With the current lockdown restrictions in place, Teagasc are running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. This week’s webinar discussed using beef bulls on the dairy herd and staying safe around the stock bull. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/...
May 29, 2020•46 min
Young Farmer of the Year Liam Hanrahan joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to give an insight into his farming career, his research findings and future plans. Liam farms in milking 180 dairy cows in partnership with his parents Willie and Catherine in Doonbeg, Co Clare. Liam describes the performance of the farm in 2019, producing 512 kg milk solids per cow, high fertility with an 82% 6 week calving rate and 14 tonne DM grass production. Despite growing a lot of grass, Liam explai...
May 25, 2020•22 min
Dairy specialist Joe Patton joins Emma-Louise Coffey on the latest Dairy Edge to discuss the nutrition requirements of dairy cows at peak milk production. Joe quantifies peak milk production on spring calving dairy farms at 2.0-2.3 kg MS per day and identifies genetics as the factor that creates the potential for milk production whilst a tight calving pattern, increased herd maturity and diet and intake of the cow are the factors that contribute to peak. At peak, Joe expects protein requirements...
May 18, 2020•29 min
With the current lockdown restrictions in place, Teagasc are running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. On this first webinar, Stuart Childs spoke to Patrick Forrestal about protected urea and Emer Kennedy about weaning calves. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/...
May 15, 2020•34 min
Milk quality specialist Don Crowley joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss how to minimise the spread of mastitis in mid-lactation. Staph aureus is the main source of mastitis and high SCC in dairy herds during mid-lactation. Don explains that this is a chronic mastitis in cows that existed in previous lactation and was masked in early lactation following dry cow therapy treatment. The risk associated with Staph aureus is the cross-contamination to other cows and cure consists of drying the high qu...
May 11, 2020•19 min
Teagasc's Chief Economist Kevin Hanrahan joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week's Dairy Edge to discuss how Covid-19 is impacting on the Irish Dairy Sector. Kevin gives an insight into the effect of COVID-19 on the demand for dairy and the shift in the demand from dairy products to almost solely retail (supermarkets) with a decline in food service sector. Kevin reassures us that milk co-ops and plcs are continuing to process milk during peak production, while maintaining social distancing and hyg...
May 05, 2020•25 min
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on dairy farms are as important as ever during the Covid-19 crisis and on this week’s Dairy Edge, Teagasc Specialist Francis Quigley, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss their role and importance. Francis explains that many farmers already have informal SOPs such as a whiteboard in the milking parlour with a list of cows not going into the tank due to antibiotic treatment. Francis recommends that farmers should create a one page instruction for standard tasks...
Apr 27, 2020•21 min
Geneticist Siobhan Ring joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss updates to the Economic Breeding Index including the new calving difficulty tool for heifers. Firstly, Siobhan explains the new tool to help farmers make an informed decision to select appropriate sire for heifers. Going forwards, sire will be identified as low, moderate or high risk for heifers. Traditionally, calving difficulty did not differentiate between cows and heifers. Siobhan also reviewed the changes ...
Apr 20, 2020•18 min
With growth rates of grass ‘exploding’ across the country, John Maher joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss key management tools to manage grass. John discusses the favourable weather conditions that farmers have experienced since St Patricks Day and explains that farmers must continue to walk their farms regularly. The 2nd round should commence once the first three paddocks grazed during the spring hit a cover of 1,200/1,300 kg DM/ha. Some farmers will have to skip some paddocks from the first ro...
Apr 14, 2020•23 min
Dairy Specialist George Ramsbottom joins Emma-Louise Coffey to give his tips on how to prepare cows for the upcoming breeding season along with advice to generate the best genetics for your herd. Firstly, George explains that genetically gestation length is reducing. Each €10 in EBI calving SI reduces gestation by 1.5 days. If you target a calving start date of 1st Feb 2021, target a mating start date 1st May. In order to generate the best replacements to milk in the herd in the future, George e...
Apr 06, 2020•18 min
Health and Safety Specialist, John McNamara, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to advise farmers on how to maintain health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 challenge. Firstly, John re-emphasises the importance of following the HSE guidelines including thorough hygiene and social distancing. John explains that incidences on the farm such as vet assistance for a difficult calving may lead to close contact, for which John suggests masks can be worn to minimise risk to COVID-19. He also recommends that farm...
Mar 30, 2020•13 min
In the wake of the government's Covid-19 measures, dairy farmer Kevin Twomey joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss what he and his team are doing on farm to minimise the risk of COVID-19. While the farm teams vary from 1 to 3 full-time staff, most tasks are set up to be completed by one person, including the milking process. Given the nature of farming being a mostly outdoor task, Kevin explains it is possible to maintain a social distance. Kevin recommends that staff travel independently to minim...
Mar 23, 2020•18 min
Johnstown Castle farm manager Aidan Lawless joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the current performance of the Johnstown Castle dairy herd. Aidan acknowledges that while February rainfall recorded at Johnstown Castle was lower than in other locations across the country - they received 150 mm – it was double the expected February rainfall. This has presented a challenge to grazing and the spring herds were behind target for % grazed. The breeding season for the winter milk herd concluded at the e...
Mar 16, 2020•17 min
On this week’s episode of The Dairy Edge, James Humphreys and Brian Garry join Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the different aspects of dairy management – from soil saturation to supplement requirements - following the heavy rainfall. James explains what soil saturation readings mean. 60% of soils are made up of sand, silt and clay. The remaining 40% is made up of air pockets. Saturation occurs when the air pockets fill with water in the event of rainfall and flooding. James explains that where gr...
Mar 09, 2020•17 min
Dairy farmer John McNamara joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the challenges of the recent heavy rainfall on his farm. John explains that there has been almost 200mm of rain on his farm during the month of February which has made it near impossible to graze. While John generally hits 30-40% grazed during the month of February, he has grazed less than 10% this year. John targets to get cows out twice daily after each milking with evening grazing from 4-7 pm and removing cows once they have finis...
Mar 02, 2020•13 min
Dairy Specialist Stuart Childs joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the benefits to dairy cow health and overall farm profits through milk recording. Stuart explains that the level of milk recording remains low, with 35% of herds representing 50% of dairy cows nationally. Teagasc recommends milk recording within 60 days of calving in order to detect early infection as well as calculate cure rate and new infection rate following the dry period. Stuart recommends that farmers complete 6 milk record...
Feb 24, 2020•15 min
Micheál O’Leary and Fergus Bogue join Emma-Louise Coffey to advise on managing grazing during challenging weather conditions. Firstly, Micheál quantifies the over-winter growth and the opening farm cover from PastureBase Ireland records. Micheál explains that over-winter growth was approximately 4-5 kg DM/day but varied widely; where farms were closed high in the autumn, higher growth rates were achieved at up to 7-8 kg DM/day. Micheál recommends that farmers must target an opening farm cover of...
Feb 14, 2020•14 min
Stephen Butler joins Emma-Louise Coffey to advise on how to manage energy balance and metabolic disorders in early lactation. Firstly, Stephen emphasises the importance of dry cow management to ensure cows are in the correct BCS and received adequate minerals. Stephen explains that cows undergo significant change post-calving, moving from dry cow status with low intake and low energy demand to lactating status with low intake and high energy demand. He also reminds us that in addition to lactati...
Feb 10, 2020•16 min
Emer Kennedy joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the Once-A-Day milking experiment at Teagasc Moorepark. Emer explains the different variations of OAD milking, including OAD milking short term in early lactation (from 2-8 weeks) and long term for the full lactation. She documents the various measurements that were carried out including milk production, mastitis, SCC, udder firmness, udder leakage, body weight, BCS and locomotion. Emer acknowledges individual farmers concerns in relation to reduc...
Feb 03, 2020•13 min
Dairy specialist, George Ramsbottom, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to give an early indication of profitability on dairy farms in 2019. George explains that his analysis contains 400 dairy farms to date - 20% of the 2,000 farmers that complete the profit monitor annually. Overall profitability on farms has improved, resulting from increasing milk yield and milk solids, despite a reduction in milk price and concentrate fed. George speculates that 2019 as being a good grass growing year with farmers em...
Jan 27, 2020•14 min
Keith Davis joined Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss the role of once-a-day milking in his large scale herd in Gloucestershire. Keith was speaking at Teagasc’s recent Once a Day Milking conference and he gave an insight into the evolution of the farm from a mixed farm with 350-cow dairy operating an indoor system and tillage to a solely grass-based dairy system. When dairy cow numbers began to climb, both facility and labour began to come under pressure. The estate was unwilling to invest in upgradi...
Jan 20, 2020•17 min
On this week’s episode of The Dairy Edge, dairy farmer, Karol Kissane, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss his Nuffield studies about school students perceptions of agriculture. Karol discusses the growing disconnect in the understanding of agriculture and the basics of where food comes from with kids in urban environments. He explains some of the ways this can be overcome using modern technology and social media. Karol also has advice for all farmers on how we can promote our farming life, care...
Jan 13, 2020•16 min
Farm Structure specialist Gordon Peppard joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss opportunities in dairy farming for family farms. Gordon identified the key players that are important for any partnership, including an agricultural consultant, accountant and solicitor. Importantly, Gordon explains that it is vital that farm families start the conversation on the succession plan with all family members so there is clear understanding on the transfer of the farm to the next generation. Gordon acknowledg...
Jan 06, 2020•17 min
Continuing the Dairy Edge Review of the Year, Emma-Louise Coffey was joined by Teagasc Director Gerry Boyle, Teagasc specialist Abigail Ryan, and Head of Animal & Grassland Research Pat Dillon. Gerry, Abigail and Pat took the opportunity to review the Greenfield Project following its conclusion this year with Abigail reviewing the lessons learned from the project, acknowledging its strengths and weaknesses. The Greenfield Project has proven valuable to dairy farmers across the country who ha...
Dec 30, 2019•20 min
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our listeners for a special 100th episode of the Dairy Edge this week when we review the dairy farming year with Teagasc Director Gerry Boyle, Teagasc specialist Abigail Ryan, and Head of Animal & Grassland Research Pat Dillon, join Emma-Louise Coffey to review the dairy farming year. Firstly, Pat and Abigail reflect on the indications of recovery on dairy farms in 2019 following the challenging weather conditions in 2018. Pat explains that dairy f...
Dec 23, 2019•22 min
Karol Kissane joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss his farming business and how he was drawn back to agriculture after a successful career in finance. Karol left school at a young age to pursue a career in farming but after a short time farming at home with his father, he acknowledged that the farm was not sufficient to support two incomes so Karol returned to education, completing the Leaving Certificate and a business degree at UCC. After working for several years in the financial sector, Karol...
Dec 16, 2019•18 min
Padraig French joins Emma-Louise Coffey to measure the welfare of calves on Irish Dairy Farms. Padraig explains that calf mortality at birth and at one month old is a key metric to measure calf welfare. Comparing the performance in Ireland over the last 10 years, calf mortality has fallen on farms, despite an additional 300,000 calves being born annually. Mortality at birth declined from 1.95% to 1.30% and mortality at 28 days declined from 3.71% to 3.20% comparing 2011 with 2019 figures. Additi...
Dec 09, 2019•17 min
Dairy expansion specialist Patrick Gowing joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss his top tips for successful planning for expansion and new entrants to dairy. Patrick emphasises the importance of purchasing the best stock possible in new entrant or expanding herds, explaining that €100 extra for high genetic merit in-calf heifers will pay for itself in the long term in terms of superior performance. When deciding between heifers and cows, Patrick explained that heifers have the potential to survive...
Dec 02, 2019•24 min
Dairy advisor, Trevor Dunwoody, joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss alternative calf rearing facilities. Trevor explains examples of use of calf hutches on silage slabs, rearing calves outdoors from 3-4 weeks of age, contract rearing, sale of non-replacement stock from 2 weeks of age and construction of a new calf shed or modifying existing sheds. With calf hutches, calves are typically housed in groups of 3 to 8 and Trevor explains it is important that run off can be collected. When rearing cal...
Nov 25, 2019•15 min
Dairy specialist Martina Gormley joins Emma-Louise Coffey to help identify the proper requirements for calf housing facilities on dairy farms in Ireland. She explains that 1.5 million dairy cows will calve down in Ireland in 2020, with almost 1 million of those calving in the first 3 months of the year. Martina guides farmers on how they can calculate their calf rearing requirements based on their calving pattern. Where a dairy farmer has an 80% 6 week calving rate will have a peak of 70 calves ...
Nov 18, 2019•19 min
