Big win at Croke Park for Co Cork’s Angus girls team
Vegetarians will often cite ‘a fondness for animals’ as being the reason why they stay well clear of a sizzling steak or a scrumptious burger.
Strangely enough, many of us in the beef business also say that it’s ‘the fondness for animals’ that drives us on.
Well, we are hardly in the beef business for the meagre income.
In an industry where profit margins are tight, it’s that desire to work with animals that keeps us going.
It’s ironic that the vegetarian and the beef farmer can have in common that they both care deeply for animals.
Think for a moment about the farmer who is credited at being ‘a wonder for rearing the sickly calf.’
Can there be any greater boast than that for the calf rearer?
And how many times does it happen that the cattle will be fed on the farm first in the morning, before the farmer has his own breakfast?
Or where a vet might be called to look at an animal with a lame leg, only to see the farmer himself hobbling around in the farmyard in a far worse state than the animal.
Or the cattle haulier who could quite easily have a different, more stable, less volatile and in many cases more profitable cargo on board, but he chooses livestock.
Why? We choose livestock because we enjoy the life and the sense of achievement that it can give us.
And this desire to work with beef is not bestowed on us from the sky, it has to be fostered and encouraged.
That is why competitions like the annual Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition are so important.
This competition encourages second-level students to gain a greater understanding of and interest in beef production.
Their understanding is developed by rearing a bunch of Angus cattle from calves to slaughter.
The Irish Angus Producer Group, ABP Ireland and Kepak Group, are the key players behind the competition, and they are the ones supplying the calves to the students.
The students’ job is looking after the animals from beginning to end.
For them, this exciting challenge is made all the better with the knowledge that the profit made will go into their pockets.
Plus there’s a prize of €2,000 for the winners, from the over 60 secondary schools that entered the competition back in early 2014, and a day out in Dublin at an awards event last week in Croke Park for the five finalists.
Just like the Cork lady footballers, it was Laura Clancy, Clionadh Condon, Aoife Dullea and Meabhdh Sexton, all leaving cert students at Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty, Co Cork, who won at Croke Park.
The other four finalists were Heywood Community School, Ballinakill, Co Laois; Coláiste Bhríde, Carnew, Co Wicklow; and both the CBS and Presentation Secondary Schools in Thurles.
These five groups were each given five six-month-old Irish Angus cross cattle, which they could keep and rear, right through to slaughter.
So, for the following year and a half, the students became very knowledgeable on the care and management of livestock.
During this time, each of the five student teams completed a project relating to beef, demonstrating their understanding of the production system.
These projects were based on animal welfare, carbon footprint, meat quality and marketing, the farmer’s profit margin, and sustainability. The Clonakilty girls chose the sustainability theme.
For the Clonakilty quartet who have become known locally as the ‘Angus Girls’, the farm of Christy Condon at Ballinascarthy played a vital role in their success. Christy, Clionadh’s father, kindly offered his farm as the location where the Angus cross calves could be reared, and he was also on hand to help.
There was help and advice also from Teagasc, and from Sacred Heart Secondary School teacher, Brid Hennessy.
But, for the most part, it was very hands-on for the students, as I found out at Croke Park. “We kept the cattle outdoors for the winter, they only spent one night inside in all the time they spent on the farm,” Clionadh Condon explained.
“Angus cattle are a hardy breed, and provided the weather doesn’t get too bad, they can be very content outside,” Meabhdh Sexton added. “Our focus was on the sustainability of Angus beef production on Irish family farms.”
To this end, the students planted kale on the Condon farm for winter grazing. They were careful in their selection of the fieldfor the kale, ensuring that it offered a sheltered environment for their Angus stock, thus reducing the risk of any undue stress for the animals.
The students presented their findings at a number of agricultural events and most importantly, to their local farming community, through farm discussion groups.
Their enthusiasm for the project, it was said at the Croke Park event, was inspiring for all those they met. Laura Clancy added, “One of the first things we did was to have our animals blessed by our local parish priest.” The Clonakilty students really covered every angle.Perhaps, in the end, their victory was down to divine intervention.
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Irish Angus schools competition rolls on
The Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition is rolling on again with a new batch of students eager to take up the challenge.
“This morning, here in Croke Park, we had an exhibition given by 20 of the best current school applicants, in which they put forward their plans and ideas in an effort to get the opportunity to become one of the five finalists,” said Charles Smith, General Manager of the Irish Angus Producer Group, at last week’s awards event.
“These students are now in transition year, and from this group of 20 schools, we will select the five finalists who will receive calves at this year’s National Ploughing Championships in September. They will then rear them through to slaughter in 2018.”
First, five schools presented with Irish Angus calves at the Ploughing Championships in 2015 will contest the 2017 final. These five schools are Presentation Secondary School, Loughboy, Co Kilkenny; Our Lady’s School, Terenure, Co Dublin; Ballymahon Vocational School, Co Longford; Colaiste Mhuire, Buttevant, Co Cork; and Salesian Secondary College, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick.
Meanwhile, there were words of encouragement for last week’s winners from the Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty, Co Cork, from awards special guest Patrick Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health in University College Dublin, formerly the first Chief Executive of the Irish Food Safety Authority.
“I look at the students here today and I remember back to when I was their age. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to give a presentation in the manner that they were delivered earlier.”
“I find the confidence and the enthusiasm of the students here to be incredible. They could bench mark easily with the students we have in UCD.”
