John Conroy, Dairy Advisor in Teagasc Nenagh, and Jim Delahunty, dairy farmer, join Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss closing the farm for 2025. John says it has been an exceptional year for the most part, in the area he covers, with people complaining about making bales at this stage which is a far cry from the situation experienced in 2024. However, the recent dry spell has reduced the building of grass having come from a very strong position in early to mid-August. John encourages people to continue to work on building the cover between here and the start of the last round. Jim says that he has grown well in the last week but his demand is high so he is considering housing cows by day in order to reduce demand to exploit growth over the next week or two to increase farm cover. He has also blanket spread the farm to drive growth once the rain came and this has helped close the gap. Jim also discusses how he is going to drop his stocking rate next year as he isn’t getting enough reseeding done at his current stocking rate. John and Jim then cover the targets of closing the farm to ensure that there is grass in the spring as this worth multiples to him more than it is in the autumn. Finally, John says to close the farm in the way you want to graze in the spring targeting the best, most accessible for the early grazing which means targeting these for grazing in the second half of October to have the right cover to acclimatise the cows to grazing again. 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
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30:24
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30:24
Your Weekly Grass10 Update
For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing management and advises using the higher grass growth now to build grass into the autumn as many farms are behind on grass supply. He also highlights this week’s feature farm, the O’Dea Farm Partnership, who are having a phenomenal grazing year with 14 tons DM/ha grown already with an input of 140 units N/acre and superb clover! Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter:https://bit.ly/grass10-16thSeptember2025 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
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10:02
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10:02
Soil Fertility Management after the Spreading Deadline
Seamus Kearney, Teagasc Tirlán Joint Programme Co-ordinator, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss soil fertility actions that can still be taken despite the chemical fertiliser deadline passing for 2025. Firstly, Seamus outlines the reduction in chemical nitrogen in the last 9 years and these reductions are becoming more conspicuous where soil fertility isn’t on point. Seamus explains that lime is magic as it frees up 70-80kgs of N and frees up P and K that are locked up in the soil. With increased output and output value in 2025, farmers may be exposed to the higher rate of tax and every €1 invested in lime can generate a return of 7:1 and if you’re in that high tax bracket, there is another win in that you can reduce the tax exposure but get really good value from the spreading of it this year and for subsequent years also. Seamus also talks about K fertiliser applications and recommends that farmers apply 1 bag of Muriate of Potash (MOP) to increase the K levels as this will improve N utilisation and increase grass growth. Seamus discusses bringing soil samples to life either by having the map on the tractor or by some form of markings out in the paddocks that will quickly identify the paddocks that need the different nutrients Finally, Seamus says that people should keep things simple and by using protected urea and 18-6-12 and MOP for their fertiliser programme it is both environmentally friendly and €20/cow on current prices cheaper than other fertiliser regimes which can save €2000 for the average 100 cow herd. 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
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19:09
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19:09
Your Weekly Grass10 Update
For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice and as many farms are behind on grass supply, he advises using the higher grass growth now to build grass into the autumn. The featured farmer is Patrick O’Neill from Longford, who is having a good year with grazing and is on target! Link to this week’s Grass10 newsletter:https://bit.ly/Grass10-9thSeptember2025 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
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10:16
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10:16
Reducing herd SCC this autumn
Padraig O’Connor, technologist with Teagasc, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to outline how farmers should manage their herd somatic cell count this autumn, how to make best use of the milk recording information and what to do with identified problem cows. 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
The Dairy Edge is Teagasc’s dairy podcast for farmers with the latest information, insights and opinion to improve your dairy farm performance.
Visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/
Colombia