Podcasts

Jerome Desmond is a fourth-generation farmer milking a herd of 250 mainly Holstein-Friesian cows across 400 acres with his wife Majella and his son Brian in Garryhesta, Ovens, Co Cork. He joins the pod to talk about how they are meeting the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of dairy farming while also ensuring it […]

NDC Farm Advocacy Manager Majella McCafferty talks to young Co Cork farmer Paul Sheehan about taking over the family farm, working hard to meet environmental targets and ensure dairy farming continues to be both profitable and sustainable, and the technology that helps him to have a better work-life balance than previous farming generations

Growing Green Gas Following the publication of the Government’s National Biomethane Strategy, Declan Murray, CEO of Biocore Environmental, spoke to the Dairy Matters podcast about the role of biogas anaerobic digestion plants in converting organic farm waste into renewable energy. How likely is a rollout of biogas facilities, what role would farms and rural communities […]

In this special podcast about the science behind dairy farming, VistaMilk PhD researcher Rose Edwin joins host Jeremy Probert to discuss her work profiling Irish soil and its implications for soil fertility, plant growth, environmental sustainability, and human health. Rose’s goal is to map the microbiome of soil but with trillions of microbes in the […]

Nadeem Rather, a PhD researcher at Tyndall Institute in Cork, joins the pod to talk about his work developing of a completely new material that will allow the transmission of data without any electronics or batteries – and its implications for monitoring the health of cows in Ireland’s dairy farming system. A special podcast about […]

Host Jeremy Probert is joined by Dr Lee Coffey, Jennifer Drohan, and Dr Daniel Martins to talk about how the development of bionanomachines which use living bacteria to deliver molecular communications could benefit the health of animals and, potentially, humans. A special podcast about the science behind dairy farming, published in collaboration with VistaMilk SFI […]

In this special podcast about the science behind dairy farming, Teagasc Research Officer Dr Ben Lahart joins host Jeremy Probert to talk about his recently-published research, which suggests that the amount of methane emitted by Irish cows is actually significantly less than previously believed.

Dairy Matters – the National Dairy Council Podcast | Season 2 Episode 11: Bridging the Gap Irish milk, litre for litre, has a lower carbon footprint than milk produced almost anywhere else but how much does the public really know about what goes on down on the farm? Jeremy Probert talks to National Dairy Council […]

Dairy Matters – the National Dairy Council Podcast | Season 2 Episode 9: Secrets of the Soil Jeremy Probert talks to Dr Alan O’Riordan and Dr Han Shao from Tyndall National Institute in Cork about their work on measuring nitrates in soil in real time, providing information to farmers to manage fertiliser use and reduce […]

Dairy Matters – the National Dairy Council Podcast | Season 2 Episode 10: Grass roots of sustainability In this special podcast about the science behind dairy farming, host Jeremy Probert talks to Dr Elodie Ruelle, Research Officer with Vistamilk, about grass growth, grass modelling, and getting to the grassroots of the sustainability issue.  

Dairy Matters – the National Dairy Council Podcast | Season 2 Episode 8 Dr Sharon Madigan, Head of Performance Nutrition at the Sport Ireland Institute, joins the pod to talk about the working with elite Team Ireland athletes through five Olympic cycles and the importance of what you eat when it comes to fuelling success. […]

Dairy Matters – the National Dairy Council Podcast | Season 2 Episode 7: Sustainable Future NDC Farmer Ambassador Nicholas Cooney joins the podcast to talk about the measures he is taking to reduce the carbon hoofprint of his Co Louth dairy farm and make milk production more sustainable now and in the future.   Listen […]