The Dairy Edge

Padraig O’Connor, Dairy Technician at Teagasc Grange joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the role of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) on farms.

Padraig explains that the SOP is a step by step guide to completing a task. They are suitable for many tasks on farms such as preparing for milking, milking itself, treating a cow with mastitis and how to wash the milking machine correctly amongst many others.

SOPs are an extremely useful way of communication and can help avoid mistakes being made due to misunderstanding. While often associated with farms that employ people, they have an equally important role to play on owner operator farms to help during holiday periods, during busy periods where help is needed which may be family or externally sourced, but most especially in the event of any incident which renders the farmer unable to do tasks with little or no notice requiring people to jump in to help to keep the show on the road.

Padraig says that it is as simple as taking a piece of paper and recording the steps to complete the task in question, then getting someone that is preferably not overly familiar with the task to follow the instructions and ‘road test’ them. They may need tweaking and once happy with it, it should be laminated to make it waterproof and robust and placed in a visible location near the point of use.

Padraig, Martina Gormley and Francis Quigley have some great information on SOPs and developing them for your own farm available at: 

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/standard-operating-procedures/

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, Joseph Dunphy discusses PastureBase data, Dry Matter % and Predicted grass growth, rainfall & soil temperatures for the week.  

As we approach 1st November, Joseph also discusses current grazing management and he has a grazing update from Robin Stevenson, Co. Donegal.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: 

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

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. Tomás Russell, Assistant Professor in Agricultural Extension and Innovation at the School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, joins James Dunne on the latest Dairy Edge to discuss the considerations people should take when it comes to farm succession.

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, Joseph Dunphy discusses PastureBase data, Dry Matter % and Predicted grass growth, rainfall & soil temperatures for the week. 

As we approach late October, Joseph also discusses current grazing management and he has a grazing update from Brian Meade, Navan, Co. Meath.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: 

https://bit.ly/Grass10-22ndOctober

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, Joseph Dunphy discusses PastureBase data, Dry Matter % and Predicted grass growth, rainfall & soil temperatures for the week. 

With the excellent grazing conditions around the country, Joseph also discusses current grazing management as AFC holds and he has a grazing update from Danny Bermingham from Co Clare.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-15thOctober

 
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

Helena Madden, Ruminant Veterinary Manager with MSD Animal Health, joins Stuart Childs on the latest Dairy Edge to discuss the new vaccine against Cryptosporidium, Bovilis Cryptium.

Helena first discusses how crypto is consistently one of the main causes of calf scour and then explains how cleaver the parasite is at surviving. Billions of eggs (oocysts) are shed by sick calves but only 17 are required to cause infection! 

Consequently, it can be a difficult disease to manage once it gets in the gate.

Helena says the new vaccine is the product of 23 years of research which clearly shows the challenge that crypto poses at farm level that such effort was invested into finding a solution. However, it is still only part of the solution. 

Cleaning and disinfection of sheds and good management of calf sheds is still important to minimise the challenge while the vaccine boosts the animals ability to resist infection.

The vaccine requires a primary dose so it is important that people are aware of this as the final dose has to be given at least 3 weeks before calving to be effective so that will require some planning for farmers to ensure they have the primary course given on time to ensure the 2nd shot is given in sufficient time.

Helena emphasises the importance of colostrum management both in terms of ensuring good quality and quantity of colostrum but also making sure the calves get the colostrum as early as possible and for this vaccine, it is recommended that they get colostrum/transition milk for the first 5 days at least to maximise the protection.

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, Joseph Dunphy discusses PastureBase data, Dry Matter % and Predicted grass growth, rainfall & soil temperatures for the week. 

As we enter October, Joseph discusses getting the importance of closing the farm correctly and he has a grazing update from Michael Ahern, Co. Waterford.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter: 

https://bit.ly/Grass10-8thOctober

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

Pat Moylan, Teagasc Dairy Advisor based in Kilkenny, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge for an update on the current grazing and winter feed situation within his client base.

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, Joseph Dunphy discusses PastureBase data, Dry Matter % and Predicted grass growth, rainfall & soil temperatures for the week. 

As we enter October, Joseph also discusses autumn grass growth and the final grazing rotation, plus he has a grazing update from David Melody, Co. Kilkenny.

Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-1stOctober

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

Hazel Costigan from Teagasc Moorepark joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss heifer rearing and the targets associated with it.

Hazel references a study done 10 years ago by Laurence Shalloo which put the cost of rearing a heifer at €1,545. A further study by Donagh Berry has shown that it takes 1.63 lactations to cover this cost and this may have increased since then.

Hazel says that the only way to manage heifer performance is to weigh them relatively regularly and at a minimum at key times throughout their lifetime to identify stock that are not on target and react to bring them back in line the rest of the group.

Hazel highlights the importance of doing this due to the impact in 1st, 2nd and 3rd lactation performance of lighter heifers in a study she did of Moorepark records from 2003 – 2017.

Finally, Hazel suggests that farmers weigh both their calves and heifers and act now to address weight deficits sooner rather than later especially as we move towards housing when average daily gain will inevitably drop due to the lower quality of the diet offered relative to the grass diet currently being consumed.  

The calf weights excel mentioned is available at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/dairy/CalfWeightReadyReckoner.xls

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