St Louis High School’s “Flats to Farms” initiative announced as runners-up of Certified Irish Angus Schools’ Competition

Three students from St Louis High School, Rathmines, received the runner-up award at the final of the 2023 Certified Irish Angus Schools’ Competition in Croke Park on Friday.

Mya Gray McCluskey, Niamh Dunne and Ella Gannon attended the prestigious grand final in the Hogan Suite after successfully completing their project and rearing five Angus calves for 18 months.

The Certified Irish Angus Schools’ Competition in association with ABP and Kepak is an initiative that challenges students to rear five Irish Angus Cross calves for 18 months until their slaughter which aids their Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science curriculum.

It aims to promote the Certified Irish Angus Beef brand while communicating the care and attention required to produce quality beef for consumers.

The Rathmines students’ interest in agriculture was piqued by negative advertising campaigns on animal welfare.

They were keen to get to the truth behind livestock production on Irish farms.

The girls found there was a lack of knowledge among their peers about the Agri-food industry and the realities around food production.

With this newfound knowledge, they created an educational programme to raise awareness of the realities of Irish Agriculture.

Each time they visited the calves they reared as part of their project, they brought classmates and family members to visit the farm and called this initiative “Farm to Flats” to demonstrate how they were connecting the farm with city life.

Each visitor got the opportunity to help raise the cattle and witness the high level of animal welfare standards in place.

Speaking at the ceremony, the judges said “Their willingness to jump into a challenge that was way beyond their comfort zone was remarkable.

Mya, Niamh and Ella have perfected new skills and abilities, the strongest being their fearless approach to new challenges. They brought a message of sustainable beef farming into Dublin City Centre and became confident in explaining the societal values of agri-food to an urban audience.”

Competition growth  

The Certified Irish Angus Schools Competition is setting up for its tenth and biggest year yet.

In 2022, over 170 groups, nearing 600 students took part in the competition with 23 counties represented from all provinces.

Currently, farming industry experts are judging this year’s 42 shortlisted projects and will select five finalists from their biggest pool of shortlisted projects ever.

The judges include representatives from right across the agri-food industry?ABP, Kepak, Tesco, Hilton Foods, Teagasc, Bord Bia, Agri aware, IASTA, Certified Irish Angus Producer Group, NPA, JM Foods, Irish Farmers Journal, ICBF, The Glasshouse Hotel Sligo, and previous competition winners.

The five schools that best demonstrate an understanding of the project along with innovative ideas will be announced?in?September and will receive their calves at the National Ploughing Championships in September 2023.

Each of the finalists receives the financial benefit involved in the selling of the animals to the processors on completion of the project which amounted to an average €7,500.

The winning students also receive an additional grant of €2,000 for their further education.