We’ve come a long way from our conventional suburban lives since we began the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition in January 2016. We, the so called “beefy boys”, have risen to fame since we were presented with our calves at the National Ploughing Championships in October. We have watched our calves thrive on their award-winning host farm in north Kerry.

Weight

As of today, our heifers are averaging 292kg and our bullocks are averaging 310kg. The calves are currently on 3kg of high-energy beef nuts a day. This is in order to reach our target weights as outlined by our Teagasc adviser.

Vaccinations

The calves were vaccinated on 30 December 2016 against IBR. This is done every six months in the herd of John Mike Fitzgerald where they are staying and so was highly recommended to us. It also coincides with the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme. The cattle were also dosed with Normection on 30 December.

Experience to date

To date we’ve taken full advantage of our calves. We brought them to our school to be judged by our peers and teachers. It was a new experience, an anomaly with regards to conventional school life. We could relate to them being so afraid of the massive crowd that came. But they were very well behaved for the photographers.

Upon visiting the farm we really saw the hardships of farm life. We found it mad that many of our friends get up every day to do what we struggled to do once. We gained a great insight into the day-to-day running of a farm. We regret giving the onus of naming the calves to primary school children and our teacher Miss Enright and the TYs, who chose Yum Yum, Super Gus, Irish Angie, Griller Thriller and Marley as the names.

School work

Coming home in the evening to learn, getting up in the morning to work: this is the balanced life of a farming protégé. Seriously though, we really enjoy the challenge of balancing the school work and farm work. Imagine, I now own a pair of wellies.

Future plans

In the future, we aim to continue rearing our calves into marbled, mean protein machines. We will build upon our past successes with the intention of a more ruthless approach to social media, a passionate, aggressive drive towards the promotion of Certified Irish Angus Beef products. We will collaborate with our local Aldi and Tesco branches in order to achieve this – our central goal. Our reputation for perpetual success is at steak.

Keep an eye on www.farmersjournal.ie for future updates from Michael Scanlon, Hugh Healy, Rory Ruttledge, Darragh O'Brien and Darragh Regan from CBS the Green, Tralee, and other schools in the Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition, sponsored by ABP, Irish Angus Producer Group and Kepak.

Read more

Read more of the Irish Angus calves blogs here.