Angus Team To Bring Home The Bacon (Beef)!

Kate, Luke, Emma and Anna are off to Croke Park tomorrow for the final stage of the The Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools competition. They will join students from 42 other schools in competing to raise the Angus calves on offer as first prize. Best of luck to the group and we hope you bring home the livestock. They made a video on the positive aspects of cooking and eating Angus beef- you can watch this here .

Anna and Kate describe their project in detail .

“We were all interested in taking part in the Certified Irish Angus Schools competition as we had seen previous years of TY students doing it. One day, in second year, when we were sitting in Home Economics, the group taking part at the time, Feeding our Future, came in with Mr. Lyons. They wanted to get a clip for their entry video of them cooking steak in front of us. It was this moment that really got us thinking about our plan for our own Angus Project. 

When we started TY, we immediately wanted to know more about this project, and what exactly it would entail. Emma and Anna were highly encouraged by Mr. Lyons previously to do this project. Luke O’Connor was doing the BT  Young Scientist competition with Emma, and when he heard about the Angus Project, he wanted to join. Then their friend Katie Sheehan heard rumblings about it, so she joined the group.

Once they had their group together, they had to start coming up with an idea for their project. Her whole life, Anna has been listening to people around her talking about cattle and their genetics, as well as different traits in them. This got them all thinking about including genetics in their project. They also wanted to include sustainability in their project because it is a big topic of conversation at the moment, especially in relation to agriculture. They decided on adding a new trait affecting the replacement index of an animal.

This trait would be how much methane the animal would produce. They looked in great detail at the ICBF website. ICBF (Irish Cattle Breeding Federation) is a company that rates all cattle in a star rating, based on their genetic background.  

They found out about the replacement index. About 70% of the replacement index is calculated from the cow traits. About 30% is from calf traits. Basically, this index shows how much more this animals daughter is expected to make than the average beef animal in Ireland.

Once the team had their research done, and had a clear image of their idea, it was time to start filming the entry video. The video had to include an introduction about themselves, about the companies that sponsor this project, their own idea, and ag science in Millstreet CS. They also included a short clip of them cooking Irish Angus steak, while explaining the benefits of angus beef.

The animals methane output would be measured using a green feed machine. Research farms, for example Moorepark have these machines. The animal goes in, nuts fall into the feeding tray, and as the animal is eating them, the machine measures the methane in their breath.

Then, a tissue sample would be taken from all the animals that were tested, known as genotyping. Then, in a lab, these tissue samples would be inspected under a microscope and the genes that make up a high methane producing animal would be identified. Then, with the help of the national genotyping programme, when a calf is born and the farmer takes the tissue samples from the ear of the calf, a third sample would be taken and sent to Weatherbys with the other two samples to genotype this calf, and it would be found out whether this calf is a high methane producer or not. 

At the moment, Katie, Anna, Luke and Emma are preparing to go to Croke Park with this idea. They have planned how they want their stand to look. The poster has been designed and printed. They are  finished the report booklet and it’s all printed and ready.

We are leaving Mallow at 6am with Mr Lyons tomorrow, March 1st, to go to  Croke Park. “