The transition period is the twenty-one days either side of calving. Get it right and the rest of the lactation follows. Get it wrong and you could spend the next ten months firefighting. To kick off Year Five, we're joined by Vicky Ham, Ruminant Technical Services Manager, Europe for Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, to talk about DCAB — what it actually is, why it still strikes fear into people who should know better, and why the research keeps pointing in the same direction. The work goes back to Dr Elliot Block in the mid-1980s and is reinforced by meta-analyses from J.E.P. Santos: cows fed a negative DCAB diet calve with better calcium status, suffer fewer transition diseases, and eat more dry matter post-calving. The evidence is there. The question is why more people aren't using it.

We cover the basics of acidification and how urine pH testing tells you whether cows are actually where they need to be — and why there is no such thing as a partial DCAB diet. You are either acidified or you are not. On the practical side we talk forage mineral analysis, straw potassium surprises in drought years, protein source selection, palatability, mixing, and why consistency is everything. We also cover what happens post-calving, stocking density, feed space, and why cows need to come off the negative DCAB ration the moment they calve.

We also get into newer thinking on inflammation — the emerging evidence that hypocalcaemia may be less about calcium deficiency and more about an activated immune system demanding calcium and glucose at the expense of everything else. Studies suggest close to sixty per cent of cows at calving show inflammation with no clinical signs whatsoever. Managing that inflammatory load is not a separate conversation from transition nutrition. It is the same conversation. 

This episode was recorded in June 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. 

Are you running a DCAB diet, and if not, what's holding you back? We'd love to hear from you. Please share, subscribe, and leave us a review — it helps more dairy farmers find us.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Herbal leys can feel like a contradiction: you pay for a carefully chosen seed mix and then it refuses to look the same from month to month. That’s exactly why we wanted a proper, practical conversation about multi-species swards, not the brochure version. Recorded live with a panel of specialists, we dig into what actually happens in the field and how to manage herbal leys for UK dairy systems when the weather turns extreme and the rotation plan stops behaving.

We start with trial insights from Dr Jo Matthews on how different species contribute across the season, why plantain and chicory peak at different times, and what resilience really means when drought hits. We also get into the detail that gets missed: tannins from birdsfoot trefoil, mineral profiles in individual species, and why “more species” only helps if something can persist under your grazing or cutting pressure. If you care about soil health, drought resilience, livestock health and cutting purchased fertiliser, this is the kind of data-led context that helps you choose with confidence.

Then Becci Shrimpton brings the agronomy reality check: soil testing before seed choice, pH and P and K targets, seedbed and drilling depth for tiny seeds, and why weed control is mostly a pre-sowing job because broadleaf sprays can wipe out the mix. Ben Richards rounds it out with a farmer’s view from Cornwall, running a 100% forage, organic, once a day milking herd on herbal leys, explaining grazing covers, residuals, rotation length and why he avoids hammering the sward.

 This podcast was recorded in front of an audience, and once our guests had made their initial presentations, they then took questions directly from those in attendance, asking real questions relevant to farms today!  

This was recorded in February 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.  

If this sparks ideas, share the episode with a farming mate, subscribe, and leave us a review so more people can find ChewintheCud. What’s the one species you would add to your next herbal ley mix?

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

If your robot relies on cake to keep cows moving, ask yourself a blunt question: what happens the day the pellet system breaks? That single point of failure is one of the reasons we wanted this conversation, because Kelli Hutchings and Matt Strickland have gone the other way and proven a “cake-free robot” approach can work on a commercial dairy.

Kelli is a feed and herd management adviser who found herself deep in the world of DeLaval VMS after helping launch large robotic sites across North America. Matt is a fourth-generation dairy farmer in Merced, California, running eight robots milking around 500 cows in a guided flow barn, alongside a larger conventional herd. Together, they explain why feeding concentrate in the robot can be a costly habit, how cows learn expectations fast, and why cow behaviour and facility design matter as much as any dashboard.

We get practical about the change process: starting new heifers with no pellets, weaning conditioned cows slowly, and building a shortlist of KPIs that protect you from rumours and knee-jerk decisions. We talk visits, fetch lists, box time, incompletes, milk components, butterfat, and the commercial headline of income over feed costs. You will also hear the limitations, including why guided or modified guided flow is currently the best fit and why forage quality and TMR palatability are non-negotiable.

If you manage robotic milking, advise UK dairy farms, or are planning a robot investment, this is a rare chance to rethink concentrate strategy with real numbers and honest caveats. 

This was recorded in December 2025, and all information was correct at the time of recording.  

Subscribe for more practical dairy conversations, share this with someone considering robots, and leave us a review so more farmers can find the show. 

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

AI is creeping into dairy whether we call it that or not, and most of the noise you hear is either hype or horror stories. So, we brought the conversation into the room with our first live event at the UK Agri-Tech Centre and asked a more useful question: what can artificial intelligence and machine learning genuinely do for a working dairy farm today, and where do the risks begin?

We’re joined by Chris Knight from Agribot, Ian Garner from Antler Bio, and Mike Jones from the UK Agri-Tech Centre. Chris pulls the curtain back on the history of AI, why the core ideas are older than most people think, and why large language models feel revolutionary mainly because we can talk to them. Ian shares how AI can speed up development and knowledge work without becoming a source of truth, including building science-grounded recommendations with expert validation to avoid confident nonsense and hallucinated references.

Mike brings it back to the coalface with tools being tested on real farms: earlier lameness detection, consistent body condition scoring, sensors that flag cows needing attention, methane monitoring, and even birdsong analysis for biodiversity benchmarking. Along the way we tackle accuracy versus consistency, predictive tools, data integration across too many apps, trust and privacy, and the awkward question of who really owns farm data.

This podcast was recorded in front of an audience, and once our guests had made their initial presentations, they then took questions directly from those in attendance, asking real questions relevant to farms today! 

This was recorded in February 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording. 

Subscribe for more practical UK dairy conversations, share this with a mate who’s sceptical about AI, and leave us a review if you want more live panels like this.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Sunburn feels like an inconvenience until you connect it to the cancer statistics. Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, and Susanna Daniels, CEO of Melanoma Focus, joins us to explain why a “just a mole” mindset is risky, and why early action can be life-saving. We talk plainly about what melanoma is, how UV damage builds up over time, and why noticing a new or changing mole, or something that simply looks odd is the moment to contact your GP.

We also bring it back to farm life. Outdoor work in agriculture and horticulture means higher exposure, and Susanna shares survey findings showing sunburn is far more common in the sector than in the general public. We dig into the culture piece too, especially why men often skip sunscreen, and how employers can treat sun protection as a health and safety control by providing sunscreen and making reapplication normal on busy days.

You’ll come away with practical guidance you can use straight away: the expanded Slip Slop Slap message (plus shade and sunglasses), how to use the UV index (protect when it is 3 or above), what “broad spectrum” really means, and what to look for on the bottle (SPF 30+ and a high UVA star rating). We also tackle vitamin D without turning sun exposure into a false excuse, and we finish with a clear reminder that nearly nine in ten melanomas are preventable.

Download and share Melanoma Focus' agricultural and horticulture assets:

Agricultural communications Toolkit

This was recorded in January 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Silage isn’t just a crop, it’s a high value asset, and the clamp you store it in can quietly decide how much of it you actually get to feed. We sit down with Jeremy Perkins from SiloStop Agri to talk through what good silage pit design looks like in 2026, from the first site visit to the details that protect forage quality for months. If you’re expanding, switching systems, or simply running out of space, this conversation helps you think clearly about layout, access for modern machinery, and how to future proof capacity without creating an unmanageable feed face.

We get practical about the rules as well. We break down SAFO regulations in England and what inspectors are looking for around silage effluent and leachate containment, then compare that with Welsh COPR requirements, including why tarmac floors can be preferred and how features like inspection chambers support compliance. Along the way we discuss earth-bank options, vertical wall systems, drainage falls, and why planning permission and build timelines matter more than most of us want to admit when second cut is looming.

We also zoom into the small stuff that makes a big difference: oxygen barrier film, sidewall film, safer clamp handrails, and cleaner weighting options that replace the misery of tyres. The takeaway is simple: invest once, do it properly, and treat homegrown forage like the foundation of margin and efficiency it really is. 

This was recorded in March 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

Subscribe, share the episode with a mate who’s rebuilding a clamp, and leave us a review so more UK dairy farmers can find the show.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Clover can feel like a gamble until you understand what it’s really doing in the sward and how small management choices decide the outcome. We’re joined by John Spence, Forage Crops Product Manager at Limagrain, to get clear on the practical differences between red clover and white clover, and how to choose the right option for grazing, silage, or a dual-purpose ley on UK dairy farms.

We talk through the big paybacks farmers actually care about: higher home-grown protein, better digestibility, and nitrogen fixation that can cut fertiliser use when prices spike or supply tightens. John explains why clover often carries summer growth when grasses dip, how deep rooting links to drought tolerance and soil structure, and where clover fits alongside SFI options and multi-species or herbal leys.

Then we get into the detail that makes clover work on farm: white clover leaf sizes and why blends matter, red clover longevity expectations, sowing windows based on soil temperature, seedbed and sowing depth, and the realities of overseeding. We also cover bloat risk sensibly, cutting date decisions for quality versus yield, why clover silage can benefit from an additive, and what to do when NIR forage analysis struggles with clover-heavy or mixed swards.

This was recorded in November 2025, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

If you find this useful, subscribe, share the episode with a fellow grassland nerd, and leave a review so more UK dairy farmers can find it.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Numbers make people uncomfortable for a reason: they tell the truth. We’re joined by the EDF UK team to unpack European Dairy Farmers and the EDF Congress heading to Chester on 23 to 25 June, including what it is, who it’s for, and why cost of production benchmarking can turn a good idea into a confident decision.

We talk through the structure of the three day programme at Chester Racecourse, mixing plenary sessions, targeted workshops and tightly run farm visits in one of the UK’s most concentrated dairy regions. The theme “New Challenges, New Opportunities” gives us room to explore what sustainable dairy farming looks like in practice, from the technological revolution of robots, sensors, machine vision and artificial intelligence, to sustainability from the ground up through soil management, forage quality and smarter nutrient use.

You’ll also hear why EDF’s approach stands out: farm visits anchored by real performance figures, workshops that let farmers compare key KPIs like labour efficiency, and the kind of networking that sends you home with at least one “nugget” worth implementing. If you’ve never come across EDF before, this is your route into a Europe wide conversation about efficiency, resilience and adding value in a volatile milk market.

For more information on European Dairy Farmers: European Dairy Farmers – the premier hub for dairy producers across Europe

For more information on the European Dairy Farmers Congress 2026: EDF Congress – European Dairy Farmers 

This was recorded in January 2026, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

Subscribe for more UK dairy industry conversations, share this with someone who needs a fresh perspective, and leave us a review if you want to support the podcast.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

What if your muck heap could hold onto its nitrogen, keep its carbon, and feed soil life the moment it hits the ground? We sit down with Andrew Sincock of Agriton to demystify Bokashi—an anaerobic, lactic-led fermentation of farmyard manure that turns a “waste problem” into a high-value fertiliser strategy. No turning windrows. No mystical inputs. Just weekly microbes on deep bedding, a sensible handle on carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, and a sheet to finish the job.

Andrew takes us from first principles to field results. We compare aerobic composting, anaerobic digestion, and fermentation, and unpack why carbon and nitrogen losses plummet when oxygen is kept out. If you understand silage, you already understand the logic: inoculate, exclude air, and let biology do the heavy lifting. We connect the dots between rumen microbes and soil microbes, showing how pre-digested, fermented FYM accelerates the soil food web, enabling practical moves like applying around eight tonnes per hectare between silage cuts without messy residue at harvest.

This is as practical as it gets. You’ll hear how to apply mixed microbes on bedding once a week, balance materials from straw to woodchip to poultry manure, and decide when to muck out, sheet, and spread. We dig into economics—independent comparisons reported about £15 per treated tonne more NPK against roughly £1 per tonne in treatment cost—and talk through where shortcuts still work and where they don’t. We also address slurry and lime: where microbes help, where acidification looks tempting but risky for soil biology, and why better management beats heavy-handed fixes.

If you’ve written off biological farming as “muck and magic,” this conversation gives you the science and the steps to test it on your own ground. Start small, measure your FYM like you measure your forage, and let the results guide your next move. If it’s simple to explain and easy to fit into chores, you’re more likely to stick with it—and your soils, crops and margins will follow.

Enjoyed this deep dive? Follow, share with a neighbour, and leave a quick review. Your feedback helps more farmers find practical, no-nonsense ideas that work.

This was recorded in September 2025, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].

Forget the headline battles over “cow versus climate.” We dig into how livestock, managed within a circular bioeconomy, can actually reduce risk, recover nutrients, and improve the food we eat. With Professor Michael Lee of Harper Adams University, we connect the dots between soil carbon, methane chemistry, and what ends up on your plate, showing why measuring only gross emissions per kilogram misses the true picture of sustainable dairy and beef.

We start by reframing circular farming: crops generate non‑edible biomass and the food industry creates co‑products; ruminants turn those streams into milk and meat while producing organic manures that, with new stripping and separation technologies, return nitrogen and phosphorus to the fields that need them. That reduces dependence on mined phosphate and fossil‑fuel fertiliser and strengthens soil health and biodiversity. We also unpack the geopolitics of nutrients, from export controls to the hidden carbon cost of extraction, and why better manure management is both an agronomy win and a climate hedge.

Then we get precise about methane. Biogenic methane sits in a short‑lived natural cycle; thermogenic methane from fossil sources adds new carbon to the atmosphere. Agriculture must cut emissions, and can, through genetics, feed, and efficiency. But farms are too often judged on gross emissions while their removals through soils, hedgerows, and trees are booked elsewhere. Case studies from Ireland show how net accounting can reveal major improvements and, in some systems, net‑zero performance. The takeaway is clear: measure net, reward verified removals, and avoid a carbon‑only lens that ignores biodiversity, water, and rural livelihoods.

Finally, we get practical about what to eat. We don’t eat by the kilogram; we eat for nutrients. Animal‑source foods provide highly bioavailable protein and hard‑to‑get micronutrients, while plant foods supply the fibre most of us lack. Ultra‑processed “plant” proteins often strip out that fibre. A smarter plate is plant‑rich, fibre‑dense, and includes modest amounts of unprocessed dairy and meat. Using more of the carcass, including offal, cuts waste and boosts nutrient density.

If this conversation changed how you think about livestock, sustainability, and nutrition, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your feedback helps more people find evidence‑based farming stories that matter.

This was recorded in October 2025, and all information was correct at the time of recording.

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For more information about our podcast visit www.chewinthecud.com/podcast or follow us on Instagram @chewinthecudpodcast, or on Facebook and LinkedIn as ChewintheCud Ltd . You can also email us at [email protected].