The Dairy Edge

Latest Episodes:

Key tips to reducing SCC Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

Milk quality specialist Don Crowley joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast with advice on how to tackle high SCC on dairy farms arising from poor grazing conditions and prolonged housing in early lactation. Don’s tips to reduce SCC and the number of cases of mastitis include; - Milk record your herd early to identify high SCC cows, get help from your Teagasc advisor, milk quality advisor or vet to help interrupt the milk recording results if necessary - Get cows out to grass where possible to reduce the bacterial challenge to cows and take the pressure off facilities and operator - For clinical cases, identify the type of mastitis and treat appropriately, mitigate the spread of mastitis to other cows by using clean gloves, use of disinfectant lime on cubicles and dip clusters For more information go to: https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/dairy/mastitis-control-in-early-lactation.php For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Let’s Talk Dairy Bonus Episode: Early Lactation Feb 26, 2021

Show notes

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 Don Crowley, Teagasc Milk Quality Specialist where they discuss what can be done in the milking parlour with freshly calved cows in order to try and stay ahead of the cell count before it becomes a problem. Don also discusses the importance of early lactation cell count. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

How to maximise the health and welfare of the cow and calf around calving Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

Vet John Mee joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast with practical tips to maximise the health and welfare of cow and calf around calving. John explains that management practices are the main cause of calving difficulty in dairy herds. Generally, in heifers, the calf is too big or the heifer is under grown or over conditioned and in cows the calf is presenting incorrectly or the cow has milk fever. Calving accounts for 10% of the EBI owing to the economic consequences of a difficult calving including lower thrift in calves, reduced productivity in the form of milk production and fertility and higher mortality of the calf or cow. John details the different stages of calving and reminds farmers that it is the cow’s job to calf down and it is the farmer’s job to observe and assist if necessary using the ‘two hooves, two hours’ approach to ensure cows aren’t calving for too long. For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Let’s Talk Dairy Bonus Episode: The practicalities of Spring grazing Feb 19, 2021

Show notes

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 Donal Patton where the topic up for discussion is the practicalities of Spring grazing. In this webinar, Donal will outline the steps on how to approach Spring grazing and how to make it work for you no matter what land type you're working with. 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 potential of Protected Urea to reduce emissions whilst maintaining grass production Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

Soil scientist David Wall joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the potential of Protected Urea to reduce emissions whilst maintaining grass production. David explains that comprehensive research has been carried out to test Protected Urea as a nitrogen fertiliser product that can be used as a direct replacement for Urea or CAN and spread all year round. Protected Urea reduces ammonia emissions by up to 75% compared with Urea or reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 78% compared with CAN. David explains a switch to Protected Urea is a simple change that has the ability to significantly reduce the environmental impact of fertiliser use at a comparative cost to traditional methods. For more information: https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/crops/soil-and-soil-fertility/Protected-Urea-List--Jan-28,-2021.pdf For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Let’s Talk Dairy Bonus Episode: Night time calving Feb 12, 2021

Show notes

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 go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Farmer Focus: David O’Leary, Grass 10 Young Farmer of the Year Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

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 to get a feel for their farm and the land and officially started leasing the farm in January 2018. Prior to the lease starting, the O Connors invested in a new bulk tank, a new meal bin and 2 additional units on the milking parlour. In 2018, David milked 48 cows and the herd has since grown to 80 cows in 2021. David got sufficient finance from the bank to purchase 13 heifers and some machinery from the O’Connors existing farm but the remaining 35 cows were from Tommy Roche over a six-year period. David explains that the farm has some heavy soils and is located in a heavy rainfall area. Grazing infrastructure and flexibility in grazing plans are key to a successful grassland management. The farm is growing 14 tonne DM/ha from 180 kg Nitrogen/ha and David owes this to near perfect soil indexes as well as a high proportion of reseeding annually. For more go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8gHQO54qXM For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Let’s Talk Dairy Bonus Episode: Milk Fever Feb 05, 2021

Show notes

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 from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

A suitable fertiliser programme for the spring months ahead Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

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 LESS equipment and a further 1/3 of the farm following grazing in late February and early March - 2,500 gallons of slurry equates to approximately a half bag of Urea. For the remaining 2/3 of the farm, farmers should aim to spread a half bag of protected Urea now. To calibrate yours or the contractors’ slurry spreader, to ensure you are achieving the correct application rate, check out the new Slurry Spreader Calibration Calculator: https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/farm-machinery/machinery-calibration/slurry-calibration-tool/ For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

Let’s Talk Dairy Bonus Episode: Once-a-Day Milking with Farmer Michael John Delaney Jan 29, 2021

Show notes

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/

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