The third season of the 'The Dairy Trail' limited podcast series is returning with a special focus on late lactation and drying-off the herd.

This season, the podcast will travel across the country, taking listeners into farmers' yards to hear what is happening on the ground.

The first season of 'The Dairy Trail', which launched back in February this year focused on the spring calving season, managing calves, herd nutrient requirements, and early spring grazing.

Season two followed in July, with a focus on the breeding season, mid-season grazing management, and silage production.

Now season three will take you through the final part of the year, and hear how farmers got on with end of the grazing rotation, how planning is going for drying-off, winter diets, winter milking, and much more.

The Dairy Trail aims to capture the atmosphere of dairy farms as the days get shorter and the cheques get smaller.

The Dairy Trail

The first episode of season three of 'The Dairy Trail' will be released on Agriland and all platforms today (Monday, November 24).

Agriland's technical dairy specialist, Cathal O'Shea will be joined by Michael Ryan of Lisheen, Thurles, Co. Tipperary for the first episode.

The Ryans, who won the 2025 NDC and Kerrygold Milk Quality Award last month, are milking 150 black-and-white cows who are generating roughly 560kg MS/cow.

Michael takes us through the preparations and rigorous criteria they have in place ahead of drying-off which helps them maintain their sub-00 somatic cell count (SCC).

Michael also discusses the year in grass and finishing out the final rotation while maintaining milk solids.

In the podcast, we hear about the breeding goals in place on the farm and the journey of using sexed semen to achieve quality replacement heifers.

Michael also outlines the balancing act involved in staying in the middle nitrates band, and discusses improving infrastructure to stay on top of slurry capacity.