7 dairy themed-villages you have to see at Moorepark 2017

There will be seven villages at the Moorepark open day: Grass10; advancing genetic gain; profitable systems of milk production; healthy cow, healthy milk; investing in people; dairy farm infrastructure and keeping yourself safe on the farm.

The village format allows dairy farmers to choose areas that they feel are most important to them, and will allow one-to-one contact with Teagasc researchers and advisers.

Demonstrations on grazing management, reseeding, farm infrastructure, calf-rearing, high EBI genetics, and health and safety will take place throughout the day.

There will be workshops on strategic management, milk quality, new entrants to dairy farming and labour management.

A number of national and international experts have accepted invitations to participate in the workshops.

The Grass10 campaign, which was launched recently, is a multi-year campaign (2017-2020) to increase grass utilisation on Irish livestock farms (dairy, beef and sheep).

The campaign has two primary objectives: 10t of grass DM/ha utilised per year, with 10 grazings/paddock per year.

The Grass10 village will feature the technologies required to achieve these ambitious targets.

Brian McCarthy and Deirdre Hennessy will present results from recent grazing studies at both Moorepark and Clonakilty in relation to the significant benefits of incorporating white clover into ryegrass swards.

Emma-Louise Coffey will present the final results from a four-year study carried out at the Curtin’s research farm on various stocking rate treatments.

There will be a reseeding demonstration, where two cultivation techniques will be demonstrated, along with best and worst practice in weed control.

Excellent weed control in reseeded swards is essential, and the aim of the demonstration is to show farmers the consequences of good and bad weed control.

David Wall will outline the benefits of optimum soil fertility, and the potential gains that are available to farmers by improving their soil fertility.

The Pasture Profit Index (PPI), which ranks grass cultivars on their potential profitability, will also be discussed. Micheal O’Leary will display new developments to PastureBase Ireland, a grassland management decision support software package and database.

The advancing genetic gain village outlines the improvements that have been achieved to date through the EBI and the adoption of genomic selection. ICBF personnel will partner with Teagasc staff on some of the key breeding stands.

Morgan O’Sullivan will present the results from the last four years’ Next Generation Herd study showing the large financial advantage at farm level to continuing improvements in herd EBI.

A recent analysis carried out by George Ramsbottom, Sinead McParland and Kevin Downing shows that each unit increase in herd EBI translates to €1.96 more profit per lactation in Holstein-Friesian dairy cows, which is in line with expectations.

There is great potential to improve the genetic merit for a variety of animal health traits, but this requires dairy farmers to routinely record the details of all animal health events (lameness, mastitis, infectious diseases, etc).

Siobhan Ring and Alan Twomey will show the latest genetic trends in lameness and udder health, plus some tips on how to breed to a healthier herd.

Apart from providing genomic proofs, genotyping of females can also verify parentage, identify chromosomal abnormalities and improve the accuracy of sire mating advice.

Francis Kearney (ICBF) and Noirin McHugh (Teagasc) will show that genomic selection has resulted in a 50% increase in the rate of genetic gain for the Irish dairy industry.

To maximise the potential benefits of crossbreeding with the Jersey breed, a Next Generation Jersey herd has been established at Moorepark.

This herd will evaluate the performance of high EBI Jersey cows, and also serve as a nucleus herd to produce high-EBI Jersey bulls for use in AI.

Sexed semen use could allow dairy semen to be used for a shorter period of time to generate the required number of replacements, which will be followed by the use of short-gestation, easy-calving beef semen to increase the value of the calf crop.

The profitable systems of milk production village will provide an update on the physical and financial performance of all of the Teagasc research and demonstration dairy farms, including the Greenfield and Shinagh dairy farms.

It will include a detailed analysis of the environmental efficiency and sustainability of Irish grass-based dairy systems.

Bernie O’Brien will outline latest research on automatic milking systems and Joe Patton will outline the key drivers of profitable winter milk production.

The ‘‘Taking Stock to Take Control’’ demo raises awareness of the importance of strategic planning to the success of a dairy business.

Debate

Farmers will be invited to respond to a series of questions using audience response handsets, and the answers generated will allow for debate and discussion led by Tom O’Dwyer.

In addition, three dairy farmers will share their experiences of strategic planning with the audience, highlighting how it has helped them to develop their farm businesses.

This village will highlight the importance of producing milk of high quality from animals with excellent health status.

There will be a number of stands in this village, with experts from Teagasc and AHI. There will be a workshop and a live demonstration in the healthy cow, healthy milk village.

Each workshop will have one of the winners of the National Dairy Council and Kerrygold Milk Quality awards from the past three years (Tom Power, Waterford, 2016; Kieran O’Sullivan, Cork, 2015; and Thomas Dwan, Tipperary, 2014).

Jack Kennedy (Irish Farmers Journal) will chair the discussions, which will involve David Gleeson (Moorepark) and the winning farmer. The discussion will allow award winners to share the secret to their success.

John Mee and Jonathan Kenneally will highlight the need to prioritise calving, calf health and biosecurity measures to prevent increased calf losses, especially on expanding dairy farms.

Ríona Sayers and Aideen Kennedy will discuss the importance of biosecurity, especially in relation to Johne’s control programmes of breaking the cycle of transmission to susceptible calves.

There will also be a live replacement heifer-rearing demonstration, discussing the steps necessary to ensure that heifers achieve target weights at key time points throughout the first two years of their life.

Emer Kennedy and John Barry will outline how to calculate the mature weight of a herd, and how to set appropriate targets for replacement heifers from birth to calving at two years of age.

The main aim of the demonstration is to show that the average weight of the herd is meaningless; it is the weight of individual heifers that needs to be focused on.

Heifers born in 2016 and 2017 that are currently at, below and above target weights will be on display, and advice will be shared on how to ensure they reach their target weights.

As well as the workshop and demonstration, there will be an opportunity to discuss animal health and milk quality issues with Teagasc researchers.

There will be a specialised village dedicated to people in dairying at Moorepark 2017, coordinated by Abigail Ryan. Key questions will be addressed in the village:

Forum one: new entrants/ dairy conversions

Due to the success of the new entrants to dairying forum at the last open day, Moorepark 2017 will revisit some of these farmers to see how their business has progressed since then.

There will also be some new dairy farmers who started in the last two years, and some who have just bought heifers and will be starting in 2018. These farmers have also recently allowed us to spend some time on their farms to develop short films on their new development.

They will openly discuss the challenges they faced, and what advice they would give to people thinking of becoming dairy farmers.

They will also be available to meet on a one-to-one basis at the open day in the private dairy conversion marquee when they are finished their forum and presentation.

Farmers who will feature on the open day will have either returned home farming from a business outside of farming or from a different farming enterprise such as beef, suckler cow, pigs or tillage.

Steps to financial success

Agribusiness consultant, Lynaire Ryan from Christchurch in New Zealand, will feature in this forum. She will discuss the five key steps to financial success, which is the reason why many of the participating farmers switched to dairy farming.

Dairy conversion farmers who will take part in the dairy conversions forum include Percy Mills (Kildare), Michael Doran (Wexford), Peter Brophy (Louth), Brian McLeer (Louth), John and Ciara Fennelly (Tipperary), Dan McCarthy (west Cork), Pat O’Meara (Tipperary), David Gannon (Galway), Conor Camon (Offaly) and Peter Brophy (Kilkenny). Roberta McDonald from Aurivo will chair both of the new entrant sessions at the open day.

Forum two: labour management/training the employer

Justine Deming will give a brief outline of her recent findings of the labour survey. This will be followed by a vibrant session of live interaction with Dr Nollaig Heffernan.

Nollaig comes from a dairy farm and works as a consultant with businesses all over the world, including dairy farmers, on how to better manage people.

Farmers have many questions about employing people, managing people and how to decide when you employ someone.

Nollaig will outline the labour issues that arise in the spring, and discuss some key steps that can be taken to successfully manage them. This is sure to answer many of your questions when it comes to managing your workload and your business.

A number of the farmers who participated in the Labour Study with Justine will feature. This will be chaired by John McNamara who is a dairy adviser in Teagasc west Cork, and is coordinating the Shinagh Dairy Farm Project in Bandon, Co Cork.

The labour wall

Pat Clarke will have a large wall of labour-saving techniques. This promises to be fun and will be a positive finish to the people in dairying village.

So don’t miss out on the big wall at this village.

Other key boards and people to meet at this village will include Tom Curran, a collaborative farming specialist.

Tom will be there to discuss collaborative farming opportunities such as partnerships, share-farming, leasing and contract-rearing.

Tom Coll, who has a specialised discussion group of farmers who contract-rear heifers, will be there with one of the members of the group.

Tomas Russell and James McDonald will also be on hand to discuss best practice in succession in a farming business.

Marion Beecher, who is coordinating the professional farm managers’ course in Moorepark, will discuss career options in dairying and training opportunities for the next-generation farmer.

The dairy farm infrastructure village will showcase the methodologies used to maximise productivity and efficiency on a dairy farm.

Highlights will include a demonstration of the major limitations associated with water infrastructure, which have the potential to limit water supply and thereby compromise animal health and restrict milk yield.

Tom Ryan and Pat Tuohy will provide advice on farm roadway design and construction – samples of roadway designs will be showcased at the open day.

Well-planned and constructed roadways offer increased accessibility for both livestock and machinery, and reduce the incidence of lameness.

The planning and layout of farms in terms of paddock-sizing, accessibility and fencing will be discussed, as well as opportunities to incorporate biodiversity into the farm.

John Upton and Tom Ryan will outline infrastructure required for efficient milking, drafting and handling operations as well as strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs in relation to milk cooling and water heating.

Pat Tuohy and James O’Loughlin will outline the design and implementation of land drainage systems, with options presented for differing soil types and conditions.

Optimised drainage design presents an opportunity to maximise the availability of grazing land and increase milk production.

Dara Ó hUallacháin will stress that the biodiversity value of existing farmland habitats should be prioritised ahead of establishing new biodiversity measures on dairy farms. All elements of the village will be addressed in detail in a dairy farm infrastructure booklet to be launched at the open day.

Farming is one of the most dangerous work sectors in Ireland. In a typical year, about a third of all workplace deaths occur in the agriculture sector. On average, about 19 fatal farm accidents occur on Irish farms each year.

This year, to 31 May, 12 farm deaths have occurred, with eight of these involving tractors and machinery.

Farm workplace death levels are twice the average levels, with a recent ERSI study showing that dairy farms have a 35% higher incidence of accidents compared with non-dairy farms.

The health and safety village will have features on the dangers associated with slurry handling, machinery use, children around machinery, quad operation, PTO guard replacement, working at heights safely and livestock management.

A number of external agencies will be present including the Gardaí, Health and Safety Authority, FBD and the Red Cross.

There will be features around mental and physical health in everyday life, and also in dealing with peak workload and work stress around the busy spring-calving periods on dairy farms.

Finally, a number of live demonstrations will be performed regarding quad use, PTO cover replacement, identifying the blind spots around machinery and the appropriate procedure to put in place following a serious accident.

Gerry Boyle: welcome to the 2017 Teagasc Moorepark open day

New booklet on infrastructure to be launched at Moorepark 2017