Macra na Feirme and ABP Food Group have begun their search for tomorrow’s community leaders.
Applications are now open for the 2018 Macra na Feirme/ABP Leaders of the Year Awards. The Leaders of the Year programme aims to recognise Macra na Feirme members who have demonstrated excellent leadership qualities within Macra na Feirme and the wider community. The competition raises the level and standard of leadership in Macra and provides and incentive for the development of club programmes.
Speaking at the launch of the awards Macra na Feirme National President James Healy said, “The Leaders of the Year Awards are a very significant part of the Macra na Feirme calendar and I would like to thank ABP for their continued support of these awards. Macra na Feirme prides itself on its development of tomorrow’s leaders, and these awards play a major part in giving our members who excel, the recognition and encouragement they deserve.”
Martin Kane Managing Director of ABP’s Irish operations said, “We are delighted to support the Macra na Feirme Leaders of the Year Awards. As a business which is focused on helping to develop young people with an interest in agriculture and the wider food sector it is an appropriate fit for us. We firmly believe in the need to nurture and encourage the next generation of talented young leaders, as well as recognising their achievements .”
Launching the Leaders of the Year Awards, Minister Richard Bruton said, “Employers across the country consistently need leadership skills within their workforce. I am delighted to launch the Macra na Feirme ABP Leaders of the Year programme to encourage the next generation of leaders within Macra na Feirme. The organisation has a proud tradition of leadership development in rural Ireland, and I am delighted that Skillnet Ireland, through my own department, are supporting Macra na Feirme’s Macra Agricultural Skillnet in delivering Leadership training and coaching to the agri-sector.”
Members of Macra na Feirme can apply online now for the awards by visiting www.macra.ie/LeadersoftheYear. Applicants will be invited for interview in June/July and the results of the Leaders of the Year programme will be announced at Macra na Feirme County Officer Training in September.
ABP part of world-leading pact to tackle plastic pollution
ABP has announced its inclusion as a founding member of the UK Plastics Pact announcement, an initiative launched by sustainability experts WRAP. This is a unique collaboration which brings together businesses from across the entire plastics value chain with the UK Government and NGOs to tackle the scourge of plastic waste. All of the company’s beef and lamb processing sites across the UK will be involved in the initiative.
ABP is one of 42 businesses, including major food, drink and non-food brands, manufacturers and retailers right through to plastic re-processors and packaging suppliers to have made a commitment to the Pact.
This powerful collective has committed to hit a series of ambitious targets by 2025:
Eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging through redesign, innovation or alternative (re-use) delivery models.
100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable
70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled or composted
30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging
Dean Holroyd, Group Technical and Sustainability Director, ABP Food Group said: “At ABP we are committed to doing all possible to minimise the impact of plastic on the environment. We see this as a great challenge and a huge opportunity to collaborate with other like-minded businesses to make a real and tangible difference in the fight against plastic at our sites and across the wider supply chain without compromising on quality, shelf life or food safety.”
WRAP CEO, Marcus Gover, said: “Together, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink and reshape the future of plastic so that we retain its value, and curtail the damage plastic waste wreaks on our planet. This requires a wholescale transformation of the plastics system and can only be achieved by bringing together all links in the chain under a shared commitment to act. That is what makes the UK Plastics Pact unique. It unites every body, business and organisation with a will to act on plastic pollution. We will never have a better time to act, and together we can.”
The immediate focus for UK Plastics Pact will be on identifying the priority projects that will deliver greatest impacts in the short and long term, such as overcoming barriers to increasing the amount of recycled content used in new packaging, developing reusable packaging and working with partners to overcome the issue of un-recyclable black plastic.
ABP Food Group is recognised as an industry leader when it comes to sustainable practices and environmental initiatives. The company recently achieved quadruple accreditation from the Carbon Trust in recognition of the progress it is making in reducing its environmental impact. The Carbon Trust Standard is the world’s leading independent certification of an organisation’s impact on the environment, verifying action on energy use, CO2 emissions, water use and waste output. It recognises continuous excellence and year on year improvements in the area of environmental performance
The finalists of a province-wide agri-food skills competition for young people have been announced. The teams going through to the final stage of the ABP Angus Youth Challenge are Belfast Royal Academy; Enniskillen Royal Grammar; Rainey Endowed School Magherafelt and St Louis Grammar School, Ballymena.
They will now go on to receive five Angus cross calves per group at a prize-giving ceremony on 18th May at Balmoral Show. They will take part in a programme with ABP that will see them developing skills and knowledge across the beef supply chain from farm to fork. This will culminate in the sale of each team’s Angus cattle to ABP with the net profit shared out amongst their group.
Congratulating the finalists at their training day in ABP Newry, Managing Director of ABP in Northern Ireland, George Mullan said, “It was clear from the judging of the semi-finalists by an independent panel of industry experts, the standard was very high. So, we decided to take four teams forward to the next stage. We are looking forward to working with these enthusiast young people who are already demonstrating a strong interest in the agri-food sector. I would like to wish them every success for the next stage.”
Each team has now been assigned a special project to develop over the next 18 months. Their projects will challenge them to explore innovative and forward-looking techniques and proposals for the future benefit of meat production in Northern Ireland.
The finalists range from 14-16 years old. Not all live on or come from a farming background. Belfast Royal Academy’s team are all urban dwellers and are interested in careers in the agri-food sector. They will be rearing their calves on the farm of the school’s Biology teacher. Their project theme is the Challenges of Farm Finance.
Enniskillen Royal Grammar’s team are being supported by the Home Economics teacher. Their project theme is how Angus cattle production can enhance the sustainability of farming in Co. Fermanagh.
The finalists representing Rainey Endowed School have been given the Benefits of Benchmarking and the Contribution of Women to Farm Management as their special project. The team are members of Rainey Endowed School’s Agricultural Club and all come from farming families.
St Louis Grammar’s finalists also have farming backgrounds. They will be working on the concept of Family Farms as a Driver of Sustainable Agriculture. The school’s Geography teacher is supporting them on the ABP Angus Youth Challenge.
The teams’ performance across all aspects of the final stage will be continually assessed to determine the overall winning group and the recipient of the £1,000 cash prize for their school.
The ABP Angus Youth Challenge is organised in partnership with the Northern Irish Angus Producers Group. Judging the semi-finalists were industry experts and representatives from leading organisations across the farming and agri-food sectors including CAFRE, the LMC, NIFDA, the UFU and YFCU.
Find us on Facebook #ABPAngusYouth.
Last night (Tuesday, 3rd October), more than 600 senior executives gathered at the IGD Awards to raise a toast to the food and industry’s achievements over the last 12 months.
ABP UK received the award for its anti-modern slavery campaign. According to ABP, it’s estimated that at least 20,000 victims of modern slavery live and work in the UK. ABP has launched its own anti-modern slavery campaign to help its people and partners understand the issue, tackle it at the root cause and prevent any form of exploitation entering its workplace.
Vanessa Di Cuffa, UK People Change Director for ABP said: “I am absolutely delighted to receive this award on behalf of all colleagues across our UK business. Our campaign has focused on raising awareness and ensuring all of our colleagues and supply chain partners have a full understanding of this issue so that they are equipped to understand the issue and confident to deal with it, in any of its forms. There is absolutely no place for any exploitation in the work place and I hope that our work, which is ongoing, will go some way towards tackling this problem”.
Steve Godwin, Head of External and Government Affairs, Danone, said: “ABP UK’s Anti-Modern Slavery initiative is truly pioneering. It focuses on an issue for too long ignored in our society and has the ability to bring about real, country-wide change.
“It is innovative and different, and has achieved measurable, positive results for the business. It has positively impacted the lives of its workers on both a professional and personal level.
“This initiative has the potential to influence the way that we approach employability throughout the supply chain and especially in the traditionally tough environment of the manufacturing world. I look forward to learning more about the impacts on ABP itself and on the world around it.”
Joanne Denney-Finch, IGD Chief Executive, said: “For more than 25 years, the IGD Awards have celebrated the achievements of our truly world-class industry. These are hotly contested awards and this year the bar was set as high as ever. Yet again we received a very large number of entries, which is testament to the innovative, high-quality work taking place across our industry.
“We’re living through challenging times, yet our industry never fails to impress in its determination to continue surprising and delighting shoppers. Many congratulations to all our winners and finalists.”
About the IGD Awards
The winners of the IGD Awards were selected by a panel of industry experts, including representatives from IGD and companies from across the food and grocery supply chain. For the first time ever in 2017, three awards were voted for by shoppers – the IGD Food-to-Go Operator of the Year, the IGD Online Retailer of the Year and the IGD Retailer of the Year – through IGD’s ShopperVista service, the barometer of the British grocery shopper.
IGD is an education and training charity for the food and grocery industry that undertakes research for the benefit of the public.
For a full list of the winners of the IGD Awards 2017, please visit igd.com/awards
ABP Ireland has won seven awards including two gold and four silver awards, at the 10th annual Blas na hEireann, the Irish Food Awards for quality Irish produce on the island of Ireland. The awards were held in Dingle on 30th September. Blas na hEireann is the biggest blind tasting of Irish produce.
ABP Food Group submitted entries to all categories in the beef section: striploin steak; rib eye steak; fillet steak and beef other- meatballs /burgers. In total, seven of ABP’s products qualified for the finals and all seven picked up awards.
Research has proven that the Blas accreditation has the highest recognition amongst Irish consumers. For this year’s competition, there were 2,500 entries overall in all products across all categories.
Results of the ABP Products across the four beef categories:
Striploin:
· Bronze – Specially Selected Tipperary Dry Aged Black Angus 30 day matured Striploin
· Silver – Specially Selected Black Angus 28 day matured Striploin
Fillet:
· Silver – Specially Selected Black Angus 28 day matured Fillet
Rib Eye:
· Gold – Specially Selected Tipperary Dry Aged Black Angus 30 day matured Rib Eye
· Silver – Specially Selected Black Angus 28 day matured Rib Eye
Beef Other – Meatballs/Burgers:
· Gold- Butchers Choice 3% low fat Lean burger gluten free
· Silver – Platinum Prime Sirloin Steak Burger Gluten Free
Commenting on the Group’s success at Blas na hEireann, Eoin Ryan, Sales Manager, ABP said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won these indigenous awards. The judging process for these awards is driven and guided by taste. This highlights the quality of our Ultra Tender process which currently sees ABP beef served in over 200 Michelin starred restaurants across the world. The company has already been acknowledged at previous awards for our quality food produce and this is a further endorsement to the hard work and quality produced by the ABP team in Cahir.”
Initial results from the Gene Ireland Dairy Beef Programme, a major multi-year collaborative research study involving ABP Food Group, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Teagasc indicates that improved genetics in the dairy herd can improve carcass weight and feed intake for the beef farmer without compromising calving difficulty or gestation length for the dairy farmer. The first animals have been slaughtered with initial analysis suggesting a difference of between €150 and €200 per slaughtered animal between individual AI sires.
The research is being conducted at a 280 acre ABP Research and Demonstration Farm in County Wexford which is set up to resemble a typical beef farm and is worked by an experienced beef farming family living on the farm.
The main aims of the study are to:
Improve the efficiency and profitability of dairy herd sourced beef production.
Develop a Dairy Beef selection index to maximise dairy and beef on farm performance.
Identify the most suitable beef bull genetics for crossing on dairy herds.
Genetically improve main breeds supplying beef bulls to dairy herds.
Dr Andrew Cromie, Technical Director, ICBF, commented: “The programme is now delivering real benefits for the beef and dairy industries, by helping ICBF accurately identify the beef sires that have proven traits for use on the dairy herd in the future. All of the data collected on the participating AI sires, including their progeny, is publically available on the ICBF website, thereby ensuring that farmers and the wider industry can have absolute confidence regarding the accuracy and independence of the genetic evaluations being generated as part of the study.”
Chief Operations Officer at ABP Finbarr McDonnell, said the findings are as a result of a culmination of three years collaborative work between ABP, ICBF and Teagasc. “These are the first set of results from this multi-year initiative and they already represent significant success. Having a research and demonstration farm has allowed us to consistently monitor and record valuable data on all aspects of animal development right through from calf to slaughter. The farm is a typical Irish beef farm, which ensures today’s findings are relevant in a broader context. These findings are now available to farmers through ICBF and Teagasc so that they can make an informed decision when it comes to choosing sires for the dairy herd.”
Padraig French, Head of Livestock Research at Teagasc Moorpark, said: “The ongoing expansion of the national dairy herd is significantly increasing the supply of beef x dairy calves and these are becoming the dominant supply of prime beef from Irish grass based beef production. The decisions made by dairy farmers when selecting beef bulls to use on their dairy herd has a profound effect on the overall efficiency of the calf to beef enterprise. We need to ensure that dairy farmers have available to them sires that can meet their requirements for short gestation and easy calving but also have good terminal traits for the beef farmers that rear those calves.”
For the fourth consecutive year, ABP Food Group will sponsor the special Farm Safety award at BTYSTE. The company is calling on secondary school students with a keen interest in Farm Safety to enter a project on the issue for next year’s BT Young Scientist Expo. Students should register their expressions of interest by 25th September by logging onto the BT Young Scientist 2018 website.
The “ABP Farm Safety Award” recognises projects which focus on either improving safety on farms or help educate people about the dangers on farms. ABP hopes that the category will encourage students from both farming and non-farming backgrounds to learn more about farm safety and investigate issues that affect farms today. Last year’s ABP Farm Safety project was won by Jack Nagle, from Killorglin Community College in Kerry with a ‘Tractor Safe Lock’ project.
Martin Kane, Managing Director ABP Ireland, said: “Recent studies have shown that farming is Ireland’s most dangerous occupation. Through this sponsorship, ABP Food Group wants to increase awareness particularly amongst young people about the dangers on our farms and finding solutions to these dangers. The farm safety prize is open to all secondary school students who enter a Farm Safety Project for next year’s competition. We would encourage anyone who is interested in helping find solutions to the safety issues on Irish farms to apply.”
ABP Food Group will also have a farm safety zone at the exhibition where students and visitors will have the opportunity to pledge their support to making farms a safer place. The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is now in its 54th year and is one of the largest and longest running STEM events in the world. The theme for BTYSTE 2018 is “it starts here” highlighting and celebrating the role the exhibition can play in captivating a love for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. BTYSTE 2018 will take place in the RDS, Dublin from 10th -13th January 2018.
The ABP sponsored Iverk Show took place in County Kilkenny recently. The show is Ireland’s oldest one day event and attracted over 20,000 visitors. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar officially open the show
