A team of Transition Year students from Coláiste Íosagáin in Portarlington are just one step away from winning five Irish Angus cross calves.
Oisin O’Dea, Paddy Hurley, Emily Whittle, Roisin Corcoran and Anito Marcarelli have reached the final stage of Certified Irish Angus Beef School Competition.
The Irish Angus Producer Group, along with its processor partners, ABP Ireland and Kepak Group, devised the competition in an effort to further increase awareness of Certified Irish Angus Beef among consumers and to further promote the benefits to farmers and their families.
The aim of the competition is to encourage young second level students to become involved to a greater extent in their families’ farms. And gain an understanding as to how beef produced on those family farms is marketed in a manner that represents the care and attention that has gone into the production and processing of their animals, through to a satisfied end consumer.
For stage one of the competition, the students developed a three minute video, shown below, which explains the role of agricultural science in the school and outlines their plans for the promotion of the Certified Irish Angus Beef brand if successful in winning the calves.
The Coláiste Ísoagáin team made it through this part and were summoned to the Mullingar Park Hotel on Monday for stage two of the process.
Here they were interviewed by industry professionals and they have since learned that they have successfully advanced to the exhibition event in Croke Park on March 15.
They will be one of 30 remaining contenders who must establish a stand to promote their school and their idea to Agriculture industry representatives.
After this, five finalist schools will win five six-month old Angus Cross Calves each.
Coláiste Ísogáin agricultural science teacher Mairead Bergin said: “The five have worked very hard on their project and they have done really well to get this far.
“If they do win, they will receive the five calves at the National Ploughing Championships in September and this would be a fantastic achievement for them.”
