The Skills Hub will be running all day during Dairy Day in Punchestown Event Centre on Tuesday 20 November. The aim of the Skills Hub is to showcase best practice and the efficiencies required to run a dairy farm in Ireland today. The relaxed, short discussions will hopefully get us all thinking about areas on our farms that can be improved. Key areas up for discussion include fodder production, financial management, labour, antibiotic use and getting through Bord Bia inspections.

No one is going to forget 2018 in a hurry and it’s fair to say no one wants to go through that stress again. Our discussion with Teagasc dairy adviser Richie O’Brien will focus on the issues that came up in 2018 regarding feed and in particular how to avoid problems happening in the future.

Soil fertility

Soil fertility improvements have the potential to improve national fodder production dramatically. With well over 65% of Irish soils in index 1 and 2, there is definite scope to improve on this. In the future, if soil fertility is not in a better state on Irish farms, fodder deficits will be an issue again.

Of course, there are more factors at play such as stocking rates that need to be considered when it comes to maintaining adequate fodder stocks in the future, especially if extreme climatic conditions are to become the norm.

Similarly, financial management has been a nightmare for some farmers this year. Areas worst affected by the drought have seen annual feed costs more than double. The problem is these costs need to be financed and unfortunately existing debt still has to be paid down. Stephen Connolly from Teagasc will talk about the options available to farmers in this situation.

Labour shortage

Another topical issue is that of labour. As the economy improves, it is becoming more difficult to attract good labour and young people to work on dairy farms. We will discuss what really needs to change to attract millennials to work on our farms. A proper start and finish time, straightforward routines, professional contracts and payroll will all be up for debate. Teagasc's Marion Beecher, who specialises in labour productivity and efficiency, will be on hand to talk us through this.

Well-designed handling units are also key for a calm work environment. This is important for staff and personal safety as well as making routine tasks more straightforward. Noel Byrne will highlight the points to consider when putting a handling unit together.

International guest Lloyd Holterman will share his secrets on how to manage a large dairy herd without using antibiotics at all. He is farming in partnership in Wisconsin in the United States, milking 950 cows and has been doing just that.

Finally, the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS) has a number of key criteria farmers must fulfil to get though the audit. We will talk to an inspector to find out what’s involved in the audit and the areas that cause most difficulty.