Ursuline Irish Angus Beef competition finalists head to Brussels

Fifth Years Rebekah Smith, Evie Smyth, Kaitlyn Ryan and Gráinne Callanan, Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Finalists 2022, jetted off to Brussels last week to the European Parliament to meet MEPs and beef industry representatives.

The students, accompanied by their teacher Ms Hogan, spent the first day of this once-in-a-lifetime trip at Lismullin Cookery School, where they learned how to cook a steak.

Next, it was a visit to Bord Bia HQ in Dublin, where they were told about the work done by the State body to market Irish food, including Certified Irish Angus beef, internationally.

They also met past pupil Tara Hyland who was thrilled to get the opportunity to discuss her work with some fellow Ursulines.

In Brussels, they met with Irish politicians including, Sean Kelly, Máiread McGuinness and Colm Markey. They presented their project on farm safety, which won them five Irish Angus calves collected at the National Ploughing Championships in September last year.

This group are heading to Croke Park on Friday, March 31, where they will be joined by the Ursuline National Finalists from 2021. Sixth Years Gráinne O’Donnell, Karen Campion, Louise Hickey and Louise Creagh, hope to be the overall winners of the competition.

After raising their five Angus calves to send to market at the end of last year.
Also heading to Croke Park are this year’s Certified Irish Angus Beef group through to the final round, Moya Brennan, Ashling O’Loughlin and Holly Byrne, TY.

They will give a presentation of their findings on soil sustainability touching on areas such as on crop rotation, carbon sequestration, soil pH, cover crops, slurry and chemical fertilizers and anaerobic digesters.
Good luck to all three Angus Teams at the different stages of the competition. They are to be commended for all their hard work to date. The groups are flying the flag for women in agriculture.