Dairy Management Tips for April

Dairy Management Tips for April

From The Dairy Edge by Teagasc

April 15, 2026 · 21 min

About this episode

Mark Treacy discusses dairy management tips for April, focusing on grazing strategies and silage preparation.

Mark Treacy, Dairy Specialist in Teagasc Clonakilty, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss management tips for April. Mark explains that dairy farms are in various positions: some have moved too quickly into second-round grazing, others are well-balanced with remaining first-round grass, and some (especially on heavy ground) are delayed due to poor weather conditions. He then outlines the solutions such as housing some or all of the herd in order to get grass cover back up to where they need to be which might only take a week, or where there is a lot of grass on farm, tackling it from a number of angles including grazing, silage immediately once opportunity arises or longer term silage in some cases. Mark also spoke about the need for silage ground to be fertilised but to have cutting date influence the amount applied. With slurry application to most of this ground not an option, the advice is to cut early and return the slurry then. This will result in the same total yield with better quality than a large application of N for first cut now thus delaying the cut date. Finally, Mark spoke about the need to follow up on problem cows ahead of the breeding season…

People in this episode

Host: Stuart Childs

Guest: Mark Treacy

Topics covered

  • dairy management
  • grazing
  • silage
  • fertilisation
  • breeding season

Keywords

  • dairy farms
  • grazing
  • silage
  • fertiliser
  • breeding season

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Teagasc

Places: Clonakilty

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