The Dairy Edge

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher explains why a flexible approach has to be applied on farm to begin the 2nd rotation and particular caution needs to be taken on farms that are starting the 2nd rotation to ensure AFC stays above 650 kg DM/ha.

Walk the farm on a more regular basis as growth increases.  Average farm cover needs to stay above 650 kg DM/ha.  Take action by reducing demand if your cover drops below 650 kg DM/ha.

Meanwhile, the featured farmer is Michael Leahy from Co. Ki...

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 als...

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...

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 calv...

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...

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 indivi...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, with the weather improving and a significant decrease in rainfall expected, John Maher discusses the increase in grass growth rate.

There's now an opportunity to get more of the farm grazed:

·      Get animals out (priority groups such as replacement heifers)

·      Day and night grazing for dairy herd

It is especially important to prioritise grazing if:

·      There is a low level of fodder available (do a budget!!)

·      Quality of silage is poor

·      Have a high feed demand

·...

This week’s Dairy Edge is a special episode as it marks the 500th show of the podcast. 

The first episode aired on 11th January 2018, when Emma-Louise Coffey was joined by dairy farmer, John Leahy, and Teagasc ruminant nutritionist, Brian Garry, to discuss preparing for the spring calving season and managing forage supplies. 

Since then the podcast audience has grown significantly with the series now surpassing one million listens in total.

To mark the milestone, we’re taking a look beyond the farm gate to the wider dairy ind...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses the importance of getting animals out grazing and why on/off grazing is the best approach to get going.

Plus, getting the farm ready to move and having fertiliser ordered and in the yard will allow farms to take the opportunity spread when conditions allow

Meanwhile, Michael Smith from Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan is this week’s featured farmer.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-1...

Marie Louise Ryan, veterinary practitioner with Mulcair vets covering the counties Limerick and Tipperary joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to highlight what issues are raising their head at farm level when it comes to herd health on dairy farms at the moment. 

Marie Louise also discusses what farmers can do from a management perspective over the coming weeks to ensure good cow and calf health throughout the month of March. 

Topics covered include transition cow management, milk fever, displaced abomasums and calf management.

For mor...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses updated spring targets, getting the farm ready to move, and why on/off grazing should be used to maximise the level of grass in the diet.

Plus the featured farmer is Enda Walsh from Oranmore, Co. Galway.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-3rdMarch

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https...

John Maher of Grass 10 and dairy farmer, Mike Bermingham, join Stuart Childs to discuss the challenges of grazing in 2026 and how to overcome them.

John explains how February has been wet and people have been holding off grazing in the hope of dry weather, however, the forecast is middling at best for the next few weeks so people will have to make a start for the good of the grass and the good of the cow.

Mike Bermingham is on a high north facing farm just outside Fermoy. He has experienced pl...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses being proactive and identifying what feed is available on the farm, dealing with the challenging conditions and why on/off grazing is the most important tool available to farmers at the present time.

The featured farmer is Shane Seymour from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-24thFeb26

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at...

Emer Kennedy, Dairy Enterprise leader, Teagasc Moorepark and Joe Patton, Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer, join James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the recently launched Teagasc Dairy Roadmap 2030 — a blueprint for where the Irish dairy sector needs to go over the remainder of this decade. 

The roadmap sets out clear KPIs across profitability, sustainability, breeding, labour and environmental performance.

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...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses on/off grazing, picking your paddocks and grass budgeting.

The featured farmer is Ger Whelan from Ballinahinch, Co. Clare.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-17thFeb

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 Last...

Donal Whelton, Head of Agri at AIB, joins Stuart Childs to discuss the financial situation that Irish dairy farmers are currently in and what challenges they may face and the solutions they may require in 2026.

Donal says that the Irish dairy sector is entering 2026 from a position of financial strength. Farm debt levels are nearly half of what they were in 2009. Meanwhile, farm cash balances have doubled over the same period. Overdraft utilisation in dairy is currently at its second lowest in 20 years and despite tighter milk prices this year, the sector overall has stronger b...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grass growth, prediction for grass growth, plus rain and average soil temperature for the next 7 days.

The featured farmer is Stephen Burchill from Bandon, Co. Cork.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-10thFebruary

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 Dair...

Conor Hogan, Research Officer with Teagasc Moorepark, whose work has focused on labour efficiency and work organisation on dairy farms, and Martina Gormley, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, who works closely with farmers on practical ways to reduce workload, join James Dunne on this week's Dairy Edge.

With spring calving commenced on the majority of dairy farms it places an increased demand on farm workload and for this episode, we’ll be discussing what the research tells us about managing workload, what practical changes farmers can make to reduce pressure, and how small system adjustments can make a b...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher explains why opening farm cover measurement should be prioritised this week.

Plus he discusses the importance of completing a spring rotation planner in PastureBase with the target for March 1st to have about 30% of the farm grazed.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-3rdFebruary

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc...

Padraig O’Connor, Dairy Technician with Teagasc in Grange, joins Stuart Childs with tips and advice for the month of February.

Padraig discusses the management of the freshly calved cows as a separate group.  Keeping these cows in for a few days after calving in a fresh-calved group allows recovery, easier observation and reduced bullying. Control of the colostrum group also simplifies milking management and use of available help.

Padraig then talks about testing colostrum quality with a refractometer.  Use a Brix refractometer (target >22%) to quickly check colostrum quality. This helps ensure...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher gives an update on the first set of figures in terms of grass supply from PastureBase Ireland. Plus he talks about the grazing management plan for the spring.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

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

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-pr...

This week’s Dairy Edge is from a recent Teagasc webinar entitled, ‘TB Update – Understanding the Recent Changes for Your Dairy Farm.’

TB continues to be a major challenge for the dairy sector, with herd incidence rising above 6% in 2024. There are now significant changes being introduced through the new TB Action Plan.

James Dunne hosted the webinar and was joined by Damien Barrett, Head of the Ruminant Animal Health Programme with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Joe Patton, Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer with Teagasc. 

Togethe...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher has a few tips before the grazing season gets going and he gives a summary of the farmers’ contributions from Nutrient Management Week 2026.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-20thJanuary

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

Setting up the fertiliser spreader correctly is important to ensure accurate and even placement of fertiliser. John Corbett from Grassland Agro joins John Maher for the final daily episode as part of Nutrient Management Week to discuss this important aspect of nutrient application and management.

Join us on the Dairy Edge each day of Nutrient Management Week for special episodes from farmers and experts and for more go to:
https://teagasc.ie/news--events/news/grass10-nutrient-management-week-2026/
 
For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

ht...

For today’s episode as part of Nutrient Management Week, Grass10’s John Maher is joined by Mike Ahern who is farming near Ballyduff, Co. Waterford. 

Mike was the winner of the Nutrient Management category as well as the overall winner of that Grassland Farmer of the Year Competition in 2024 and he talks to John about the importance of driving growth with early fertiliser application on his farm as well as how to use GPS technology to minimise losses to ensure you get full value from the fertiliser allowances for your farm.

Join...

Continuing the daily episodes as part of Nutrient Management Week, today John Maher talks about timing of applications to maximise their return, the rates to apply to find the balance between driving growth and mitigating potential environmental losses and how getting soil fertility right improves the return from applied nutrients thus being an important factor in minimising potential nutrient loss also.

Plus he speaks to Mike Ahern who is farming near Ballyduff, Co. Waterford. Mike was the winner of the Nutrient Management category as well as the overall winner of that Grassland Farmer of the Y...

As part of Nutrient Management Week, Grass10’s, John Maher, speaks to Michael Carroll from Co. Limerick.

Michael was one of the joint winners of the Nutrient Management category at the 2023 Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year awards. 

He won this award for his understanding of managing slurry on his farm to drive grass growth and reduce his chemical N inputs and today he shares his way of looking at and managing slurry to reduce his chemical N input without compromising on the growth required to feed his herd as much grass...

Philip Murphy, Co-ordinator of the Blackwater Catchment Programme, and Pat Tuohy, Senior Researcher at Teagasc, join Stuart Childs to discuss effective use of nutrients and avoiding losses.

Pat discusses recent research across 100 farms that he has completed on behalf of the Dept. of Agriculture that is showing slurry production rates are about 20% higher than the current regulatory assumptions (≈0.4 m³/cow/week vs 0.33m3).

This means many farms that may currently be compliant on the basis of the current regulations, do not have sufficient physical storage, leading to pressure to spread slurry at le...

For the first Grass10 grazing management update of the year, John Maher highlights key practices to get grazing in 2026 off to a good start and he discusses the upcoming Nutrient Management Week which runs from Mon 19th-Fri 23rd January.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

http://bit.ly/13thJanuary2026

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-pr...

Michelle McGrath, Calf Care Programme Manager with Animal Health Ireland, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss the importance of good calf care and management as we move towards the busy calving period on farms. 

Michelle highlights best practice regarding colostrum management, calf rearing and weaning whilst also outlining what farmers can learn from the current Teagasc/Animal Health Ireland Calf Care events which are happening across the country. 

To find out more visit:

https://teagasc.ie/corporate-events/calfcare-events/

For more episode...

We’re reposting one of the most popular episodes from last year with Laurence Shalloo, Head of the Animal and Grassland Programme in Teagasc Moorepark, who joined Stuart Childs to discuss the future challenges facing the dairy industry.

Laurence starts by acknowledging that there is a constant state of flux in the world now and that we are constantly adapting to change. This is no different to what we did in the run-in to the milk quota removal.

Laurence talks about the pent up energy in the industry post-quota removal that has...

Fermanagh man, Rodney Elliott, who is farming in the US state of South Dakota, joins James Dunne for the second part of his interview discussing recruiting and managing staff, herd breeding objectives, animal performance and herd nutrition.

He also offers insights into what he has learned along the way and why he is as passionate about dairy farming today as he was 20 years ago.

Image: https://www.midwestdairy.com

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

http...

Fermanagh man Rodney Elliott, who is farming in the US state of South Dakota, joins James Dunne on this week’s Dairy Edge. 

In the first of a two part interview, Rodney outlines how he went from farming 140 dairy cows in Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh to operating two large scale dairy units in the US. 

He describes how the business has grown over time, some of the challenges met along the way and how he overcame them. 

Rodney discusses what farming KPIs matter in the running of the business...

For this week’s episode of the Dairy Edge, in conjunction with Catherine Egan of the Beef Edge and Ciaran Lynch of OviCast, we talk to John Donlon, veterinary lecturer in Atlantic Technological University about bluetongue.

John first describes the disease and explains how it presents in sheep, cattle, alpacas and other cloven hooved animals.

He then explains how, in reality, the risk period should have passed at this stage of the year as midges that act as the vector for the disease should be gone by now.

The...

For this week’s final Grass10 grazing management update of the year, John Maher discusses current grazing advice, including opening cover targets and fodder assessment, plus he looks back on the grazing year in review.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-9thDecember2025  

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 LastCast...

We’re reposting an episode from October with Teagasc Dairy Specialist, Patrick Gowing, who joined James Dunne on the Dairy Edge to discuss how to best manage surplus cash, build financial resilience, review production costs, and ensure farmers are best prepared for 2026.

As 2025 draws to a close, it will be remembered as one of the best farming years in recent memory due to strong milk prices, increased stock values and good weather for most parts. This means that dairy farm incomes are in a good place for the 2025 calendar year.  

Although it ha...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-2ndDec2025

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 hosted the National Dairy Conference last week in both Clonmel and Cavan, and the theme of the conference was, ‘Pathways to Progress’, with key sessions on milk price and key farm performance priorities, collaborative farming arrangements and driving further progress in Irish dairy breeding. 

James Dunne caught up with Joe Patton, Martina Gormley and Stuart Childs to gain an insight into some of the main messages from the conference.

Link to conference papers and presentations: 

https://teagasc.ie/publications/national-dairy-conference-2025/

For more episodes from the Dairy...

For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher discusses current grazing advice.

Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:

https://bit.ly/Grass10-25thNov25

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

Edmund Motherway, from Ladysbridge, near Midleton, was the Overall Winner of the Student Section of the Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year Awards and he joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge.

Edmund was always interested in farming as a child, however, due to the scale of the home farm, he didn’t think he had a future in farming. A transition year placement at a nearby father and son partnership opened his eyes to ways to potentially making farming a viable career option.

Edmund is now farming in partne...