Anne Marie O’Byrne-Casey, aged 12, is a sixth class student in Grange National School near Clonmel in south Tipperary. With a little help from her parents, Catherine and Joe, she came up with a winning school project.

Her project, Does feeding time affect calving time?, set out to determine the effects of feeding on calving time.

The O’Byrne-Caseys are dairy farmers. “Both myself and Joe were brought up on a farm; it’s in the blood. We are primarily dairy farmers, with a little beef, but we hope to be 100% dairy by 2015,” Catherine explained.

“We have two daughters, Anne Marie (12) and Cathriona (11). They are both involved in the local camogie club and love helping out on the farm.”

The inspiration for the project stemmed from having a large number of cows calving during the night. They began to wonder how big an impact the time of feeding had on this. Anne Marie spearheaded the investigations.

Anne Marie’s teacher, Richard Carroll, reveals how the project came to be: “I recently took the class to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. Following the trip, the children were keen to explore science for themselves, so I asked them to create their own scientific project.”

“We began by splitting the cows into three different groups,” Joe explained.

  • • Group 1: These were ad-lib feeding.
  • • Group 2: These were fed between 7pm and 10pm.
  • • Group 3: These were fed after 10pm.
  • The results showed very clearly that the cows fed after 10pm would, by and large, calve during the daytime. Ann-Marie’s dad has since changed his feeding methods so that now nearly all his calves are born during the day, allowing him to get a full night’s sleep.

    “The competition turned out to be a great experience for the kids, allowing them to learn more about science in a fun and creative way. Children and adults in our school community were fascinated by the study.”

    “We’re all very proud of Anne Marie. She has shown a huge amount of interest in the project, always so keen to learn more,” Catherine explained.

    Reaction

    The local discussion group, ANC, was very interested in Anne Marie’s findings. There has also been strong interest in the project from the local community. Anne Marie’s research shows that if cows are fed after 10pm then, in the majority of cases, the farmer will be able to get a full night’s sleep without having to worry about calving difficulties during the night. CL