Tipperary's Newport College team encouraging farmers to embrace sustainable tech

As part of the ongoing series of the finalists for the Certified Irish Angus School Competition 2024, meet the fourth team in the finals, students from Newport College

From left: Cillian Marren, Kyle Gow, and Sam Caplis at the National Ploughing Championships after receiving their five Angus calves.

Continuing the series of profiles of the Irish Angus School Competition 2024 finalists, we meet the all-boys team from Newport College in Co Tipperary.

The Newport team, consisting of Sam Caplis, Kyle Gow and Cillian Marren, made it through to the final with their project titled: ‘Sustainable Farm Technology’.

The team were inspired after talking to a finalist team at the Ploughing and decided to put their hat in the ring. All from farming backgrounds, Cillian hails from a beef farm, and Sam and Kyle both have backgrounds in dairy farming.

Following the finalists' announcement and residing their five Angus calves, Cillian housed them at the home farm. The calves were named following a colouring competition at the local primary schools and were affectionately named Coco, Bella Giayi, Jessy and Jimbo by the winners.

During their stint at the Marren residence, the calves were looked after by the team. The calves’ feed was sponsored by Dairygold, and amounts were tailored to the animals’ weights and were dosed where necessary.

Taking inspiration from their interests in machinery and tech, the Newport team focused on farming technologies that could be utilised to improve sustainability on farms.

“We all had a keen interest in farm machinery and technology, and we said, why not narrow it down to that? So we ended up settling on sustainable farm technology, and really enjoyed looking into it more,” explained Sam.

The Tipperary team’s focus on their project was to research what technology farmers could implement on their farms, researching the value this tech could give farmers, and helping farmers understand the costs associated with adapting to this new technology.

The team also wanted to highlight the importance of farm planning and the tools needed to complete a farm plan, as well as researching what a beef farm should do to operate within a successful, environmentally friendly practice.

From left: Cillian Marren, Kyle Gow, and Sam Caplis at Teagasc Dairy Calf to Beef Sustainable Farm Walk in Kilkenny.

The team attended several discussion group meetings, conducting surveys with the farmers involved and settled on focusing on grass-based technologies from their feedback.

“We looked at GPS tech on fertiliser spreaders, or using dribble bars over splash plates to understand and showcase how farmers could be more sustainable with slurry and fertiliser applications,” said Sam.

Through their project, the boys even picked up a new skill, with the help of Kyle's dad, Andrew Gow, and working with Teagasc, the boys participated in and learned the methods and benefits of grass measuring at farm walks.

“We’re hoping to join up with Michael Daly in Teagasc and try to organise more farm walks or discussion group meetings showing farmers how to grass measure if they don’t already do it at home,” Cillian explained.

The team attended the Sustainable Dairy Calf to Beef Farm Walk in Kilkenny. At the farm walk, they met with Stephen Connolly from ABP and spoke with farmers from all over Ireland attending the event about the benefits of the sustainable farming technology.

All three boys spent a couple of days on a local farm, also gaining first-hand experience putting their new skills to use and working hands-on on a local farm implementing GPS fertiliser spreading and grass measurements.

“We want to bring awareness to what we're doing, and kind of display some of the technologies there, such as the plate needed for grass measurement, and get some more responses to our survey and show them the results we've got already and what other farmers are doing. So maybe they can look at that and say, ‘Oh, if farmer X is doing that, why can't I do that’,” Kyle said.

The team will also be returning to their local mart, where their research for the project began, to share their findings from their research and work over the last 18 months with the farmers in attendance, and holding a raffle with all proceeds going to Bóthar.

Hoping to close the information loop by their presentation in the mart, the team hope to educate their local farmers who helped inspire their project by giving a presentation about sustainable technologies and supports available to implement these technologies, lowering the barriers preventing wider adoption of these practices.

From left: Kyle Gow, Cillian Marren, and Sam Caplis in Brussels.

The team’s highlight from the competition was also the Brussels trip, with the boys highly recommending it to transition year students who want to get involved.

“I think you definitely have a lot of free time [in TY], and it keeps you busy,” explained Kyle.

Students looking to try and replicate Newport College’s success, the team advised prospective teams to just get stuck in and go with it.

“Get your team together, get your theme for your project together, and get your Ag science teacher on board,” Cillian advised, with Sam adding: “Start broad, and then you can always narrow it down. What we did was start broad with sustainability, and then narrowed it down to farm technology. So just have a good mindset for it, and think outside the box.”