Best Practice when Drying Off - A Practical Guide

Conor McAloon, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA) at UCD joins Stuart Childs to give us an update on Bluetongue and other midge borne viruses in Ireland currently.Conor says he had not seen any convincing evidence that blue tongue overwintered in Ireland from 2025 and believes that the 2026 cases that are being picked up were more likely linked to infected midges arriving from the UK during the summer.  While this was good from the point of view of it not hitting during the early stages of the breeding season, he expects infections that occurred during autumn to bring a risk of abortions and calves with congenital or neurological problems in spring 2027.Conor says that vaccination matters, but plans may need to change: vaccination was a sound decision for the herds that chose it albeit no vaccine is 100% effective, it did protect the herds that did go that route. An annual booster for now, pending more information, will be required in 2027 but vaccination advice will have to be adapted each year potentially as different disease risks emerge and recede.He finishes by saying be prepared and make decisions with good advice: midge-borne disease incursions are likely to become more common and farmers should take an adaptable approach to animal health. He stresses working with vets and advisers, weighing vaccine costs against potential losses and the labour of managing sick or affected animals as key in helping people make the decisions necessary for their own farm.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 highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:Assess % area grazedMonitor average farm coverGraze priority groundRead more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:https://bit.ly/Grass10-3rdNov 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

Aisling Claffey, Teagasc ruminant nutrition specialist, joins Stuart Childs to discuss the importance of dry cow minerals to the success of your calving season.Aisling explains that magnesium is key. Pre-calving minerals need to supply enough magnesium to support the cow’s ability to mobilise calcium around calving. She also highlights the importance of vitamins—particularly vitamin D and the role it has for milk fever prevention also.Consistency is vital with minerals. Missing minerals for a day or two can matter, especially when many cows are close to calving. As people are getting better at their soil fertility, Aisling believes people should test silage for minerals annually as silage potassium can vary from year to year and as this may interfere with magnesium absorption, farmers need to be aware of the feed that they are feeding. Milk fever can have wider consequences. Low calcium can affect muscle function, calving and rumen contractions, and intake. It is known as a gateway disease with transition-cow problems as well as mastitis all likely to follow so prevention is important and key to this is a good mineral fed consistently.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 highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:Average farm cover droppingAssess AFC on farmAssess % area grazedImplement on-off grazingRead more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:https://bit.ly/Grass10-27thOctFor 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

As we come towards the end of the lactation, getting the drying-off process right is important to ensure good udder health and set cows up correctly for the next lactation. This week, James Dunne is joined by Padraig O’Connor from Teagasc to go through best practice when drying off, from planning and preparing cows to carrying out the process and managing cows in the days afterwards.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 highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:Prioritise grazing residualsUpdate autumn grass budgetPrepare for changing weatherRead more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:https://pasturebase.teagasc.ie/Grass10%20Weekly.pdf?=20261023 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

Martina Gormley, dairy specialist in Athenry, Co. Galway, joins Stuart Childs to discuss a survey on winter feeding practices that she completed with a number of farmers across the country over the winter period 2025/26.The first thing Martina highlights is that winter feeding takes significant time. The survey of more than 70 dairy farmers found an average of 14 hours per week spent feeding silage, with wide differences between farms. Average time was six minutes per livestock unit per week.Some things can influence the speed of feeding out such as farm layout and equipment. Limited feed space, using several yards, transporting silage and handling bales with unsuitable equipment were common sources of creating extra work. Around half of farmers said they lacked enough feed space, and 40% of the people surveyed were still using a fork or similar tool at some stage during the feeding process.A starting point for farmers is to time their own feeding routine and target the main bottleneck. Some of the main options that will improve speed are improving feed space, using suitably sized grabs or bale-handling equipment be that a bale slice or bale unroller. Obviously, having silage closer to livestock will also lend to the speed of feeding and is something to factor in for any future developments.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 economist, Trevor Donnellan, joins James Dunne to discuss the latest National Farm Survey results for 2025, focusing on the Irish dairy enterprise. Trevor explains why Teagasc conducts the National Farm Survey, outlines the key figures for farm income and production costs, while also exploring the changing structure of Irish dairy farming. Plus he highlights the main differences in high vs low margin farms. Finally we discuss how 2026 will look significantly different to 2025.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 highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:Prioritise grazing residualsUpdate autumn grass budgetApply lime while ground conditions are suitableRead more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:https://bit.ly/Grass10-13thOctFor 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 highlights the top actions that need to be done, including:Prioritising grazing residuals as we head into the final rotationFarms should begin the final rotation early-mid October Updating autumn grass budgetGrass growth will be between 40-50 kg DM/ha/day over the next weeksAs closing begins on farm set the farm up to graze 60% by early NovemberRead more from the latest Grass10 newsletter at:https://bit.ly/Grass10-6thOctFor 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