The Dairy Edge

Latest Episodes:

Let’s Talk Dairy: Milk feeding guidelines for young calves Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s podcast version of the Let’s Talk Dairy webinar series, George Ramsbottom, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, is joined by Emer Kennedy of Teagasc to discuss milk feeding guidelines for young calves.

Emer's presentation was followed by a questions and answers session. The webinar was run in conjunction with the series of Animal Health Ireland (AHI) and Teagasc CalfCare events which are taking place this January on farms across the country.

To register for future Let’s Talk Dairy webinars go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/lets-talk-dairy/

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

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

A Preview of the IGA Dairy Conference Jan 09, 2023

Show notes

Vincent Griffith, Farm Profitability Specialist with Aurivo Co-Op and chair of the IGA Dairy Conference Committee, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to preview the IGA Dairy Conference taking place in Charleville on Wednesday 18th January.

Vincent outlines the three sessions on the day which are:

- Session 1 which will examine the impacts of banding on farms with a financial impact assessment piece delivered by Noreen Lacey, while David Fennelly, dairy farmer from Co. Laois, will outline how their farm will be responding to the changes that have come in on January 1st this year

- Session 2 is going to look at energy efficiency to reduce the impact of electricity costs and also the role of technology on reducing the workload associated with dairy farmer in light of reduced availability of help on farms

- Session 3 will attempt to give people the information they need to embrace clover on their farms as well as hearing from an early adopter, Robert O’Dea from Co. Limerick, who has reduced his chemical N usage by approximately 40% in two years by introducing clover to fill the gap left by reducing the chemical N

Finally, Vincent also speaks about a pre-conference event on Tuesday 17th that will address the topic of succession which will be of benefit to all no matter where they are currently in their farming careers.

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

Pasturebase Ireland’s Míchéal O’Leary Reviews the 2022 Grass Year Jan 02, 2023

Show notes

On the latest episode of the Dairy Edge podcast, Míchéal O’Leary, from Pasturebase Ireland, reviews the 2022 grass year.

Míchéal began by explaining that average farm cover at the end of 2022 was 730kg DM/ha with a range from 600 to 800/900 kg DM/ha. He then went on to explain the situation for the year as a whole with the key figure being that on dairy farms that have over 30 covers done for 2022, there was just shy of a tonne less grass grown on these farms in 2022 compared to 2021.

Míchéal continued to explain how the fertiliser planner on Pasturebase Ireland can help farmers to plan their nutrient use to reduce their chemical fertiliser input which is important for both economic and environmental reasons.

Finally, Míchéal outlined a number of updates and improvements that have been made to Pasturebase during 2022 and ones that are planned for 2023.

He also highlighted Pasturebase week which is running from Monday the 16th of January to Friday 20th covering all the elements of Pasturebase from start to finish catering for the beginner right through to the experienced user who just want to refine their skills on the use of the platform.

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

Tips for Improving Milk Quality Dec 26, 2022

Show notes

Lorna Twomey, Milk Quality PhD Researcher in Teagasc Moorepark, joins Stuart Childs on the latest Dairy Edge podcast to talk about milk quality and the things farmers can do at the end of lactation and the start of the next lactation to ensure good TBC and thermoduric counts.

Lorna talks about a good routine, regardless of product choice, and doing the routine well every day of the year. This, if done correctly, will deliver high quality milk.

Lorna also stresses the importance of preparing cows for milking especially important for thermoduric counts and again, while this is especially important during the housing period, it is also important throughout the lactation.

Finally, Lorna talks about washing the machine and tank well at the end of the milk supply period for the year in order to ‘store it’ clean and then washing well again in advance of milk being supplied in the New Year as well as having good communication with you milk processor in relation to that first milk collection to avoid longer than necessary storage periods before collection in the spring.

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

Let’s Talk Dairy: Key messages from the National Dairy Conference Dec 23, 2022

Show notes

For this week’s podcast version of the Let’s Talk Dairy webinar series, George Ramsbottom, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, is joined by Joe Patton, Teagasc Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer, to provide an overview of the key messages from the National Dairy Conference which took place on 6th & 8th December.

To register for future Let’s Talk Dairy webinars go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/lets-talk-dairy/

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 Teagasc eProfit Monitor & the Benefits of Completing It Dec 19, 2022

Show notes

Niamh Lynch, Teagasc Dairy advisor in Navan, joins Stuart Childs on the latest Dairy Edge podcast to talk about the Teagasc eProfit Monitor and the benefits of completing it.

Niamh highlights the usefulness of building up a bank of information over years of completion to give you a good perspective of the costs of running the business through good and bad times.

Niamh also says that while the year will be a good one for the majority of dairy farmers, the creep in costs is something that people will need to quantify so that people can watch out for these areas in 2023.

Niamh also explains that preparing to complete a profit monitor will help people kill two birds with one stone in that they will do a significant amount of the preparation of their accounts at the same time and this will be a very important and useful job to have done early in 2023 given the potential tax bills that will be facing farmers in 2023 on foot of record milk prices in 2022.

Finally, Niamh says that while completing the profit monitor will take some time, especially when completing one for the first time, people shouldn’t be put off by this and that by putting a structure in place to handle incoming paperwork throughout the year - be it in some form of an electronic system or the simple pen and paper - will make the process a lot easier in future years.

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

Insights from the visit of the New Zealand Special Agriculture Trade Envoy to Teagasc Dairygold Signpost Farmer, Sean Moher Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

Gráinne Hurley, Teagasc Dairygold Joint Programme Monitor Farm advisor, and Paul Maher, Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy in Teagasc, join Stuart Childs on this week’s episode of the Dairy Edge podcast to discuss a recent visit of the New Zealand Special Agriculture Trade Envoy to Teagasc Dairygold Signpost Farmer, Sean Moher which they both facilitated.

Gráinne first explained the reason for the visit before describing the key elements of sustainability that Sean is putting into practice such as protected urea, clover incorporation and EBI. Gráinne also explains how Sean has adopted these practices and outlined some of the feedback coming from the New Zealand group on the day.

Following on from this, Paul explained what his role as the Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy in Teagasc entails and went on the explain the importance of visits such as that at Sean’s farm in terms of sharing information and knowledge with other countries with a view to achieving common goals with climate being the most current common dominator for all countries regardless of their production systems.

Paul continued by outlining some of the relatively unknown work that Teagasc do internationally and finished by saying that while we have plenty to offer, we also have plenty to learn too, so visits such as these are hugely beneficial for all involved.

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

Let’s Talk Dairy: A review of the key messages from recent Winter Milk events Dec 09, 2022

Show notes

For this week’s podcast version of the Let’s Talk Dairy webinar series, George Ramsbottom, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, was joined by James Dunne to review the key messages from the Winter Milk events that took place across the country recently with a focus on costs, feed and yield, and breeding fertility.

To register for future Let’s Talk Dairy webinars go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/lets-talk-dairy/

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

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

People & Time Management Courses with Martina Gormley Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

Martina Gormley, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, is on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the recent people management courses held in a number of locations across the country in the last few weeks.

Martina began by explaining the agenda and course content over the two days and explained that one of the key items that people attend for is the legislation around employment which is covered very well by Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) personnel.

Martina went on to explain that it is a common misconception that the course is only for people who are employing people on their farms full-time. However, the course has something to offer to all farmers.

From time management for yourself as well as any people that might be working on the farm at any stage throughout the year, to attracting and retaining the people that are involved in your dairy business in whatever way they might be, there are numerous learnings that any farmer can take from the courses.

Martina finished by saying that if people haven’t attend before and are interested in attending in the future, they can express their interest by contacting her by email to martina.gormley@teagasc.ie as this will facilitate Martina in planning courses for 2023.

In the meantime, people can view some of the very good resources on labour on the Teagasc website at www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/labour.

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

Let’s Talk Dairy: Design and evaluation of cow roadways in Ireland Dec 02, 2022

Show notes

To better inform farmers of the principal causes of lameness and more importantly of the steps that they can take in minimising the incidence of the condition, Teagasc, one of the participating members of the Resilience for Dairy programme is hosting three short farmer-friendly webinars.

For this week’s podcast version of the Let’s Talk Dairy webinar series, George Ramsbottom, Teagasc Dairy Specialist was joined by Paul Maher, a postgraduate student at Teagasc Moorepark, to discuss Paul’s area of study which focuses on the design and evaluation of cow roadways in Ireland.

Paul discussed practical steps that farmers can take to improve the quality of their farm roadway network for their dairy herds.

To register for future Let’s Talk Dairy webinars go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/lets-talk-dairy/

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

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