Pictured – Jane Carty & Grace McKeon - Carrick on Shannon Community School
Homeland and Nutrias Animal Feeds are delighted to partner with Leaving Cert students from Carrick on Shannon Community School; Jane Carty from Knockroe, Boyle, Co. Roscommon and Grace McKeon from Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim.
Finalists of the The Certified Irish Angus Beef Schools Competition, run in collaboration with ABP Ireland and Kepak Group, Grace and Jane undertook a project as part of the competition to highlight Health and Safety on the farm. “We chose this theme as we were aware of a few farm accidents that had happened in our local area. We had also done some work on Farm Safety in our Agricultural Science class during Transition Year, as part of this we watched a farm safety video produced by our teacher with students from CBS Roscommon. This video really resonated with us.”
Video linked here
One story which really touched Grace and Jane was that of the death of 16-year-old Donal Hayden who sadly lost his life as a result of a freak accident. The importance of having local emergency contact numbers on display, in a place easily accessed, could potentially save lives. “Quite often when an accident happens on a farm, farmers turn to their neighbours for help. They might need a tractor or a trailer or they could just need an extra pair of hands. We feel it is very important to have these numbers to hand.”
Grace and Jane were inspired to create two items as part of their project which was nurtured by their teacher Ms Louise Gallagher. They created an Emergency Contact Poster & Farm Safety Map Worksheet. The Farm Safety Map activity is designed to be completed by small children and their parents/guardians and aims to spark conversation and highlight dangerous areas on the farm. It involves drawing a map of their farm together with a simple traffic light system to identify hazards on the farm - Red: Dangerous, Amber: Must be accompanied by an adult, Green: Safe for kids.
Aurivo Co-Operative Society were delighted to adapt Grace and Jane’s fantastic initiative as part of their project to bring the concepts to life and to create a pathway of distributing to local farmers.
Both the Farm Safety Contacts Poster and Farm Safety Activity map will be available across Aurivo’s portfolio of 34 Homeland Retail stores located across the 8 counties of Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath and in Omagh in Co. Tyrone and also available to download via Homeland.ie
Speaking on the collaboration, Sheila Maloney, General Manager of Aurivo Agribusiness “We are delighted to get behind this fantastic initiative by Jane and Grace to raise awareness of Farm Safety. The Safety Contacts Poster and Farm Safety Map gives an opportunity to take a proactive approach and have better quality conversations about Farm Safety”
Ian Finneran, Procurement and Wholesale Manager – Aurivo Agribusiness also added that “ Everyone has a responsibility in making safety a priority on their farm. This idea from Jane and Grace is an excellent safety initiative and one which we are thrilled to get behind and help disseminate through our Homeland stores to farming families across the region”.
To celebrate the collaboration and launch of the Safety Contact Poster & Farm Safety Map Homeland and Nutrias Animal Feeds are giving away prizes for three lucky winners - one winner per category under the under the following categories!
- Under 5 age group
- Under 8 age group
- Under 12 age group
For full competition details check out our competition specific blog which offers full details linked: here
- Download and Print a copy of the Farm Emergency Sheet HERE - Farm-Emergency_A4
- Download and Print a copy of the Farm Safety Map HERE - Farm-Safety-Map
- Both items also available at your local Homeland Store
Pictured above at their local store at Homeland Agri Kiltoghert: Louise Gallagher -Teacher, Jane Carty, Grace McKeon – Carrick on Shannon Community School & Ian Finneran - Procurement Manager at Aurivo Agribusiness
Pictured above: Francis McLoughlin, Ian Finneran -Procurement Manager at Aurivo Agribusiness, Louise Gallagher -Teacher, Jane Carty, Grace McKeon – Carrick on Shannon Community School, Colm Duffy Farm Commercial Specialist at Aurivo, James McDermott – Homeland Agri Kiltoghert Store Manager, Padraic Muldoon, Patricia Farrell
The Certified Irish Angus School’s Competition is a popular initiative organised by the award-winning Irish beef brand Certified Irish Angus, in conjunction with its processing partners, ABP and Kepak. Each year, finalist groups nationwide are challenged to rear five Irish Angus calves and carry out research on a specific aspect of farming and beef production for 18 months. It aims to promote the Certified Irish Angus Beef brand to second-level students while communicating the care and attention required to produce quality beef for consumers. Entries for the competition will open in September for Transition Year students. For further information visit www.certifiedirishangus.ie