Staying on top of milk quality

Raymond Ryan, Milk Quality Advisor for the Limerick and Clare regions with Dairygold, joins Stuart Childs to discuss staying on top of milk quality.Raymond explains that milk quality in 2026 is generally holding up, with cell count and TBC broadly similar to previous years, but drought and difficult weather have created localised problems.Dirty conditions are the main risk, particularly for thermoduric bacteria and farmers should keep cows and parlours clean, manage sacrifice paddocks or cubicles carefully, ideally dry-wiping cows before milking. Making sure machine maintenance such as liners and rubberware has been done is also an important management step.Raymond says that, where problems arise, early action and implementation of consistent routines are critical: monitor cell counts/TBC and act quickly on rises, ensure adequate water and nutrition, remove persistent high-cell-count cows where appropriate, and maintain proper plant washing with sufficient hot water, chemicals, temperature and turbulence. 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