John Maher, Grass 10 Campaign Manager, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the current grassland situation on farms across the country. Firstly, John reflects on the 2019 grazing season and he advises farmers to look at some key figures such as total grass production, number of grazings achieved and pre-grazing herbage cover. John looks to the current situation on farms and explains that while overall annual rainfall is normal, above average rainfall has been observed in late August, September a...
Nov 11, 2019•15 min
Milk quality specialist Don Crowley joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the role of selective dry cow therapy in Irish Dairy herds. Don explains the essential criteria farmers must review to identify suitable cows for selective DCT including milk recording results for the full lactation and 30 days in advance of dry-off, evidence of cows mastitis cases and treatment, culture and sensitivity analysis for the herd. Importantly, Don emphasises the importance of selective DCT explaining that regulat...
Nov 04, 2019•26 min
Researchers Emer Kennedy and Hazel Costigan join Emma-Louise Coffey on this week's Dairy Edge to discuss the importance of getting the heifer rearing process right. Emer explains that there are target growth rates throughout the heifer rearing period: 30% of mature BW at 6 months, 60% of mature BW at 15 months and 90% of mature BW at 24 months. Regular weighing will ensure that heifers are on target. Hazel adds that the target will vary across herds depending on the cow type and to identify the ...
Oct 25, 2019•14 min
Environmental specialist Tim Hyde joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the future of Nitrates Derogation for Irish farmers. Tim explains that 7,000 farmers (5%) are currently in derogation, accounting for 10% of farm land and 20% of livestock. Dairy farms account for 90% of farms in derogation, making up the majority of farmers engaging derogation. The most recent Nitrates review, Nitrates Action Programme 2018-2021, has issued many recommendations to improve farm sustainability. Tim takes us thr...
Oct 21, 2019•25 min
Financial Specialist Kevin Connolly joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss Budget 2020. Kevin explains the key budget measures that effect farmers including income tax, stock relief for young trained farmers, Capital Gains Tax and Capital Acquisitions Tax. He explains that the budget has established provisions of €110m for Agriculture in the event of a no deal Brexit. Although there is little detail on specific allocation of funds, €85m has been allocated for beef farmers accounting for the greates...
Oct 14, 2019•25 min
Dairy adviser Ger Courtney joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss liming protocol to optimise lime pH on farm. Ger explains that there is a positive trend from 2014 when 36% of soils were at optimum pH compared with 60% in 2017. Target soil pH is 6.3 and 5.5-5.8 in peaty soils. Optimum pH leads to greater biological activity, microorganism activity, nitrogen fixation and root structure. Research has shown an increase in grass growth in the region of 1.5-2 tonnes while palatability and utilisation a...
Oct 07, 2019•30 min
Vet Niamh Field joins Emma-Louise Coffey to take a look at the health status of the national dairy herd and gives key tips to maximise the health of your herd. Niamh looks to the metabolic diseases that occur on dairy farms, commonly occurring during the spring and she emphasises the importance of dry cow management to prevent incidence of disease. Management steps include optimum BCS at dry off (2.75 to 3.25) and BCS at calving (3.00 to 3.50) and good dry cow minerals with Magnesium inclusion o...
Sep 30, 2019•16 min
Trevor Donnellan joins Emma-Louise Coffey to review the comprehensive climate action plan (Teagasc Greenhouse Gas Marginal Abatement Cost Curve) compiled by Teagasc to reduce the emissions from Agriculture. Trevor speculates that the dairy herd will continue to grow, albeit at a lesser rate to that in the last 5 years. Conversely, it is suspected that suckler numbers will remain at similar numbers or contract. The action plan also discusses 25 mitigating strategies including change of fertiliser...
Sep 23, 2019•28 min
In the second part of a two-part interview with dairy specialist Padraig O’Connor on the importance of a good milking routine, Padraig takes us through teat preparation and cluster attachment ahead of milking. Best practice includes each quarter prior to cluster attachment. This helps with early detection of mastitis. Padraig recommends that mastitis or high SCC cows should be treated at the end of milking when the operator has sufficient time to treat them and eliminate the chance of cross cont...
Sep 16, 2019•12 min
Dairy specialist Padraig O’Connor joins Emma-Louise Coffey for the first of a two-part interview to discuss the importance of a good milking routine. Padraig explains that a good milking routine ensurse quality produce, safety for the operator and time efficiency in completing the task. He advises all farmers to make sure their milking machine is in working order, getting at least one major service annually. Additionally, Padraig emphasises the importance of a clean environment for cows, placing...
Sep 09, 2019•16 min
Dairy specialist Joe Patton joins Emma-Louise Coffey to identify the key traits that drive profitable winter milk systems. Joe compares top winter milk herds with average. Top herds have higher output from the same concentrate input as average. The difference is top farmers are achieving greater grass utilisation and feeding higher quality grass silage during the housed period. The second driver is fertile cows. Joe targets 375 day calving interval, meaning there are greater days at peak milk pr...
Sep 02, 2019•27 min
Johnstown Castle farm manager Aidan Lawless joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss full lactation performance for the winter milk herd and current milk and grass production. The winter milk herd have produced 620 kg MS approximately 20 kg ahead of 2017 and 2018 lactations. Aidan credits increased milk yield, rising milk solids and getting out to grass in early January as factors that have driven high milk output. 40% of the winter herd are still milking and will be dried off this week, currently on...
Aug 26, 2019•21 min
Grassland researcher, Mike Egan, summarises the autumn grazing management guidelines to maximise the amount of grazed grass in the diet of dairy cows in the autumn period. Right now, farmers should be extending rotation length by 2 days per week and building cover. Mike gives an insight into a grazing experiment looking at altering grazing management practices in autumn and examining the effects on animal performance and grassland in both the autumn and spring. Mike explains that where herds are...
Aug 19, 2019•21 min
Dairy specialist Joe Patton has advice on creating a fodder reserve to reduce the risk to farm businesses in the event of future adverse weather events. Firstly, farmers need to quantify the total grass production on their farm. Following this, stocking rate should be calculated allowing 5.5 tonnes of grass should be allowed per cow. Optimal stocking rate does not account for ay surplus or reserve within systems and therefore, a reserve must be purchased. An average reserve of 400 kg DM/cow (2 b...
Aug 12, 2019•23 min
Kevin McDonald is a retired scientist from Dairy NZ with over 50 years’ experience in systems research and he joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give his insights and analysis of the New Zealand dairy sector along with key learnings for Irish farmers. Kevin traces the evolution of the New Zealand dairy sector back to the 1930s and 1940s but says the big change came in the mid 1990s when big dairy farms expanded into the South Island. Smaller farms were traditionally in...
Aug 05, 2019•20 min
Grassland researcher Brian McCarthy and PhD researcher Brid McClearn join Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the benefits of white clover inclusion at Clonakilty Agricultural College. The grass plus white clover treatment grew 1.2 tonnes more grass compared with the grass only sward. Clover content varied from 36% in year 1 to 14% in year 4, which is a driver of grass production and fed quality. Cows in the grass plus white clover treatment produced 50 kg milk solids compared with grass only treatmen...
Jul 29, 2019•23 min
Milk quality expert, David Gleeson, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the move to chlorine-free cleaning products on Irish dairy farms. David explains that while chlorine levels measured in the form of TCM and chlorides are low currently in Irish dairy products, the use of chlorine will be eliminated for cleaning on farm and in processing plants. Teagasc have developed alternative cleaning protocols to chlorine-based products and encourages farmers to consult with their milk quality advisor an...
Jul 24, 2019•14 min
Fergus Bogue of the Grass10 Team spoke to Emma-Louise Coffey from the Grass Demo at Teagasc's recent Open Day at Moorepark to discuss grass quality and stem levels on Irish farms. Fergus also explained what the Grass Demo was about and how farmers would get to see what kind of covers their cows should be grazing and what they graze down to. For more information: https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/
Jul 19, 2019•5 min
Management Consultant Nollaig Heffernan joins Emma-Louise Coffey to emphasise the importance of planning around decision making for your farm. Nollaig explains that good planning and decision making will help achieve your personal goals, leads to more profitability on farm investment and makes your farm a more attractive place to work for family and employees. Nollaig introduces a LEAN tool, the PICK Model, to help with decision making. The PICK Model considers the Return on Investment and the L...
Jul 15, 2019•19 min
Economist Ciaran Fitzgerald joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss how dairy expansion has impacted the Irish economy. Ciaran recounts commonly reported expansion figures such as milk output and value of exports but takes a more in depth look at the economic impact on the Irish economy and in particular on rural Ireland. Over 60,000 people are employed in dairy industry, including 19,000 employed directly on dairy farms. Interestingly, Ciaran looked at the money spent in the Irish Economy relative ...
Jul 08, 2019•21 min
William Burchill joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss new cost-effective methods of slurry spreading. William reminds us of the value of slurry, which is the equivalent to 6 units of Nitrogen, 5 units of Phosphorus and 30 units of Potassium. Interestingly, slurry from dairy cows, that is often mixed with dairy washings from collecting yards are diluted and offer the half rate of Phosphorus and Potassium. Explaining the reasons behind new slurry spreading methods, the context is in our aims to red...
Jun 30, 2019•21 min
Moorepark researchers Brendan Horan and Laurence Shalloo join Emma-Louise Coffey to critically review the growth and expansion of the national dairy herd. Brendan addressed the environmental impact of expansion highlighting the benefit of grass-based systems and explains the low environment footprint relative to both European and international milk producing competitors. The net environmental footprint of the dairy industry has increased while the output per unit milk has reduced. Looking at the...
Jun 24, 2019•23 min
Deirdre gives an overview of the benefits and challenges of white clover in intensive grass-based systems of milk production. She explains the ability of white clover to fix Nitrogen - in a systems study, Nitrogen was reduced by 100 kg Nitrogen/ha with no reduction in grass production in grass + white clover swards compared with grass only swards. Furthermore, improved animal performance is evident with an increase of 33 kg MS per cow observed in grass + white clover swards compared with grass o...
Jun 17, 2019•22 min
Agricultural Economist Emma Dillon joins Emma-Louise Coffey with the results of the Teagasc National Farm Survey highlighting that although incomes declines by 30% in 2018 compared with 2017, incomes remained substantial at €61,000. Emma explains there were many factors at play, namely 2017 dairy income being at a record high, high production costs in 2018 including additional feed and workload. She compared the dairy sector with other farming enterprises and explains that the dairy sector remai...
Jun 10, 2019•23 min
Micheal O’Leary from PastureBase Ireland and Grassland Researcher Elodie Ruelle join Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the current grassland situation on farm and look at future growth rate predictions. Micheal starts by explaining the current grassland situation, including high growth rates of on average 77 kg DM/ha exceeding farm demand of 60 kg DM/ha. The additional feed is driving farm cover/cow to over 200 kg DM/ha, compared with target of 160-180 kg DM/ha. The considerable amount of rain that ...
Jun 05, 2019•15 min
Pat Dillon, Teagasc's Head of Animal and Grassland Programme, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to preview the topics and speakers at this year's Moorepark ’19, the Teagasc National Dairy Event for 2019, on Wednesday 3rd July at the Teagasc, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork from 0830-1700. The theme of this year’s event is ‘Growing Sustainably’. The continuing expansion of the Irish dairy industry provides opportunities to increase the profitability of fa...
May 27, 2019•14 min
Animal Health expert Muireann Conneely joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss hoof health and the mobility of the national dairy herd. Muireann makes reference to an ongoing trial where an average of 14% of the dairy herds examined have sub optimal hoof health. Poor mobility and lameness causes stress and pain to cows as well as reduced milk production and overall farm profit. Milk yield is affected for up to 8 weeks prior to a dairy cow showing clinical signs of lameness. In order to prevent poor ...
May 20, 2019•24 min
For part two of our conversation with Micheal O’Donovan and Tomas Tubritt, they talk us through the reseeding process step by step. Micheal explains the starting point is to identify the paddock or farm area that you intend on reseeding. When considering the methods of reseeding, Tomas explains there is no difference between individual methods, but the common methods in Ireland include ploughing, minimum cultivation, discing and stitching in. In terms of fertiliser strategy, Michael advises anyo...
May 13, 2019•22 min
Head of Grassland Science Michael O’Donovan and Grassland PhD researcher Tomas Tubritt are this week's guests on the Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the topic of reseeding. Firstly, Michael talks through the benefits of reseeding, primarily transforming swards from partial perennial ryegrass swards to 100% perennial ryegrass swards leading to higher levels of grass production, improved quality and graze outs while renewed swards will also respond greater to fertiliser. Michael explains that reseed...
May 07, 2019•16 min
Dairy farmer Mike Bermingham joins Emma-Louise Coffey to take us on his journey of career change from construction and part-time beef farming to becoming a new entrant dairy farmer in 2013. Mike returned home to farm full-time in 2009 and acknowledged he had a big asset in his farm of land, yet it was providing no income. In 2010 he began grass measuring in order to quantify the amount of grass grown on the farm. This has allowed Mike to get a good handle on the level of grass grown on the farm ...
Apr 29, 2019•31 min
