The Dairy Edge

Latest Episodes:

Water Quality in River Catchments with Philip Murphy Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Philip Murphy, Catchment Coordinator for the River Blackwater, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss applying water quality and addressing it.

Philip explains that his role focuses on addressing agricultural pressures on water quality across the wider Blackwater catchment, beyond the already targeted high-priority areas, through providing clear, consistent advice to farmers and advisors, helping to raise awareness where one-to-one guidance is not currently available.

He outlines how targeted areas are selected using EPA monitoring data and highlights the difference between nitrogen and phosphorus impacts, noting phosphorus affects rivers while nitrogen impacts in the estuaries.

Finally, Philip emphasises that improvements take time, often years, but farmers are already doing positive work. His key message is for farmers to engage with advisors, consider schemes like Farming for Water, and continue adopting practical, farm-specific measures to protect local water quality.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Your Weekly Grass10 Update Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice, while the featured farmer is Will Griffin, Co. Carlow.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-4thNovember25

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Dry Cow Period - getting the basics right Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

Aisling Claffey, Teagasc ruminant nutritionist, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss what’s important to remember when it comes to the upcoming dry cow period.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Your Weekly Grass10 Update Oct 31, 2025

Show notes

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice and closing up for early spring grass.

The featured farmer is John Payne, from Co. Longford who is targeting a closing AFC of 800 kg DM/ha on Dec 1st.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-28thOctober2025

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Managing Cash, Costs and Volatility - Preparing for 2026 Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

Teagasc Dairy Specialist, Patrick Gowing, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss how to best manage surplus cash, build financial resilience, review production costs, and ensure farmers best prepared for 2026.

As 2025 draws to a close, it will be remembered as one of the best farming years in recent memory due to strong milk prices, increased stock values and good weather for most parts. This means that dairy farm incomes are in a good place for the 2025 calendar year.

Although it has to be acknowledged milk prices have seen significant reductions in the last number of months, the effects of this will be felt more so in spring 2026 as higher constituents at this time of year are having a positive impact on the farm gate prices received.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Your Weekly Grass10 Update Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

John Maher has the latest Grass10 grazing management update, and this week’s featured farmer is Niall O’Regan from Mallow, Co. Cork.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/grass10-21stOctober2025

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Time for lime Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

John Maher, Grass10 Manager, and John Leahy, dairy farmer in Athea, Co. Limerick, join Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss applying lime.

Despite difficult weather a few weeks ago, things have improved, John explains, and ground conditions, rotation length and money in the bank will allow people to spread lime.

John outlines that we are very short of where we should be in terms of lime applied to where we should be. It’s more than 40 years since we spread over 2 million tonnes of lime which is what we should be applying.

John Leahy tells of his experience of increasing the pH on his farm. He went after it hard at the start and got it up to where it should be now and he’s at the point where 20-40t keeps him on point each year.

John also outlines how he went after the lime as he felt he could spend a lot of money on fertiliser with little return. He has gotten a phenomenal response to his lime applications.

His soil fertility has taken nearly 10 years to get right but he got his lime right from the start.

Opportunities will present themselves, people need to take them, he says.

For a list of suppliers of lime go to: https://www.grolime.ie/

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Your Weekly Grass10 Update Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice and closing up for early spring grass. It’s a great opportunity to spread lime - the cheapest fertiliser one can buy!

The featured farmer is Mark Lonergan, who is from Co. Tipperary and is targeting a closing AFC of 750 kg DM/ha on Dec 1st.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/grass10-14thOctober2025

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Selective Dry Cow Therapy - excellent management is the key to success Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

Teagasc Research Officer, Pablo Silva Boloña, whose work focuses on milk quality, dairy cow mastitis and selective dry cow therapy, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge.

Pablo explains selective dry therapy and why it is being implemented on Irish dairy farms, plus he highlights the important management steps to ensure its successful implementation at farm level.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

Your Weekly Grass10 Update Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice and the start of closing up for early spring grass. It’s a great week to reseed paddocks sprayed and grazed.

The featured farmer is Jason Coulter, who is from Co. Sligo and trying to get autumn closing sorted out after a very difficult weekend.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter:

https://bit.ly/grass10-7thOctober2025

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com