Blogs

Sheep Day 2010

Posted by Paul Farrelly (Agriculture & Industry Development Executive) 23 July 2010 at 15:00

Taking place in the magnificent surroundings of UCD Lyons Estate research farm on a fantastic sunny day in late June, Sheep Day 2010 was a resounding success. With over 9,000 people in attendance, the day was both informative and fun with a number of different events such as sheep dog trials, cookery demonstrations by Neven Maguire and a whole host of seminars and stands.

However, the highlight of the day for me was the RDS Young Shepherd Competition. Along with the RDS-Macra na Feirme Young Sheep Farmer Award this event is designed to promote sheep farming as a viable career for young farmers and to encourage more young farmers to become involved in this area. The RDS Young Shepherd competition gave all those competing a great opportunity to showcase their skills and talents across a wide range of events. Competitors were quizzed on their knowledge of sheep breeding, production, marketing and identification but what really drew the crowds was when they had to navigate a course on a quad bike and trailer with a ewe on board. 

The competition was a great success and Matthew Murphy of Kildalton College was named the winner.  Matthew along with the two runners-up; Paul McGrath also from Kildalton and David Argue from Ballyhaise, will now go forward to represent Ireland at the European Young Shepherd Finals in Paris in 2011. The Irish team competing in this year’s European final finished first, second and third out of 14 participants from all over Europe and fourth place went to a competitor from Northern Ireland. These achievements no doubt reflect the quality and talent of the young people involved in Irish sheep farming today, providing promise towards the bright future of Irish Agriculture.

The 2011 team will have to go some way to replicate that showing but from what I could see in Lyons Estate I know that they will do us proud.