{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Dairy Edge","title":"The questions to consider after a decade of expansion ","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1891,"description":"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.\n \nRichie 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.\nWhen considering the rise in milk production, Joe explains that for the most part it has been beneficial from an economic and social perspective.\n \nJoe 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?\nThere 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.\nThe 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'.\nFor tickets and more information visit:\nhttps://www.teagasc.ie/corporate-events/dairy-conference/\nFor more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:\nhttps://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/\nThe Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com\n ","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/FizPp2YqaNPbmx7kOdSSeqe3lGqQ33mTmLaxiS1YEus/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzEwMTc5LzE1ODgz/Mjc3MzMtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}