A group of students from Drumshanbo Vocational School in Co Leitrim, who created a tool to help farmers with slurry tank covers, won the junior category at the Student Enterprise Programme awards in Croke Park on Friday.

Grasper is a lift mechanism that assists farmers with the opening of slatted tank agitation covers, saving farmers the need to bend and lift the cover by hand.

The device can also be used to close the cover afterwards, ensuring greater safety while on the farm.

ADVERTISEMENT

First year students Amy Keaveney, Alexandra O’Looney and Freya Whitney came up with the idea.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Alexandra spoke of the importance of considering safety around slurry agitation points.

Dangers

“Grasper eliminates the danger of standing too close to open man holes, an issue I noticed while farming with my grandfather,” she said.

The students promoted Grasper through their social media and events such as the Roscommon regional ploughing competition and local marts.

Such is the success and utility of the project, the student business owners have already achieved multiple unit sales, with over 90 Graspers sold to date on the island of Ireland and are continuing to build momentum within the farm safety industry.

Amy said that the competition has been really enjoyable and has given them a great insight on how to run a business.

“We also want to thank our teachers Mrs Feeney, Mrs Tracey and Mrs Evans for their encouragement,” she said.

LambFeeder

First year students Jack Caplis, Luke Ryan, Micheál Lynch and Dáire Nolan of Coláiste Thulach Sheasta, Co Tipperary, are the creators of the LambFeeder, a hands-free holder for lambs’ bottles.

The idea to create a lamb's bottle holder stemmed from Luke’s own experience rearing foster lambs at home on his farm.

He noted the excessive amount of calf feeders on the market and wondered at the lack of feeders available for lambs. With this gap in the market in mind, the boys designed the LambFeeder.

The LambFeeders are manufactured by the students in their school woodwork workshop using locally sourced wood.

They’ve achieved multiple sales through advertising in locations such as Newport Mart, Co Tipperary. They aim to extend their marketing campaign online through their social media accounts.

With the lambing season coming to a close, the students are looking forward to developing and improving the LambFeeder for next year’s lambing season.

They stated that “the project was challenging, we had to go back to the drawing board a few times times but we didn’t give up”.

BudsToBloom

Students Dan Bergin, Hannah Clancy, Erin Costigan and Roisin Bradley of Newport College, Co Tipperary, achieved success at the county final of the Student Enterprise Programme.

Their BudsToBloom enterprise offers pre-packed sowing kits of various flower varieties, such as lavender, poppies and dahlia.

The BudsToBloom kits are packaged with sustainable, recyclable products, with cups and materials being sourced from a local café. Flower seeds are sourced from Dunnes Garden Centre.

They currently sell their kits to local primary schools and playschools and aim to expand their market to nursing homes and shops in Co Tipperary. They hope to grow the enterprise over the coming months and continue their success.

Talking about their success, Dan stated that is was a “big honour to win the county final”.

The programme is run by the Local Enterprise Office and aims to inspire budding entrepreneurs and give them a chance to showcase their ideas.