28 March 2025
Five things beef farmers need to know this spring
The Beef Edge podcast is delivering expert insights on performance, production, and profitability – anywhere, anytime. Catherine Egan highlighted her top episodes for spring in a recent RTÉ Brainstorm article.
For many, a move away from full-time operations to more part-time enterprises has become the new norm. Farming activities now compete with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, off-farm work commitments, family time, and leisure and social activities. This shift has brought numerous challenges.
Where the previous generation of farmers were once free to attend farm events, engage in peer-to-peer learning through discussion group participation, or even meet their dedicated adviser during working hours, off-farm work commitments now take precedence for many of the next generation of Irish beef farmers. A visit to your local livestock mart during working hours will confirm this.
At the same time, there is an appetite among the beef farming community for technical information to improve the three P’s of their business – performance, production and profitability.
Launched in December 2019, The Beef Edge podcast features the latest news, information and advice to improve beef farm performance. It’s something which is accessible to farmers at a time that suits them, whether that be during their commute to off-farm work, walking their farms or even driving the tractor. Farmers across the country, and in fact the world, tune in weekly to hear from Teagasc and industry stakeholders.
Central to the success of the podcast is its ability to bring leading experts and their knowledge directly into the farmer’s home, tractor cab, or jeep.
Here are five things every beef farmer needs to know this spring.
Nutrition
Although often a secondary concern of the beef farmer, nutrition plays an essential role in successful beef farming systems. Too often, farmers rely on over-the-counter advice at their local agri-merchant to find the solution, often resulting in an outlay in concentrate feeds. However, Teagasc has a dedicated nutritional arm, focused on sharing the right advice and promoting the correct practices to feed Irish ruminant animals as effectively – both in terms of performance and economics – as possible.
Teagasc nutritionist Aisling Claffey highlighted the primary nutritional concerns around calving time on a recent podcast, from body condition score – the reserves of energy the cow holds – to metabolic or nutritional conditions.
Caring for the newborn calf
Spring is also a busy time in the working year for large animal vets, but their input, advice and understanding of the elements required to ensure a successful calving season and the newborn calf is cared for cannot be underestimated.
Teagasc researcher and vet John Donlon focuses on calving the suckler cow and discusses the essentials farmers can do to prepare, what items to have ready and the key steps when it comes to intervening when a cow is calving as well as different calf birthing presentations.
Fertiliser do’s and don’ts
As thoughts on farms move to fertiliser application, it is important for farmers to be up to date with the various rules and regulations surrounding nitrates. Teagasc specialist Tim Hyde outlines the open period for chemical fertiliser, farm yard manure and slurry across the different zones as well as the regulations around roadways, storing bales and buffer zones. Tim discusses the differences between various stocking rates and the rules that apply.
Mark Plunkett from the Teagasc Signpost programme outlines fertiliser application for the year ahead. Mark reviewed 2024 regarding fertiliser usage.
Grassland management
The temperate Irish climate combined with plentiful rain fall contributes to a lengthy grazing season from spring to autumn/early winter, which means grazed grass is the cheapest feed for milk and meat production in Ireland. Teagasc Grass10 advisor, Niamh Doyle, has a monthly update discussing grass management tips for the month ahead. Good grazing management in the spring will ensure a long grazing season whilst getting as much quality grass into the animals’ diet.
Calf care
As calves start to be born on dairy farms Teagasc DairyBeef 500 advisors, Fergal Maguire and Tommy Cox, discuss key tips around milk replacer and calf housing to maximise calf performance. Fergal explains the pros and cos around skim based or whey based milk replacer before outlining the concentrate of replacer and its components. Temperature of milk is very important, as well as consistency of feeding at the same time daily.
This article was first published on RTÉ Brainstorm, read the full article