A team of Year 11 pupils, Anna Flanagan, Aaron Flanagan, Thomas Kerr and James Ritchie, travelled to Loughry College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise on Friday 2nd February to take part in the ABP Angus Youth Challenge.
The Angus Youth Challenge is a skills-based competition run by ABP in association with the Northern Irish Angus Producer Group. It is open to 14-16-year olds with a strong interest in agriculture or the agri-food industry.
Following submission of a short video outlining the pupils’ understanding of ABP, the Aberdeen Angus breed and their interest in agriculture and food production, the ERGS team were selected to attend the second round at Loughry College where they were questioned by a panel of five experts in a challenging 30-minute interview. From the 18 crews interviewed, three finalist teams will each be awarded five Aberdeen Angus calves at the Balmoral Show in May. The successful teams will rear their calves through to finishing and fully benefit from the net profit at sale of the calves to ABP. The three finalist teams will receive skills development in the beef industry from ‘farm to fork’ over the course of an 18-month programme with ABP. An additional £1000 cash prize will be awarded to one overall winning team at the end of the programme. Hence, the wait begins…… and the big question is……Will the ERGS community be ‘beefed up’ by 5 new Aberdeen Angus calves? Let’s keep our fingers, toes and hooves crossed that it will be a resounding ‘YES’ from all five judges!
