Ireland takes on the Challenge

The sixth European Championship in Agriculture Skills - also known as the Agro Challenge - took place in Nitra, Slovakia from 15 to 28 August.

17 countries went head-to-head in 18 challenges, to test students’ knowledge and abilities in multiple agricultural disciplines. The competition is for full-time students of the green sector aged up to and including 25. This was the first year ever that Ireland had a team: Ellen Doherty and Conor Farrell from Kildalton Agricultural College, and Wayne Smith and Rosie O’Brien, students in Gurteen College.

They took home four medals in total: a silver in driving a Kramer telehandler with a water tank and three bronzes in hand milking, changing blades on a mounted disk mower and log splitting.

Each challenge took a maximum of 15 minutes and depending on the different tasks, one or more students from each team competed in the events. The best team in each task was awarded a prize. Some of the skills are completely different from anything taught in Teagasc colleges like egg identification and guessing the load weight of a small pony. Other tasks included stacking bales, changing wheels, tractor driving with a trailer and more.

Team selection

Ellen, Conor, Wayne and Rosie were hand-selected to represent Team Ireland by their teachers. This was based on their outstanding contribution in class and in practical sessions. They had been part of the Macra skills challenge day on campus, where they demonstrated great leadership.

Anne- Marie Butler, Head of education at Teagasc, also travelled with the team and was the driving force behind entering an Irish team.

Preparation was key

The four students- who didn’t know each other that well at the start of this journey- met in Kildalton on 19 July and in Gurteen on 2 August for two training days.

Mentors Danielle Mulligan and Eva Hayes spent these days preparing the students for the 18 skills challenges, going through the practical knowledge required. Eva told Irish Country Living this was an essential part of the preparation for the competition.

“We went through the 18 skills as best we could, but we obviously didn’t know how they were all going to be set up,” she said.

This allowed students to flesh out what skills they needed, practice different strategies and gave them the opportunity to get to know each other.

Character building

As this was the first time Ireland entered a team in the competition, the students and staff at Teagasc were delighted when they brought home some silverware.

“We’re extremely proud of the team, the lads were absolutely fantastic. Between challenges, even in the evening time, we were just so proud of them, the way they mingled with other students. They’re just an incredible team,” said Eva.

“It’s a huge undertaking for them, to put in the prep days, to travel and organise themselves and to even get good teamwork between the students of different years because Conor and Ellen are from two different years. The lads are coming home with four very close friends so I think that’s really important.”

All students are studying advanced dairy.

Student profiles

Kildalton Agricultural College

Ellen Doherty

Ellen has just completed her level six in advanced dairy in Kildalton and is going to SETU this month to study agriculture science.

“It was so good. We really gelled as a team, from picking four separate people and then to become the team we did, it was a great selection of people. The experiences as well, meeting people from all over Europe was just brilliant,” said Ellen.

Ellen enjoyed the wide variety in the challenges along with the different agriculture scales students spoke about in other countries, “We were talking to a girl from Austria, and they’re only milking 17 cows. Then you’re thinking about the numbers here and other countries have massive herds. Agriculture is on so many different scales, but it’s still doable wherever you are,” she explained.

Conor Farrell

Conor is returning to Kildalton this month to complete his second year of advanced dairy. He comes from a dairy farm in Co Tipperary.

“It’s a once in a lifetime experience, you’re never going to get anything else like it,” he told ICL.

His favourite challenge was the log splitting and cutting the timber. “We kind of just had a plan that went well and it worked out for us. Everything is pure strategy.”

Conor found the training days beneficial before heading over. “We were able to kind of suss things out and know what was the best way of doing things before.”

Gurteen College

Wayne Smith

With no farming background, Wayne went to work on a dairy farm for two years during COVID, which led him to studying agriculture in Gurteen. He is returning this month to complete his level six in advanced dairy. This competition exposed him to many aspects of agriculture.

“I don’t come from a farm at all. I don’t have a farmer background, it was a totally new experience for me to even go over there and talk to different [students from other] countries about how different countries grow their crops and how they farm in their countries. It was a great experience to be chosen and go over,” explained Wayne.

Teamwork was definitely key. “We glued together so well, and it just worked an absolute treat,” said Wayne.

Rosie O’Brien

Having just completed her level five, Rosie is also returning to Gurteen this month to complete her level six.

Living five minutes down the road from Gurteen, Rosie isn’t from a farm but has spent the last four years working on the farm in Gurteen.

“I thought it was brilliant, not everybody would get that chance to actually go out and represent Ireland. It was making friends as well: every evening when we met the other countries and we got to talk to them, you’d make friends for life really,” said Rosie of the experience.

She was even met with flowers and chocolates by her family and grandparents when she returned home.

The team received sponsorship from FBD which made the competition possible.

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