The Dairy Edge

4.5 (67)
GOVERNMENT
UPDATED TWICE WEEKLY

The Dairy Edge is Teagasc’s dairy podcast for farmers with the latest information, insights and opinion to improve your dairy farm performance. Visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

3 DAYS AGO

Your Weekly Grass10 Update

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, Joseph Dunphy discusses managing surplus grass currently on farm and he has a grazing update from Raymond Niblock, Co. Monaghan. Link to this week’s newsletter Grass10 newsletter: https://bit.ly/Grass10-6thMay 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

6 min
6 DAYS AGO

Slurry storage - make use of the 60% grant

Seamus Nolan, Teagasc’s Scheme Support Unit Specialist, who has a particular focus on the Target Agriculture Modernisation scheme, better known to many as the TAMS scheme, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge. Seamus discusses the recently announced nutrient storage investment scheme under TAMS 3 which offers farmers an increased rate of grant aid for nutrient storage investments on their 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/ The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com

26 min
1 MAY

Your Weekly Grass10 Update

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, Joseph Dunphy discusses keeping a handle on pre-grazing yield as growth rockets throughout the country and he has a grazing update from Danny Bermingham, Co. Clare. Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: https://bit.ly/Grass10-29thApril 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

6 min
28 APR

Sire Advice with ICBF’s Dan O’Riordan

The ICBF’s Dan O’Riordan joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the ICBF Sire Advice Programme which remarkably has been around for 18 years! Dan first explains what sire advice is and how it works to try and balance the milk and fertility sub-indices to deliver a balanced cow. Dan also speaks about the benefits of the programme from preventing lethal gene mutation matches in the background, to checking inbreeding to maximising the beef merit of the calf whilst minimising calving risk to the cow with the objective being to deliver a live calf each time. Finally, Dan highlights the numbers of sire advice being completed, how they have increased in the last few years but that there is scope for more. One of the other benefits of completing the sire advice is how it streamlines the breeding season for both the farmer and that AI technician with the decisions made in advance in relation to what cow is getting what bull and giving technical clear instructions on the same with options if necessary also. If people are interested in completing a sire advice for 2025, they can contact their advisor, breeding advisor or ICBF directly. 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

25 min
24 APR

Your Weekly Grass10 Update

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, Joseph Dunphy discusses managing grass supply, he previews upcoming reseeding events and has a grazing update from John Cashen, Co. Tipperary. Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: https://bit.ly/Grass10-22ndApril 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

6 min
21 APR

Pa O'Hanlon & Claire McAuliffe on Pre-Breeding Management

Teagasc Kerry Dairy Ireland Joint Programme Demonstration Farm Advisor, Claire McAuliffe, and Programme Demonstration Farmer, Pa O’Hanlon, join Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss pre breeding management to drive submission rate and ultimately 6 week calving rate for the next calving season. Pa first explains how calving has gone on the farm in 2025 and how he has delayed his calving start date over the last few years in order to better align with grass growth on his farm. In the past no matter how much quality silage he tried to have available, Pa found that he ended up feeding poorer silage to milking cows which was hitting his milk solids production so he has moved the calving date to try to calve closer to grass. This means that he has to achieve the 90% 6 week calving figure to get the best return from the herd. Consequently, Pa is ‘afraid’ not to make the effort in terms of pre-breeding management as he can’t afford to let calving slip. He went on to explain how he has a chart which is very visual for keeping track of cows coming in heat post calving and uses the same chart for tracking AI in the 1st 3 weeks. This chart helps him to drive his 3 week submission rate and then identify any cows that haven’t been served as soon as the 3 weeks are past. He find this visual trigger much better than info on his phone as he would have used in the past. Claire then highlights the performance of the demonstration farmer group and gave examples of some of the effort they are putting into pre-breeding management to drive the submission rate once AI commences. She also pointed out that many of the farms had opened with lower covers than they should have and found that they weren’t able to exploit the excellent grazing conditions this spring as much as they would have liked to. The recent uplift in growth has helped their cause and their action has ensured they now have adequate grass moving into the 2nd rotation. This needs to be a key focus for all of the farms at the end of this year to ensure they hit the closing cover targets so that there is adequate grass on farms in the spring of 2026. This is a major weakness at commercial farm level as pointed out by Michael O’Donovan on a recent episode. 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

31 min
17 APR

Your Weekly Grass10 Update

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, Joseph Dunphy discusses key grazing targets throughout April and he has a grazing update from Matthew Draper, Co. Cork. Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: https://bit.ly/Grass10-15thApril 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

6 min
13 APR

The factors affecting milk fat % mid-season

Mike Dineen, a Teagasc researcher whose work focuses on animal nutrition, and Chris Heffernan, who recently completed his PhD in Teagasc Moorepark, join James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the factors affecting milk fat production in dairy cows under pasture-based management systems. Mike and Chris explain the typical reduction in milk fat during late spring and early summer and outline some results from their recent research project. 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

31 min

See All (558)

4.5

out of 5

67 Ratings

Practical advice

06/02/2022

Sandstone Cowboy

Very well researched and thought out podcasts.
A credit to Teagasc and the Irish dairy industry

04/11/2019

Aiden_C7

An insightful podcast with a great range of topics.
Great job!

01/03/2019

Padjo4

A wide variety of topics covered in a very informative way!

The Dairy Edge is Teagasc’s dairy podcast for farmers with the latest information, insights and opinion to improve your dairy farm performance. Visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/