The Dairy Edge

Water quality continues to be a major focus for the agricultural industry, and while farmers are already making changes on farm, there is increasing emphasis on how practical actions can improve water quality outcomes at catchment level. 
 
In this episode, Pat Dillon from Teagasc joins James Dunne to discuss the Better Farming for Water campaign. 
 
Pat explains what the Better Farming for Water campaign is aiming to achieve, why a catchment approach has been taken and the practical actions dairy farmers can take to make a difference. 
 
We also discuss concepts such as nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen surplus, stocking rate and how all of these interact with water quality.
 
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 discusses why, due to the challenging conditions in spring 2026, a flexible approach has to be applied on farm to begin the 2nd rotation.
 
By early April, dry farms should have about 60 units (75 kg N/ha) of N applied (combination of fertiliser and slurry) and most farms need to assess regrowths on the first 3 paddocks grazed for the next 2-3 weeks.
 
Meanwhile, the featured farmer is Kieran Kennedy from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
 
Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-31stMarch
 
  
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

Prof. Donagh Berry, Quantitative Geneticist at Teagasc Moorepark, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the future of Irish Dairy Breeding Programmes.
 
Donagh first explains that breeding is all about numbers. With the uptake in use of sexed semen, the pool of dairy bull calves being born has shrunk and while this was part of the objective of using it in the first place, there is a side effect which has the potential to slow genetic gain in Irish dairy.
 
He outlines the type of numbers of calves that need to be born each year in order to maintain the genetic growth that Irish farmers have enjoyed since the late 2000s when genomics arrived.
 
In order to continue this, it will be important to have a structured breeding programme that will see Irish farmers work with the AI companies putting some of their best cows in calf to nominated bulls with a view to delivering the bulls of the future.
 
Failure to do so will see the progress made in the industry in the last three decades since the introduction of the EBI slow significantly. 
 
However, Donagh is attempting to avoid this occurrence by bringing industry together during 2026 to discuss the situation, identify the solutions and get them implemented as quickly as possible.
 
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 discusses why monitoring grass supply on farm is critically important at this time of the year; growth rates are predicted to be above average for the coming week so walk the farm and establish regrowth on paddocks grazed first in spring.
 
Plus, it’s important to get up to date with Nutrient applications – the aim is to have 60 units N/acre applied by early-mid April.
 
Meanwhile, the featured farmer is Michael Cunniffe from Fuerty, Co. Roscommon.
 
Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-24thMarch2026
 
  
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

Kevin Downing and Dan O’Riordan of ICBF join Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the Spring Breeding Guidelines that will be arriving to farmers across the country this week.
 
Kevin explains how the scorecard included in the guidelines can be used to identify the herd strengths and weaknesses to allow people to see where they may need to target improvement.
 
He then discusses the importance of using enough dairy AI straws to ensure there are adequate numbers of replacements coming through to support the needs of individual farms. 25% is required in order to ensure that 18-20% replacement rates can be maintained as not all heifers will go the distance so some surplus will be needed.
 
He also spoke about the importance of using high DBI with high beef subindex beef sires to generate high quality dairy beef stock and emphasises the need to continue using AI until such time as there is sufficient bull power to meet demand.
 
Finally Dan spoke about how sire advice is now available on the HerdPlus app which will facilitate more people to use it. 
 
He highlights the benefits of sire advice, balancing milk and fertility, avoiding inbreeding and lethal mutations and maximising beef merit while minimising calving difficulty risk, all making life easier for everyone involved.
 
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