The Dairy Edge

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:

• Average farm cover dropping
• Assess AFC on farm
• Assess % area grazed
• Implement on-off grazing

Read more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-27thOct

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

As we come towards the end of the lactation, getting the drying-off process right is important to ensure good udder health and set cows up correctly for the next lactation. 

This week, James Dunne is joined by Padraig O’Connor from Teagasc to go through best practice when drying off, from planning and preparing cows to carrying out the process and managing cows in the days afterwards.

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

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:

• Prioritise grazing residuals
• Update autumn grass budget
• Prepare for changing weather

Read more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:

https://pasturebase.teagasc.ie/Grass10%20Weekly.pdf?=20261023 

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

Martina Gormley, dairy specialist in Athenry, Co. Galway, joins Stuart Childs to discuss a survey on winter feeding practices that she completed with a number of farmers across the country over the winter period 2025/26.

The first thing Martina highlights is that winter feeding takes significant time. The survey of more than 70 dairy farmers found an average of 14 hours per week spent feeding silage, with wide differences between farms. Average time was six minutes per livestock unit per week.

Some things can influence the speed of feeding out such as farm layout and equipment. Limited feed space, using several yards, transporting silage and handling bales with unsuitable equipment were common sources of creating extra work. 

Around half of farmers said they lacked enough feed space, and 40% of the people surveyed were still using a fork or similar tool at some stage during the feeding process.

A starting point for farmers is to time their own feeding routine and target the main bottleneck. Some of the main options that will improve speed are improving feed space, using suitably sized grabs or bale-handling equipment be that a bale slice or bale unroller. 

Obviously, having silage closer to livestock will also lend to the speed of feeding and is something to factor in for any future developments.

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

Teagasc economist, Trevor Donnellan, joins James Dunne to discuss the latest National Farm Survey results for 2025, focusing on the Irish dairy enterprise. 

Trevor explains why Teagasc conducts the National Farm Survey, outlines the key figures for farm income and production costs, while also exploring the changing structure of Irish dairy farming. 

Plus he highlights the main differences in high vs low margin farms. Finally we discuss how 2026 will look significantly different to 2025.

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

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:

• Prioritise grazing residuals
• Update autumn grass budget
• Apply lime while ground conditions are suitable

Read more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-13thOct

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

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:

• Prioritising grazing residuals as we head into the final rotation
• Farms should begin the final rotation early-mid October 
• Updating autumn grass budget
• Grass growth will be between 40-50 kg DM/ha/day over the next weeks
• As closing begins on farm set the farm up to graze 60% by early November

Read more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-6thOct

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

As we head into the final grazing rotation of the year, there’s plenty for farmers to be thinking about in terms of grazing the final round - the grass budget, closing paddocks and getting the farm set up correctly for next spring. 

So, to talk us through where things are at and what farmers should be focusing on over the coming weeks, James Dunne is joined by Teagasc grassland researcher Mike Egan.

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

Dr. Margaret Kelleher, Genetics Operation Manager at ICBF, joins Stuart Childs to discuss the most recent update in September and to learn more about the COW index that farmers should be using more in their herd to identify the cows that require career changes!

Margaret explains that September evaluations were relatively stable, as they tend to be at this time of year in the seasonal system that we have here in Ireland, but ICBF continues to receive and update large volumes of data, including milk records, calving records, factory data, mart data and genotypes on a daily basis that they then gather together and add to the existing information to update the details of the animals on the database. This is a job that takes about 2 months to do and as soon as an update is published, ICBF start on the process for the next update almost immediately.

We then moved to the main core of today’s conversation, the COW (Cow’s Own Worth) Index which Margaret outlined as a live herd-specific tool that ranks cows using current performance, predicted future performance and replacement cost. Where good data is entered, this index can be used by farmers to identify the bottom 10–15%  to be considered for culling. It has the advantage of pulling milk performance, calving date and future potential together to help cut through the noise when trying to make culling decisions.

For the tool to be most effective, accurate recording of information is essential. Milk recording, fertility and scanning data have a major impact, while recording mastitis, lameness and temperament would make the Cow Index more accurate and useful for the individual farmer. EBI is the tool to use to identify the most profitable cows to breed from, COW is for culling decisions.

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

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:

• Prioritise grazing residuals
• Monitor growth rates and update grass budget

Read more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-29thSeptember

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