Show Notes
Martina Gormley, dairy specialist in Athenry, Co. Galway, joins Stuart Childs to discuss a survey on winter feeding practices that she completed with a number of farmers across the country over the winter period 2025/26.
The first thing Martina highlights is that winter feeding takes significant time. The survey of more than 70 dairy farmers found an average of 14 hours per week spent feeding silage, with wide differences between farms. Average time was six minutes per livestock unit per week.
Some things can influence the speed of feeding out such as farm layout and equipment. Limited feed space, using several yards, transporting silage and handling bales with unsuitable equipment were common sources of creating extra work.
Around half of farmers said they lacked enough feed space, and 40% of the people surveyed were still using a fork or similar tool at some stage during the feeding process.
A starting point for farmers is to time their own feeding routine and target the main bottleneck. Some of the main options that will improve speed are improving feed space, using suitably sized grabs or bale-handling equipment be that a bale slice or bale unroller.
Obviously, having silage closer to livestock will also lend to the speed of feeding and is something to factor in for any future developments.
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
More from The Dairy Edge
Teagasc economist, Trevor Donnellan, joins James Dunne to discuss the latest National Farm Survey results for 2025, focusing on the Irish dairy enterprise.
For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including: Prioritise grazing residuals Update autumn grass budget Apply lime while ground conditions are suitable
For this week’s Grass10 grazing management update, John Maher highlights the top actions that need to be done, including: Prioritising grazing residuals as we head into the final rotation Farms should begin the final rotation early-mid October Updating autumn grass budget Grass growth will be between 40-50 kg DM/ha/day over the next weeks As closing begins on farm set the farm up to graze 60% by early November
As we head into the final grazing rotation of the year, there’s plenty for farmers to be thinking about in terms of grazing the final round - the grass budget, closing paddocks and getting the farm set up correctly for next spring.
Dr. Margaret Kelleher, Genetics Operation Manager at ICBF, joins Stuart Childs to discuss the most recent update in September and to learn more about the COW index that farmers should be using more in their herd to identify the cows that require career changes!