This year’s Teagasc National Dairy Conference will take place on Wednesday, November 29, at the Lyrath Hotel, Co. Kilkenny.
‘Adapting to a changing dairy farming environment’ is the conference theme.
Speaking in advance of the event, head of dairy knowledge transfer in Teagasc, Dr Joe Patton said: “This year’s conference will tackle some of the most pressing issues currently facing dairy farmers.
“It will feature a range of practical workshops. Farmers attending can meet and interact with researchers, and discuss a range of issues; such as grazing and nitrogen strategies, nutrient management technologies, and the potential benefits of flexible milking schedules.”
National dairy conference
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, will deliver the opening address.
This will be followed by the first technical session, ‘Key drivers of milk production costs in dairy systems’, which will feature a presentation from Mr. David Beca of Red Sky Agricultural Consulting.
Beca has specialised in identifying and reporting on the primary drivers of productivity, and profitability in grazing systems.
Red Sky Agricultural is an agricultural business and benchmarking software application that has wide-use across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Following this international perspective, Dr. Joe Patton of Teagasc will present some key trends in cost structure on Irish dairy farms, and will highlight the value of dairy cost benchmarking as a business development practice.
The second session of the day is ‘getting to grips with labour challenges on dairy farms’.
The discussion here will centre on farm-task organisation and the structures of work schedules on Irish dairy farms.
Marion Beecher of Teagasc Moorepark, will present the results of a recent labour study involving 55 dairy farms, which will address key questions around scheduling, rosters, use of non-core labour, and labour costs.
To provide practical farm level experiences, John Whelan, dairy farmer from Co. Wexford, and Brendan Joyce, who is dairy farming in Co. Kilkenny, will both speak.
John Whelan will outline how he makes use of contractors for key tasks at peak times, manages weekend work for staff and lessons learned in a growing dairy business.
Brendan Joyce will share his top tips for efficient work routines in spring, the labour benefits of a simple system, and the importance of capitalizing on-off peak time.
Interactive sessions
In the afternoon, conference attendees can choose three interactive workshops from the following:
- Back to basics on grazing tactics for spring 2024: Joseph Dunphy, Teagasc Grass10; Brendan Horan, Teagasc Moorepark, and Joe Murphy, Dairy Farmer, Kilkenny;
- Achieving 100 SCC in the first 100 days: Pablo Silva Bolona and Don Crowley, Teagasc;
- Nitrogen (N) for 2024: John Maher, Teagasc Grass10; Michael Egan, Teagasc Moorepark; and David Wall, Teagasc Johnstown Castle;
- Stocking rate decisions for future systems: Michael O’Donovan, Donal Patton and Patrick Moylan, Teagasc;
- Milking 10 times a week –can it work for you? Emer Kennedy and Martina Gormley, Teagasc;
- Slurry storage and handling – how best to invest: Pat Tuohy, Teagasc and William Burchill, UCC.
Richard O’Brien, Teagasc regional advisory manager for Kilkenny and Waterford said: “We are delighted to welcome dairy farmers and industry personnel from all over the country and further afield, to Kilkenny for the Teagasc National Dairy Conference.
“The format of the day and line-up of speakers will make for interesting debate on the solutions to challenges facing the industry.
“We encourage early booking to make sure you get workshops of most interest to you.”
