A serious conversation needs to be had about protein supplementation in the Irish dairy herd

Grazed grass is currently exceptionally low in protein due to poor nitrogen uptake and poor growing conditions, meaning cows are deficient in dietary protein

Testing each and every milk collection for milk urea needs to be made compulsory, as this is a measure of total protein fed and subsequent utilisation of that protein.

I have briefly mentioned it over the last month or so, but it really needs further discussion at this point and that is the whole restriction on feeding protein being imposed on dairy farmers. 

Those in derogation recently had to declare what protein percentage meal/nut/ration they intended to feed to their cows from April to September. On the back of this some feed suppliers, but not all, have decided to impose these rules on all dairy farms, by declaring that they were not supplying dairy formulations above 15% protein to any producers. This smacks of wanting to be the best boys in class from a “sustainability” point of view.