Dairy
Breeding Week 2024: Understanding the maintenance sub-index
Breeding Week 2024: Understanding the maintenance sub-index The maintenance sub-index of the EBI represents 8% of the total euro value of the EBI, but what does the maintenance figure actually represent and what should it mean to you? In this article, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, Stuart Childs talks us through what the sub-index […]
27 March 2024
Scope for earlier removal of clusters?
Scope for earlier removal of clusters? Milking is the main chore on dairy farms and typically consumes over 30% of total labour input. With high labour costs and problems accessing skilled labour, the recent trend has been to install milking parlours, with a greater number of clusters to be handled by one […]
27 March 2024
A trilogy of tools to aid dairy-beef breeding, mating and trading
A trilogy of tools to aid dairy-beef breeding, mating and trading The expansion of the national dairy herd, improved dairy cow fertility, and the rapid growth in the use of sexed semen to generate dairy replacements will contribute to a greater quantity of Irish beef originating from dairy herds. New beef-on-dairy breeding […]
26 March 2024
Breeding Week 2024: Developing a breeding plan for your farm
Breeding Week 2024: Developing a breeding plan for your farm The advent of sexed semen has created an opportunity for dairy farmers to become very selective about the cows that they breed to dairy AI to generate the next generation of replacements for their herd, writes Stuart Childs, Teagasc Dairy Specialist. This […]
25 March 2024
Breeding Week 2024: The future of Irish dairy breeding with ICBF CEO, Sean Coughlan
Breeding Week 2024: The future of Irish dairy breeding with ICBF CEO, Sean Coughlan Sean Coughlan, CEO of ICBF, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the origins of ICBF, what it has done since its creation back in 1998 and what the future looks like for dairy […]
25 March 2024
Teagasc Breeding Week 2024 commences
Teagasc Breeding Week 2024 commences The purpose of Teagasc Breeding Week, which takes place this week, from Monday, 25 March to Friday, 29 March, is to provide timely reminders to farmers on important genetic and technical issues underpinning a successful dairy breeding season. Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc, Dr Joe […]
25 March 2024
Managing through a difficult spring
Managing through a difficult spring Mark Treacy advises on managing challenging spring weather conditions on farm by focusing on cow condition, feed stocks, and grassland management. Weather conditions continue to make this an extremely challenging spring. One thing we can be sure of is conditions will improve at some stage. For now […]
25 March 2024
Confidence in the 16:8 milking interval split
Confidence in the 16:8 milking interval split Managing a dairy enterprise across two blocks in Co. Laois, Bernard Ging has operated a 16:8 milking interval since the farm’s conversion to milk production in 2012. Supported by two full-time staff, three relief milkers and students occasionally, Bernard finds that the 16:8 split has […]
23 March 2024
€25 million scheme to improve beef progeny from the dairy herd unveiled
€25 million scheme to improve beef progeny from the dairy herd unveiled A €25 million scheme to incentivise the use of genotyped and genetically superior beef sires for breeding dairy beef calves has been unveiled. Launched by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue today, March 21, the Dairy Beef […]
21 March 2024
Cow numbers for dairy AI
Cow numbers for dairy AI How many cows do you need to breed to dairy AI to ensure adequate numbers of replacement heifer calves? It depends on the number of heifer replacements required and whether the semen being used is conventional, sexed, or a combination of both. Reducing the number of cows […]
21 March 2024