The second season of the The Dairy Trail limited podcast series is set to return with a specific focus on the breeding season and mid-season grazing management.

This season, the podcast will take listeners back inside the yard of dairy farms across the country to hear what is happening on the ground.

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

The new four-part series will cover a range of subjects from the overall farm system, to how the breeding season has gone, mid-season grazing management, cow type, harvesting silage, future farm developments and on-farm investments.

The Dairy Trail aims to capture the atmosphere of dairy farms in the aftermath of breeding and silage season and find out how different dairy systems and farm operations manage the workload, the cow and the land during a busy year.

In the first episode of season two of The Dairy Trail, which is set to be released on Agriland and all platforms on tomorrow (Wednesday, July 16) technical dairy journalist, Hugh Harney joins Eugene and Eoin Lawler on their dairy farm in Ballitore, Co. Kildare.

The father and son team are milking 150 Holstein Friesian cows with a small bit of Jersey breeding in the herd also.

They aim to run a low cost and input system with the objective of maximising grass in the herd's diet throughout the whole lactation.

This breeding season has ran smoothly for the Lawlers as the introduction of collars to detect heat and health has improved submission rates drastically.

Eugene discusses the type of bulls he has used on the farm this year on his replacement heifers and his best performing cows, with high dairy-beef index (DBI) used on cows not suitable for Friesian sexed semen.

With the ongoing debate about the future of the nitrates derogation in Ireland Agriland also finds out exactly what a loss of the derogation would mean to this farm, from future planning to succession planning.

The first episode of The Dairy Trail season two will be available on all platforms, including on Agriland  from Wednesday, July 16.