The Dairy Edge

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

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
·      Shortage of accommodation
 
As weather conditions improve, get fertiliser and slurry applied across the farm.  Target 30/35 units N per acre to areas of the farm that have not yet received any fertiliser.
 
Meanwhile, the featured farmer is Liam Rochford from Co. Wexford.
 
Read more from this week’s Grass10 newsletter and subscribe for weekly updates at:
https://bit.ly/Grass10-17thMarch
  
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

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 industry with James Dunne speaking to Conor Mulvihill, Director of Dairy Industry Ireland.
 
They discuss the remit of Dairy Industry Ireland withing the wider industry, the current market outlook, what ‘value-added’ really means for Irish dairy, the importance of the grass-fed story, and some of the key challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
 
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