Have you ever spent long nights awake thinking about the role of the different types of ryegrasses?

Or perhaps you pass your time on the tractor questioning Ecotain’s® ability to reduce nitrate leaching?

If so you may want to check in with your health care professional, but in the meantime, Al and Juddy are here to help explain the technical, practical, and sometimes humorous implications of forages and animal systems that keep New Zealand farmers leading the world.

What do snakes, hair removal cream, and ONE⁵⁰ perennial ryegrass all have in common?

They’re in this episode of the Al & Juddy Show.

In the spirit of the season, they’re sharing light hearted yarns from their careers, aiming to trigger a few giggles or smiles!

Join Al & Juddy as they sit down with the boss, John McKenzie. They discuss his early career, taking New Zealand products to the world and delve into forward thinking strategies that utilise failures and successes of R&D to support investment strategies for future technology.

Will there be an Episode 21? Listen to find out!

‘What you can do is transplant the way a Kiwi thinks. When you trace it back, it's about making the most of the resources at hand. It’s the number eight wire and binder twine mentality of people who came out here and settled in this country 150 years ago. It’s the way we think’ – John McKenzie 

Al & Juddy enjoyed having Stephen Goldson from AgResearch in the studio as their second guest.

Stephen shares his intrepid journey on controlling the Argentine stem weevil population by retrieving parasitoids from South America and bringing them to New Zealand.

Tune in for a first hand account of ecology in action. 

"In terms of Conservation Biocontrol, we cannot use examples of this approach from abroad. What we can do is import biocontrol control agents that have evolved in association with stem weevil through evolutionary time, which is what the importation biocontrol is all about." – Stephen Goldson 

Listen in as Al & Juddy cover everything about the highly nutritious herb chicory, which resonates with many New Zealand farming systems including dairy, sheep and beef.

Offering key recommendations and best practice tips for getting the most out of your chicory.  

"Between its easily grazed habit and its ability to stimulate grazing by being a herbaceous plant full of water, in a hot dry environment you tend to find it is a perfect way of getting more drymatter and more energy into an animal under stress. Making it an ideal home grown feed." – Allister Moorhead 

Join Al & Juddy as they delve into one of the fundamental aspects of a calendar year, wintering systems.

They unpack how to select the ideal wintering system, taking into account the factors of your resource base such as how much land for the number of animals you have.

They discuss the various characteristics of different cultivars and rotations, offering insight into optimising the area you farm on, with a particular focus on the dairy system.

"Winter is challenging, but it doesn’t mean to say that we need to change the system completely. I think by looking at best practices and being sensible about them, we can navigate our way through those challenges" – Glenn Judson

Throughout this episode, Al & Juddy have a comprehensive discussion about finishing lambs during the lactation phase.

They explore historical examples that shaped their understanding of how various forages integrate within a finishing system and provide valuable insights into how to optimise their use.

"The detail is actually understanding your forage and variety choice along with their seasonality. It’s really important because we are trying to match forage growth with livestock demand for the first month and a half of spring. Not all plants are equal, and not all varieties are equal in those windows of time" – Glenn Judson

Al & Juddy are joined by local farmer Chris Chamberlain for the second episode of their two part series.

Chris shares his personal leasing experience, offering valuable lessons and expertise that will benefit young farmers looking to get their foot in the door.

“We need young people and their enthusiastic brains. And I think leasing is a way that they can get their foot in the door and old hardheads can help assist. You can ask, you can listen and you can learn” – Chris Chamberlain 

Join Al & Juddy as they welcome their first guest, sheep and beef farmer Chris Chamberlain, in the latest episode -  ‘Forging lasting relationships’.

In this deep dive discussion, they explore their shared history and experience reaching back close to 25 years.

This is the first of two podcasts so don’t miss the banter and experience that will leave you wanting more!

‘We try and take the risk and vulnerabilities away and add benefit. So, it’s about drafting through that knowledge base and utilising the stuff that’s applicable to your business’ – Chris Chamberlain

Join Al & Juddy in this episode as they delve into the four main factors that affect animal intake, and how this may impact your farming system.

From bite size and rate, to grams per bite and grazing duration, there are many factors to consider each with its own influence on animals.

Tune in to grasp how these effects impact your animals.

"In a pastoral system, grazing animals get their energy from grazing forages. Grazing intake, which refers to how much an animal can consume from pasture in a day, is affected by various factors that can make it easier or harder for the animal to consume pasture and ultimately affect their daily energy intake" – Glenn Judson

Capital stock are a critical part of most production systems yet sometimes their importance is overlooked.

Al & Juddy take a farm systems approach in discussing forage and forage systems which feed this important stock class at critical times of the year.

Listen in to this general discussion on the principles of feeding next year’s production.

"Always focussing on driving pasture covers so that when we put a ewe with high energy demand into a set stock phase to be lambing, she's got enough feed underneath her with enough momentum to get to peak lactation as fast as possible." – Allister Moorhead

Dactylis glomerata, orchard grass, cat grass, or most commonly ‘cocksfoot’ is often misunderstood and seen as a relic of the past with no relevance in today’s farming systems.

Al & Juddy bust this myth by dissecting its rich history and explaining cocksfoot’s resilience and productivity in a dryland environment.

Listen in and find out how you could reap the benefits of cocksfoot in your farming system.

‘Sometimes something that is not perfect is actually still really important. And if you don’t like it because it’s not perfect, you miss the fact this it’s actually still quite important’- Allister Moorhead 

This month Al and Juddy discuss the science behind seed mixes. They tackle how seed and plant characteristics, environment, and grazing management affect the balance of plants in a pasture.

“One thing I would always encourage you to do is be fully aware of what plant species you’re bringing into your landscape and actually know them, because making the mix is quite an important thing”

This month Al and Juddy explore the “jewel in the crown” for Agricom - Marshdale, our beef research and demonstration unit which evaluates new forage products and grazing techniques, and provides data on topical aspects of animal production.

Join the lads and let them explain “the science between the stones”.

"There’s very little accurate beef industry information in New Zealand regarding liveweight gain on different species, however, Marshdale fulfills and represents a really important role for the New Zealand beef industry"

Hang out with Al and Juddy this month as they do some “kale time” and take you on a journey with this amazing plant.

They cover aspects of biology, farm systems, animal health, and establishment considerations along with their normal banter.

"Kale is far more flexible than we've ever thought of before. The reality is it can fit inside your feed program in more ways than we have traditionally used it."

With 20 years of industry experience, Dr Glenn Judson (Juddy) is Agricom’s Nutritional and Farm Systems Specialist and leads an extensive research programme aimed at developing plant-based solutions for a range of industry challenges. Glenn has travelled extensively through New Zealand and Australia providing technical support on matters of forage nutrition and grazing management. For an animal-specific view on forages and grazing systems tune in to Juddy’s unique perspective.

This month Al & Juddy share their expertise on one of their favourite topics, summer brassicas.

Join the lads while they discuss and give examples on linking summer brassicas to farm systems, along with a summary on the history around summer brassica grazing management.

Including tips and tricks on getting summer brassicas reliably established and, thoughts around maximising performance across various stock classes.

“Know your summer brassica, and get the right one for your forage needs, your farm system and your climatic variability”

Fescues are often considered an alternative to ryegrass and can be a great fit in many farming systems.

Let Al and Juddy take you through the A-Z of this species, from its history through to relevant systems use and don’t forget to listen out for Juddy’s Top 5 Grazing Tips!

“Even if it’s a colder year, you still get that flush of feed coming in.”

Red clover is a powerhouse in a pasture and can have real animal performance advantages, so let Al and Juddy talk you through the ins and outs of this legume, as well as how it can best fit into a farming system.

Al and Juddy are back to let us know about the wonder plant that is white clover: how important it is to farmers in New Zealand, the different types and how they are best utilised, its role in nitrogen fixation and the benefits to our animals. All of this as well as a bit of an introduction about themselves and how they came to be sitting in front of a microphone.

"The more clover you can get in there, the higher the performance of those animals."

Our animals love to eat it and we love to grow it, but what really are the differences in the varieties of ryegrasses out there? From annual, hybrid and perennial types to diploids and tetraploids, there’s a lot to cover here, including one of the most overlooked factors in getting the best out of your ryegrass – its flowering date.

Let Al and Juddy take you for a wander through a topic on ryegrasses and get an appreciation for just how important it is to New Zealand’s agriculture.

"Ryegrass as a species is the single most important plant in the New Zealand economy."

Ever wondered how endophytes benefit the grass in which they live or how they affect the animals grazing on them?

Al Moorhead and Glenn Judson are here to fill in all the gaps; from just what endophytes are, what they mean to New Zealand, how they pass through generations of ryegrass and how they help with various pasture pests.

Endophytes are a vital tool in many farmers' toolboxes, so make sure to listen in!