Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition

This year Órla Bennis and myself entered the Certified Irish Angus Schools Competition. We were delighted to be the first ever group from Hazelwood College to enter this competition. This exciting competition, which Certified Irish Angus Producer Group run with their partners ABP Ireland and Kepak Group, challenges students to rear five Irish Angus calves over 18 months while completing a research project. The initiative aims to promote the Certified Irish Angus brand while educating students about the care and attention required to produce quality beef for consumers. Each group also benefits from the proceeds raised through the sale of the animals at the end of the competition. The overall winners also receive a bursary towards further education. To enter this competition we had to create a video speaking about numerous different things and our plans if we were to win the calves. There was a record number of entries this year, over 500 in total!. It was narrowed down to 34 schools in total with us being one of the lucky schools. We both then had to complete an interview. Unfortunately we were not one of the lucky groups to have won the calves. However, such was the impact of our interview on the judges that they would like to acknowledge our tremendous effort by presenting us with a 'Highly Commended' award. Although we were not lucky enough to have won the calves, this whole experience has been hugely beneficial to Órla and I. I was pushed outside of my comfort zone not knowing as much as Órla about farming, but this whole experience was very enjoyable and a great learning process. I am delighted that I took part in this competition and also a huge thank you to Ms Herbert our Ag Science teacher, who helped us every step of the way!