New programme launched to improve milk production

A TEAGASC and Dairygold Co-op programme designed to improve the efficiency and profitability of milk production in the co-op was launched in Mallow this week by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

Dairygold will invest €750,000 in the programme, which will run from 2011 to 2013. It will establish nine Dairygold demonstration farms as showcase units for the latest grassland, dairy husbandry and herd health practices. The farms will link new technology from the Teagasc dairy research centre at Moorepark. Each farm will be overseen by a Teagasc adviser, and its performance and information on successful practices will be channelled to all Dairygold milk suppliers through the co-op’s discussion group structure.

It is the fourth in a series of Dairygold/Teagasc joint programmes, in which more than 1,100 Dairygold milk suppliers have participated.