Bale spike win for Skibb teens

A POTENTIALLY life-saving piece of farm equipment devised by two west Cork teenagers has won them a Highly Commended award and a special award from the Patents Office, in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

Michael O’Connor and Patrick Collins from Rossa College, Skibbereen were congratulated by Education Minister Mary Hanafin, and were also visited by Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan at the exhibition, to see their project. The teenagers had written to Minister Coughlan to seek support in setting an equipment safety standard across the farming sector.

Michael and Patrick believe many farmers are opting for ‘risk taking’ rather than ‘accident prevention’, by using outdated unsafe equipment, and their Young Scientist project was to adapt a bale spike to make it safer for bale transport and storage.