St Ita’s students to beef up after big win
STUDENTS WILL NOW HAVE FIVE IRISH ANGUS CALVES TO LOOK AFTER
STUDENTS from St Ita’s Special School on Crushrod Avenue have been selected with just a handful of others to be part of a competition where they’ll receive five Irish Angus Cross calves!
The Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition run by the Irish Angus Producer Group, along with its processor partners, ABP Ireland and Kepak Group, aims to encourage second level students to gain an understanding about the care and attention that is required to produce and market the highest quality beef for consumers.
Each year, five schools are chosen to receive five Irish Angus Cross calves and they are required to set milestones through the lifetime of the animals.
The project aims to allow students to apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom to a real life setting.
St Ita’s will receive the financial benefit involved in the selling of the animals.
The local students involved in the competition - Elisha Crosby, Michael McQuillan and Conor Belton - will spend three days at the National Ploughing Championships in September where they’ll meet their calves for the first time.
St Ita’s is the first special school to win the competition and were delighted when the judges arrived with the good news.
‘It’s brilliant,’ principal Michael Moley stated. ‘ The team went off to Croke Park with dozens of other schools as part of their project and they impressed everyone. To win a national competition like this is huge for us.’
The cows will be kept on the farm of Gerry Myles from Termonfeckin and the team in the school was headed by Michelle O’Mahony and Mandy Fitzpatrick, while great assistance also came from Kieran Myles. The students are part of a bovine science course.
‘ The judges arrived with plenty of ice cream for the entire school, which went down well too!,’ Michael added.