uk/scholars/

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Podcast Disclaimer:
The views and information shared in this podcast are for general guidance only and do not constitute professional advice. The Sheep Geeks make no guarantees about the accuracy or completeness of the content. Always consult your own vet or advisor before making changes to your animal health or farm management practices. Any reliance on the information is at your own risk. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheep Geeks.

Dr Awal Fuselini is AHDB's Halal sector senior manager and also a 2025 Nuffield Scholar. He shares his knowledge about the Halal market in the UK and in other countries. We discuss stun and non-stun options for Halal slaughterings, and also the importance of people understanding more about the production systems. Maybe not one to listen to if you, or someone who is listening with you, is of a sensitive disposition.

Plus the first time we use our new standard question - "what is your first memory of sheep?"

Links mentioned:

- Awal’s podcast link from apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-halal-food-podcast/id1611924158

- Awal's Nuffield

- Opportunities in halal | AHDB

- Carbon Calling | Regenerative farming conference

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Podcast Disclaimer:
The views and information shared in this podcast are for general guidance only and do not constitute professional advice. The Sheep Geeks make no guarantees about the accuracy or completeness of the content. Always consult your own vet or advisor before making changes to your animal health or farm management practices. Any reliance on the information is at your own risk. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheep Geeks.

David and Cora Cooper are sheep farmers from Ayrshire. They have made significant changes to their system over the last few years to reduce costs and inputs. They are using mob grazing to drive nature recovery on their farm.

In this podcast we talk about the changes they had made, the focus on low input sheep and their passion for regenerating their land.

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Dave Cross is a mixed farmer in Norfolk with sheep, beef, arable and layers. He farms within a family partnership. He has been very strategic with the use of sustainable farming incentive (SFI) to transform their arable fields into lanes of herbal leys. He has been an AHDB monitor farm for the last four years.

In this podcast we talk about the changes he has made to his farming systems in the last few years and his plans for the future. Nerys asks a question about beef, which is very rare.

Links

Select tickets – Carbon Calling 2025 – Sleastonhow, Kirkby Thore, Penrith

SCOPS | Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Dr Suzanne Rowe is a geneticist at AgResearch in New Zealand, and is passionate about improving profitability and sustainability of global livestock systems using genomic technology. She presented at Sheep Breeders Round Table in November 2024 on breeding for methane reduction in sheep.

In this podcast she talks about the work that is being done on collecting phenotypes for methane production in the New Zealand, plus work being done in Ireland and the UK.

Links

Presentation from SBRT - PowerPoint Presentation

Elanco link Are you a farmer wanting to become a star in the sheep world

Bluetongue Virus - Ruminant Health & Welfare

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.

Dr Fiona Lovatt is a vet and consultant, and founder of Flock Health Limited. She has been heavily involved in reducing antibiotic use in the sheep sector. She is passionate about improving the relationship between farmers and their vets.

In this podcast she talks about a project she did with NoBacz Navel - a non-antibiotic barrier. It was compared against iodine for treating navels in young lambs. They also compared dipping versus spraying, and looked at mortality and growth rates.

Links

https://www.veterinary-practice.com/2024/new-study-highlights-significant-benefits-of-using-nobacz-navel-in-lambs

https://nobacz.com/

Dr Liz Genever is a farmer, consultant and co-founder of Carbon Calling CIC.

Dr Nerys Wright is a sheep consultant and technical lead for SCOPS.