The questions to consider after a decade of expansion

Teagasc’s Richie O’Brien and Joe Patton join Emma-Louise Coffey on the latest Dairy Edge podcast to reflect on the progress made after a decade of expansion whilst also discussing concerns in areas such as the economic consequences of overstocking the milking platform. Richie explains that the advice now is similar to pre-quota: efficiency before scale, getting the simple things right like soil fertility, producing more grass, completing a financial plan to dictate decisions at farm level. When considering the rise in milk production, Joe explains that for the most part it has been beneficial from an economic and social perspective. Joe urges farmers to look specifically at their farm’s feed situation. What proportion of the dairy cow diet is coming from grazed grass and how much external feed is being imported onto the platform, be it through concentrate or purchased forage? There was consensus among Joe and Richie that farmers should budget 5.5 tonnes of grass utilised and 800kg concentrate per cow, meaning a farm stocked at 2.5 cows per ha needs to grow 15 tonnes of grass.The National Dairy Conference 2023 takes place on November 29th at the Lyrath Hotel, county Kilkenny with the theme of this year’s conference, 'Adapting to a changing dairy farming environment'.For tickets and more information visit:https://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/dairy-conference/ 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