Four transition year students at Kinsale Community School have established a business that has created a farm equipment holder, making dehorning and other tasks safer for farmers.
David Forde from Kinsale comes from a beef farm and works on his uncle’s dairy farm. Jack Good from Tracton is from a dairy farm.
John Quinn from Tracton, has a tillage background and works on a nearby dairy farm and Sean Dinneen from Kinsale, comes from a dairy farm.
All 16 years-of-age, the lads are finalists in the National Student Enterprise Awards in Mullingar. Their company is called DJS Engineering.
`’Back in 1999, my grandfather’s gas dehorner fell into the straw, causing the shed to go on fire. It was this devastating event that led us to try create a product that could make farming tasks like dehorning safer and more efficient,” said Sean.
“The farm is a very dangerous working environment and anything that helps with farm safety is something worthwhile pursuing in our opinion,” David said.
“We chose to participate in the Student Enterprise Competition run by our Local Enterprise Office Cork north and west as part of our transition year in Kinsale Community School.
“We wanted to come up with an idea with something associated with farming,” said Jack.
“We brainstormed this idea as we saw there was a gap in the market for a product like this. We made up a prototype on my family farm with help from my uncle,” said David.
David said that the students noticed from their own experience on farms, that there was no designated place to hold your dehorning material, which they recognised as being hazardous.
“Despite having confidence in our product, we were both shocked and delighted when we were announced as the overall winners of the West Cork Student Enterprise Competition held by the Local Enterprise Office in February and would go on to compete and represent West Cork in the National Finals in Mullingar in May,” Sean said.
“We quickly set our focus on preparing for the national finals and sought about expanding our customer base beyond neighbours and friends.
“We contacted Country Farm Supplies, and pitched our idea to them and asked would they stock and distribute the farm equipment holder as they have a strong online customer base. They were on board from the beginning and offered us advice around our business also,” David said.
“After linking up with Country Farm Supplies, we knew we had a big order of units which we might not be able to produce quickly ourselves so we thought about outsourcing our production so that we could concentrate on the other aspects of running the business,” said Jack.
The boys then took a trip to O’Neills Engineering in Ballinadee, where they negotiated a deal on the manufacturing of the product.
“Recently we’ve stocked our product into Stock Health in Bandon and are hoping to soon stock them in the West Cork co-ops,” Sean said.
The journey did not come without challenges, as Sean said that a few people had complained that the product was too heavy, meaning that it wasn’t easily transportable.
After winning the regional finals, the schoolboys fixed this issue by making it lighter, and also by adding a handle, making it easier to carry around.
“We’re now in contact with local vets and they have remarked that an equipment holder like this would be very useful to them in their work when they are out on farms treating animals and dehorning,” said Sean.
The Kinsale students believe that their product could be sold internationally.
“There is no product like it, specifically on the Irish market or international market. We are delighted with our success so far locally through our social media sales and through local stockists.
“Our next priority is to get our product into all local farm stores and West Cork co-ops and in the future, we will aim to get it across all of Ireland and beyond hopefully,” David said.
“In the short-term we are looking forward to representing West Cork, our families and Kinsale Community School in the National Enterprise Competition in Mullingar on May 9,” Jack said.
“We would then hope to continue expanding the customer base all over Cork, Munster and who knows after that.
“As we call ourselves DJS Engineering, we also have other product ideas up our sleeves that we would like to pursue in time should this farm equipment holder continue to be successful,” John said.
The product costs €80 plus delivery.