The Dairy Edge

With the current lockdown 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. On this webinar, Richard O'Brien, Teagasc was joined by Teagasc/Glanbia Future Farm participants Tom & David Fennelly from Co. Laois to discuss how they are farming in an environmentally friendly way. This was fol...

Firstly, John gives a view on the current agri-sector outlook from a banking perspective. On the supply side, he acknowledges that milk production across the world is up year-on-year in 2020 while the supermarket consumption of dairy products has not compensated for the significant drop in demand food service industry.   In terms of family farm incomes, Patrick explains the many dynamics at play i...

Niamh explains that calves have no immunity to parasites when they are turned out to grass.   Gutworms and Lungworms are the main parasites the challenge calves at grass.   Symptoms of a gutworm burden include loose faeces, ill thrift and low growth rates. Niamh recommends that farmers alternate calf paddocks from year to year because gutworm eggs can survive over winter.   Symptoms of a gutworm b...

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/d...

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...

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 an...

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.i...

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 associa...

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 plc...

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 antibio...

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,...

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 spr...

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 star...

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 conta...

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...

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...

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 wh...

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...

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 rat...

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...

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...

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 leak...

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 p...

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 cl...

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 technol...