Dairy farmer, Mike Bermingham, on his February grazing & calving season and advice for the remainder of the first rotation

Dairy farmer, Mike Bermingham, joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast with an update on the grazing and calving season during February, and looks forward to the remainder of the first grazing rotation. On 1st March, Mike had 32% of the farm grazed and an average farm cover of 1,000 kg /ha. Mike intends on maintaining a high level of grazed grass in the diet in March, supplementing with 4 kg meal and high quality baled silage if farm cover dips below target. Mike had a significant issue with milk fever 2 years ago, explaining cows were over-conditioned, silage was high quality and he has crossbred cows who are predisposed to milk fever. Mike has taken proactive steps to reduce cases including BCS at dry off, mineral analysis on silage, restricting silage intake and feeding straw once per week. 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