Mountbellew students strive to ‘win calves’ in Angus beef competition

FOUR ambitious Transition Year students at Mountbellew’s Holy Rosary College are aiming to scoop a top award in a national competition aimed at promoting the merits of certified Irish Angus beef.

The group of 16-year-olds – Amy Higgins, Killererin; Cormac Delaney, Caltra; Peter O’Neill, Ballymacward and Oisín Colleran, Moylough – are hoping to be selected as one of the five schools nationally to win the prize of five Angus calves, sponsored by Kepak, ABP and the Certified Irish Angus Producer Group.

Given the restrictions that are applying due to the Covid public health situation, the group’s final presentation and interviews will take place online on April 15 next.

The Holy Rosary students are hoping that they will be one of five ‘lucky schools’ from around the country to win the prize of five Angus calves that will be kept on one of their family farms for the next 18 months.

“One of our key messages is based on the principle of shopping local and sourcing a quality food product like Angus Irish beef. We are also promoting the qualities of Angus beef both through social media and traditional media outlets.

“The four of us come from quite different farming backgrounds but we were all very interested in finding out more about the quality of Angus beef in the context of the producing farmer, the environment and the consumer,” project member Amy Higgins told the Farming Tribune.  She said that one of the key selling points of Angus beef was that the cattle were primarily fed on a grass diet which gave Irish producers a massive advantage over competitors from other countries.

Ease of calving, hardiness, traceability, good milking mothers, and the succulent quality of the end product are the big selling points of Angus cattle, a breed that has established a real niche for itself with consumers on the shelves of the butcher shops and supermarkets.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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