Host Al opens 2026 by thanking listeners and outlining more practical guests plus monthly segments from Chelsea (Herd Solutions) on animal health and Morgs (Elders) on livestock markets. He interviews John Keiller, stud principal of Keiller, Cashmore Park in western Victoria, about his background in agriculture, mentors, and a data-driven approach to sheep breeding. John describes their operation (about 7,000 adult ewes, producing around 13,000 lambs, plus a smaller cattle herd), his early performance recording adoption through LambPlan, and major genetic gains across traits including growth, reproduction, fecal egg count, carcass, and new measures like tail length, dag scores, shedding, and genomics. He discusses developing “Nudie”/southern shedding sheep since 2003–2007, their current performance relative to maternal composites, and plans to close the gap. The episode covers why Cashmore genetics perform well in Gippsland, joining ewe lambs, scanning/marking benchmarks, and concludes with John’s advice to balance work with life and details of October ram sales and November/December AuctionsPlus ewe sales.
00:00 Welcome Back 2026
01:02 Meet John Keiller
01:30 Why Agriculture
02:40 Farm Scale Today
03:03 Ag College Lessons
04:07 Mentors And Data
04:58 Stud Origins
06:23 LambPlan Trait Evolution
08:02 What We Record
09:22 Nudie Sheep Program
12:45 Gippsland Trial Results
14:47 Joining Ewe Lambs
17:17 Scanning And Marking
20:07 Advice And Wrap Up
21:08 Sales Dates And Outro
