Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs is joined by Marion Beecher where they discuss tips for night time calving including research that has been done to see does adjusting silage feeding alter calving time and calf rearing organisation. Marion also ran through tips to getting through the calving season in the current Covid situation. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast g...
Feb 12, 2021•32 min
Grass 10 Young Farmer of the Year David O’Leary joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give an insight into his pathway into dairy farming and the excellence in grassland he is achieving on a challenging soil type. David began part-time with his neighbour Tommy Roche at the age of 16 and continued to work with him throughout college. Then in late 2016, he approached Pat and Helen O’Connor about leasing their dairy farm. David worked with the O’Connors in the spring of 2017...
Feb 08, 2021•28 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, as the calving season heats up Stuart Childs is joined by Joe Patton, Dairy Specialist, to discuss milk fever. 60% to 70% of all clinical disorders occur at this time of the dairy calving period and Joe covers important points and solutions as to how to prevent or resolve milk fever before it becomes a significant issue for dairy farmers. For more episodes f...
Feb 05, 2021•46 min
John Maher, the Teagasc Grass10 Manager, outlines a suitable fertiliser programme for the spring months on Irish dairy farms on this week’s episode of the Dairy Edge. John explains that spring Nitrogen is crucial to kick start grass growth during the spring and to boost the farm cover to ensure grass remains the predominant feed in the dairy cow diet in early lactation. Farmers should first look to maximise the value from slurry by spreading 1/3 of the farm that has the lowest covers now using L...
Feb 01, 2021•24 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, as part of the Once-A-Day Conference, Stuart Childs and Brian Hilliard spoke to dairy farmer, Michael John Delaney, about his move to once-a-day milking and why it works for his farm. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Jan 29, 2021•27 min
Joe Patton joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss how to strike the balance between feeding the dairy cow and achieving spring grazing targets in early lactation. Joe explains that there are many dynamics associated with early lactation nutrition as cows are metabolically at their most stressed post calving and grazing conditions can be challenging. Joe quantifies the dairy cow intake at 10-11 kg post-calving, which tends to rise by 1 kg per week for the first 4 we...
Jan 25, 2021•21 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, gives tip and advice to improve nutrient use efficiency on Irish dairy farms. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Jan 22, 2021•50 min
As part of AHI and Teagasc CalfCare Virtual Week, Michelle McGrath, Muireann Conneely and Niamh Field join Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the care of the newborn calf to maximise health in the early days. Michelle explains that calves are born with no immunity and rely on colostrum to protect them against disease in the first weeks of life until they establish their own immunity. Michelle outlines the priority is the first milk from the cow within the first two h...
Jan 18, 2021•21 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, for the first of the 2021, Let's Talk Dairy Time and People Management Series, in conjunction with Macra Skillnet. Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist is joined by Nollaig Heffernan, Independent Management Consultant to offer some insight and practical tips around using a year planner guide to organise your year in an effective and efficient w...
Jan 15, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Once-a-day dairy advisor Brian Hilliard joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to outline the steps needed to achieving a successful OAD milking system. Brian explains that there are approximately 200 dairy farms operating full time OAD milking with reasons for OAD milking including farm layout (long walks, steep climbs, farm fragmentation), an off-farm job, work-life balance and milking on multiple units. Brian outlines the process of converting to OAD milking as a long term project...
Jan 11, 2021•21 min
Waterford farmer, Steven Fitzgerald, joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the how he manages labour to minimise workload and reduce stress during the busy spring period. Steven explains that preparation ahead of the calving season and making a clear plan for who is responsible for each role at calving makes things easier and reduces duplication. Compact calving (90% calved in 6 weeks), OAD milking in February and getting cows out to grass from early February are ...
Jan 04, 2021•19 min
Continuing the second in the two-part dairy year in review, on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast, Emma-Louise Coffey is joined by Teagasc dairy advisors Jim Moyles, Ciara O’Shea and Seamie Nolan. The panel gave a good indication of where profitability should lie for 2020, with milk price and costs remaining steady, despite concerns of a signification drop in milk price earlier in the year. Covid-19 didn’t go without mention. The panel explained that day-to-day operations were relatively unaffected ...
Dec 28, 2020•27 min
Teagasc dairy advisors Jim Moyles, Ciara O’Shea and Seamie Nolan join Emma-Louise Coffey for the first of a two-part review of the dairy farming year. Firstly, the panel summarised the technical performance achieved on dairy farms in Ireland in 2020. Performance is on a par with 2019 but when reflecting over the 5 years since the abolition of milk quota, dairy farmers have increased milk solids production by 50-60 kg, predominantly driven by improving their 6 week calving rate and in turn achiev...
Dec 21, 2020•38 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, outlines some findings from the Ag-Climatise report and possible resolutions which can be achieved around ammonia emissions that we have to try to achieve in the coming years. Stuart also outlines what changes and measures we can make in order to have an impact on the ammonia emissions within dairy farming ...
Dec 18, 2020•32 min
Dairy teachers at Kildalton College, Zerlina Pratt and Aidan Nugent, join Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the technical performance of the dairy herd at Kildalton. Zerlina gives an overview of the dairy unit which includes 110 cows on a 46 ha milking platform. The herd EBI is €175, ranking it in the top 3% of dairy herds in the country with cows having a Holstein-Friesian base with 50% of the herd crossed with either Norwegian Red or Jersey genetics. Both Zerlina ...
Dec 14, 2020•24 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, was joined by Marion Beecher, Teagasc Research Officer and Nollaig Heffernan, Independent Management Consultant, to discuss time management tips and techniques in dairy farm management whilst Nollaig also speaks about how one needs to be careful in using their own individual time during the farming day. For...
Dec 11, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Dairy farmer Dara Killeen and specialist Patrick Gowing joined Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the targets set out in the Teagasc Dairy Roadmap and consider the targets achievable at farm level. Recorded as part of the 2020 Teagasc Virtual Dairy Conference, Dara, who is a new entrant to dairy farming since spring 2019, explained his priority investments were in high genetic merit crossbred stock, reseeding, grazing infrastructure and milking facilities. Dara viewed a lot ...
Dec 07, 2020•35 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist was joined by Joe Patton, John McCabe and John Paul Murphy from Moorepark farm to discuss body condition and how to deal and manage with cows on low side of body condition. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/...
Dec 04, 2020•59 min
Recorded live from the 2020 Virtual National Dairy Conference, this week’s Dairy Edge podcast features dairy farmer John MacNamara and grassland researcher Mike Egan to discuss how to establish white clover in grazing swards. John has begun establishing white clover on his grazing platform to reduce the requirement for chemical N, increase MS per cow and maintain herbage production and enhance quality. Mike outlined the methods of introducing white clover including a full reseed, broadcasting an...
Nov 30, 2020•30 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist was joined by Marion Beecher, Teagasc and Aidan Aherne, dairy farmer, for the second webinar in the Let's Talk Dairy Time and People Management Series. This webinar was part of the Let's Talk Dairy Time and People Management Series, in conjunction with Macra Skillnet. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge po...
Nov 27, 2020•51 min
Vet Michael Horan joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s episode of the Dairy Edge podcast, to discuss the role the Department of Agriculture plays in ensuring a high level of surveillance and early detection of disease in the animal population in Ireland. As we export the majority of the milk and meat products we produce, Michael emphasises the importance of a healthy national herd status from a marketing perspective. Micheal recited some of the many diseases listed on the national health cert...
Nov 23, 2020•36 min
Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs is joined by Laurence Shalloo, Katie Starsmore and Ben Larhart who are working on greenhouse gas emissions at Teagasc Moorepark. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Nov 20, 2020•43 min
Tom O’Dwyer Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc, joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to detail the challenges that dairy farmers have overcome in the last fifty years. Tom expects sustainability is the biggest challenge that will face farmers over the next decade while dairy cow numbers are set to continue increasing at a modest level. There are a range of technologies that will improve sustainability as well as improve farm efficiency such as higher genetic merit ...
Nov 16, 2020•17 min
With the current Covid restrictions in place, Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs is joined by labour researcher, Marion Beecher, and management consultant, Nollaig Heffernan, to give insights into making dairy farms an attractive place to work. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-pod...
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 7 min
Dairy advisor Joe Kelleher joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give a detailed checklist of important tasks needed to complete in the coming months including assessing total annual grass production, soil testing, dry cow therapy strategy, parlour maintenance and relevant paperwork. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Nov 09, 2020•18 min
Micheál O’Leary joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to give targeted advice based on the level of grass on farm as we approach the housed period. Micheál emphasises the three priorities of autumn grazing: feed the cow, hit grazing residuals and avoid doing damage. He explains that there is approximately 700 kg DM/ha grass (range 400-1,050) on farms currently which is well below the current target of 850 kg. For farms below target at 400-500 kg, Micheál would urge farmers to remove...
Nov 02, 2020•16 min
With the current Covid restrictions in place, Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs is joined by Aidan Lawless and Joe Patton to discuss the performance of the winter milk herd at Johnstown Castle as well as management around calving and diet specs around housing. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/t...
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Eamonn O’Flaherty joined Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give an insight into the barriers to dry stock farmers taking up part-time employment opportunities on dairy farms. Eamonn identified dry stock farmers as suitable candidates for part-time work on dairy farms given that many of them work off-farm and they possess the relevant skillset to carry out the many tasks on dairy farms. Through discussion with dry stock farmers, Eamonn identified the common barriers includin...
Oct 26, 2020•26 min
With the current Covid restrictions in place, Teagasc is running a weekly Let's Talk Dairy webinar series which is also being made available afterwards as a bonus podcast episode. In this webinar, Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist runs through using ICBF reports in order to select cows to be put forward for selective dry cow therapy. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Oct 23, 2020•18 min
With the Government announcing a large spending package in this year’s Budget 2021, Financial Specialist Kevin Connolly joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the agricultural measures for dairy farmers. From an agricultural perspective, Kevin explains it is a neutral budget. There is a top up in income from milk sales on dairy farms resulting in an increase in VAT on milk sales from 5.4% to 5.6%. Some other positives for farmers include the continuation of tax rel...
Oct 19, 2020•25 min
