{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Dairy Edge","title":"The technical performance of the dairy herd at Kildalton","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1436,"description":"Dairy teachers at Kildalton College, Zerlina Pratt and Aidan Nugent, join Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the technical performance of the dairy herd at Kildalton.\r\n\r\nZerlina gives an overview of the dairy unit which includes 110 cows on a 46 ha milking platform. The herd EBI is €175, ranking it in the top 3% of dairy herds in the country with cows having a Holstein-Friesian base with 50% of the herd crossed with either Norwegian Red or Jersey genetics.\r\n\r\nBoth Zerlina and Aidan recall technical performance including 300 days at grass, 13 tonne grass grown and 650 kg meal fed per cow from a feed perspective as well as the herd achieving an 89% 6 week calving rate and an average 530 kg MS produced per cow.\r\n\r\nThe dairy unit at Kildalton, as well as being a highly technically efficient farm, engages with a large number of students on a weekly basis. Aidan details the substantial number of practical dairy skills delivered to students at the college, including animal husbandry, milk machine running and maintenance, tractor and grassland skills.\r\n\r\nZerlina explains that Kildalton, like all of the Agricultural Colleges have continued to deliver skills during Covid-19 to maximise the learning opportunity to the students in line with government guidelines.\r\n \r\nFor more information:\r\nhttps://www.teagasc.ie/education/teagasc-colleges/kildalton/\r\n\r\nFor more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast visit the show page at:\r\nhttps://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/","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}