Mayo school reaches final of Ireland’s leading agricultural competition
At an exclusive online awards ceremony today, James Cunnane, Nathan Hession, John Connaughton, Ava Charlton and Orlaith Gilmartin from St. Louis Community School, Kiltimagh, were honoured as one of the finalists of the 2021 Certified Irish Angus School’s Competition.
The initiative has become Ireland’s leading agri- competition for secondary school students and is organised by the award-winning Irish beef brand Certified Irish Angus, in conjunction with its processing partners, ABP and Kepak.
Each year, finalist groups nationwide are challenged to rear five Irish Angus calves and carry out research on a specific aspect of farming and beef production for 18 months.
The national final, which usually takes place each year at a prestigious awards ceremony in Croke Park, was broadcasted live at a private online event for guests this morning.
RTE 2FM broadcaster Carl Mullen hosted this year’s awards ceremony and announced winners across three categories, overall winners, runners- up and an individual achievement award.
The group were one of five finalists who took part in the competition which aims to promote the Certified Irish Angus Beef brand to second-level students while communicating the care and attention required to produce quality beef for consumers.
The St. Louis Community School, Kiltimagh, group researched the topic ‘How environmental challenges can be coupled with farming traditions’.
The group began their journey by organising a fundraiser for their local SVP by selling tickets to name their calves.
They entered a stall in the Kiltimagh Christmas market to promote their fundraiser and sell raffle tickets.
Through this experience, they learned the value of face-to-face conversations for farmers when marts closed during lockdown and the effect this had on the farming community locally.
The students also attended the Teagasc National Beef Conference to learn about new research and technical advice beef farmers need to know.
They learned about the changing landscape of beef in Ireland, particularly in relation to the improvement of EBI, the role of suckler farming, grass based systems and their environmental impacts.
They took these important learning from the competition and educated first year students in their school about the practical changes a farmer could make to improve the sustainability on the farm.
The organisers are currently in the process of selecting the next batch of finalists who will receive calves following online meetings with the competition judges, who consisted of experts from the Irish agricultural industry.
The successful schools will be chosen and announced in September 2021 and will each receive five Angus calves to rear until 2023.