Students play lead role in tasty meat marketing initiative

A PILOT project aimed at demonstrating the viability of producing a unique ‘salted grass’ beef and lamb product on the Dingle Peninsula formed the central theme of the Farmers Forum held in An Díseart on Friday night, as part of the Dingle Food Festival.

The thinking behind the project is that beef and lamb from the Dingle Peninsula has a special flavour because animals here feed on grass permeated by the salty winds that sweep in from the Atlantic. From this uniqueness comes the potential for marketing an added-value product from which local farmers, restaurants and butchers can all benefit.

The theory was put into practice with the help of a group of Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne transition year students who bought half a dozen calves in Dingle Mart and raised them for slaughter. And at the Farmers Forum three of the students - Gavin Mc Carthy, Daragh Murphy and Louis Murchan - gave an authoritative presentation on the two-year project, noting the practically disease-free environment of West Kerry as a par- ticular benefit in raising grass-fed animals. The students concluded that grass fed beef is the way forward for farmers as the cost inputs are less and that there is a growing international market for GMO free beef.

However, having discovered that 75 per cent of a beef animal’s live weight has to be discarded as waste, they also arrived at the conclusion that it wouldn’t make sense to have an abattoir in West Kerry because a huge volume of offal and other waste would have to be transported out of the peninsula for disposal.

Among the speakers at the forum was Denis Carroll of Ring of Kerry Quality Lamb who told a cautionary tale of the pitfalls a similar project in South Kerry had encountered and overcome to maintain trading their brand. The most recent obstacle is the rise in the market price for lamb, leaving the co-op price unfavourable for participating farmers.

TJ Flanagan, CEO of ICOS, addressed this issue in his presentation to the forum, describing how co-ops are often formed to give smaller producers a fighting chance when a market is overtaken by one or more major players. He said that in a situation where meat factories are offer higher prices than the co-op, loyalty to the co-op is vital if it is to survive.

Speakers from Bord Bia, South West Gno Skillnet and Colm Murphy discussed the marketing of Irish beef internationally and the difficulties of breaking into the market before chef Mark Murphy of the Dingle Cookery School put the whole project to the ultimate test – pan frying thin-cut steaks of Dingle Salted Grass Beef in front of the audience. Mark kept up a running commentary as the aroma wafted across the room, pointing out the highly desirable ‘marbling’ of the meat and the proper way to cook it.

Nothing they had heard at the forum was more convincing to the audience than sampling the actual produce and empty plated delivered the verdict - it tasted sublime.

Anyone is interested in finding out more about the Dingle Salted Grass Beef and Lamb project is welcome to contact Colm Murphy on 087-6109563

Mark Murphy of the Dingle Cookery School serving up samples of Dingle Salted Grass Beef at the Farmers’ Forum held in An Díseart on Friday night as part of the Food Festival.