On this week's episode of The Dairy Edge podcast, Joe Patton gives an overview of the scale of winter fodder deficit on farms across the country.

Joe explains that the fodder deficit is greatest in the south and south west of the country.

He suggests that options such as wintering groups of stock off farm and increased levels of supplementary feeds can reduce feed deficits on farms for the winter ahead.

Joe also advises all farmers to take action right now to prepare for the winter - assess the quantity of feed in the yard (measure pit and get silage tested), get rid non-production stock from the farm and measure feed space.

For more information:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Fodder-Plan-18.pdf

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Feeding-tips-when-forage-is-short.pdf

Ed Payne continues his interview with Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss all things labour. 

Ed explains how a team in excess of ten labour units including family labour, full-time labour, relief milkers and seasonal staff manages the 470 cows with Ed crediting the team as the driver of high technical performance, work satisfaction and work-life balance. 

The backing of such a strong team has also given Ed the opportunity to pursue a Nuffield Scholarship including international travel for up to six weeks at a time.

For more information on Ed Payne's success go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Payne-farm-walk-booklet-18th-May.pdf

Connacht/Ulster Grass 10 champion Ed Payne joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the decision to convert to dairy farming and the practices that helped attain the regional grassland award.

Ed gives an insight into the production system, emphasising the importance of grazed grass and cow. He also discusses how he's achieving 10 grazings per year, high stocking rate and being mentally prepared to get out grazing early in the spring helps achieve high levels of grass utilisation.

For more information https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Payne-farm-walk-booklet-18th-May.pdf

Teagasc’s Farm Business Specialist Tom Curran joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the various collaborative farming structures operating in Ireland.

Tom gives examples of case studies of farm structures including as partnerships, cow leasing and contract rearing identifying important criteria to consider and typical costings per animal. Tom also explains the considerable benefits these structures can offer to farm business such as improved lifestyle, ability to build cow numbers and increasing profitability.

For more information https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/collaborative-farming/

Is collaborative farming for you? Teagasc’s Paidi Kelly joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the opportunities and benefits from collaborative farming.

He explains how and why it works for those interested in farming as a career while for established farmers who don’t have a successor, the next best thing is to work with younger people who want to get into farming.

For more information:

https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/collaborative-farming/

A secondary drought has hit the east and south of the country and on this week's episode of The Dairy Edge podcast, Grass10 campaign manager, John Maher, explains best management of this drought.

Where growth rates are low at 20-40 kg farmers must maintain a 30 day grazing rotation, using supplementary feed to fill the gap in the cows diet. John explains that there is still Nitrogen in the ground but there is value in spreading Nitrogen between now and the extended closing deadlines.

Where growth is normal, John advices to follow the standard recommended autumn grazing guidelines  - farm cover/cow of 300 kg by the end of August and continue to build cover into September in order to extend grazing. For farms growing in excess of 100 kg, farmers should take advantage of the opportunity of making surplus silage as well as building autumn grass.

For more information https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Grass10-Newsletter_21-August-2018.pdf

Andre van Barneveld of Graise Consultancy, draws on his experience of dealing with frequent summer droughts in New Zealand and has some key lessons that Irish farmers can learn from the summer of 2018.

"Irish farmers should not have a kneejerk reaction," van Barneveld cautions. "But they should be a lot more pro-active, especially when it comes to problem cows."

Andre explains the importance of identifying ‘passenger cows’ who should leave the herd ASAP. Where grass production is restricted, these cows are being fed solely from supplement feed. Andres emphases the importance of calculating the winter feed requirements of your whole herd, including young stock. In order to reduce winter requirements, farmers should maximise grass production late summer/autumn grazing period.

For more from Andre: 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1872532926131384&id=1161444260573591

On this week's episode of The Dairy Edge podcast, ICBF Geneticist Dr Margaret Kelleher gives the top tips on identifying the best and worst cows in your dairy herd.

Firstly, Margaret explains what the Cows Own Worth (COW) index is, what information contributes to each cow's COW value and how the COW index differs from the EBI.

Briefly, the COW index is for selecting the best cows for retention in the herd and the worst cows for culling, while the EBI is used for breeding.

Furthermore, Margaret explains why a cow would be ranked best and worst for a herd. Traits that would rank a cow best is early calving, good milk solids production, high EBI and low SCC compared to contemporaries in the herd. Margaret emphasises inputting insemination records, scanning records and treatments for incidence of ill-health such as lameness and mastitis are important to get the most accurate picture of your herd.

For more information:

https://www.icbf.com/wp/?p=11331#more-11331

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDUXoyZPRcQ

https://www.icbf.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CowOwnWorthMKelleher0408_20161.pdf

For part two of our interview with 2017 Grass 10 champion Eddie O’Donnell, we get the top tips on achieving high grass production and more importantly utilisation.

Eddie explains what practices implemented on his farm to optimise soil fertility, grazing infrastructure, reseeding and grassland management which has helped achieve on average 10 grazings per paddock plus a silage cut.

He emphasises the huge potassium (K) demand on the milking platform where surplus grass is removed in the form of bales. With that in mind, the paddocks are colour coded in the parlour and paddocks with low K are earmarked for dirty water and no surpluses are removed from such paddocks.

Having quantified the financial benefits of completing a grass measurements, Eddie speaks about the benefits of the 3 grazing seasons: spring, summer and autumn. Furthermore, Eddie mentions that farmers must act on the figures resulting from measurements to ensure the grazed grass is at maximum quality at each grazing.

Despite the target rotation length set at 20-21 days, Eddie explains growth rate and pre-grazing cover (target 1,400-1,500 kg DM/ha) dictates rotation length, and at peak growth, rotation length can go as low as 16 days.

For more information, go to www.teagasc.ie

On this week’s episode of the Dairy Edge podcast, the 2017 Grass 10 champion Eddie O’Donnell gives us an insight into his dairy farm.

Eddie and his father Denis have grown their dairy farm business substantially from 70 cows in 2005 to calving down 350 cows across 2 units in 2018.

Eddie explains changes on the farm in recent years such as extending lactation length after the abolition of milk quota and introduction of crossbreeding.

He acknowledges the benefits of entering the Grass 10 competition, giving him the opportunity to take a critical look at the grass and other aspects of the farm and encourages any farmers that are considering grass measuring to join a grazing coaches' group or buddy up with a farmer who is already measuring.

He also explains the considerable measurable financial benefits that he has seen since he began grass measuring including reduced feed costs and improved milk quality.

For more information:

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Eddie-O'Donnell-Open-day-booklet.pdf