Ellen is one of two female students to win Dairymast Student Award she feels this a testimony to the equal opportunities given to women in agriculture at WIT
Ellen Fitzpatrick, a past pupil of St. Mary's Secondary School, New Ross, County Wexford is one of 2 students at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) to be awarded a final year project award in the Dairymaster Awards which took place on the 24 May 2018 date.
The final year student was studying Agricultural Science.
Ellen lives in New Ross, Co. Wexford with her family.
Project presentation
Ellen explains that following the 4th year project presentations, 9 students were shortlisted to present their projects to Dairymaster at a later date. On the 24 of May, 2 representatives of Dairymaster travelled to WIT to watch the 9 presentations and they chose 2 winners.
“My project was called "An evaluation of grass quality for milk, beef and sheep production using efficient and environmentally sustainable chemical fertiliser". This involved 3 different grass varieties and 6 different fertiliser treatments in which the Greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions were measured along with a number of nutritive parameters such as DM and crude protein of theses grass samples. This measured the sustainability of the fertiliser treatments while also taking the nutritive value of grass into account,” she says.
Honour
“It was an absolute honour to win the Dairymaster award, especially with the extremely high standard of final year projects evident among the final year students in WIT this year. I also thought it was fantastic that 2 women won the award this year, I feel this a testimony to the equal opportunities given to women in agriculture here at WIT.”
Ellen plans to continue her education and is starting a PhD in the Teagasc Centre in Moorepart this October in grassland.
Industry Sponsored Awards
The Department of Science at WIT held its Industry Sponsored Awards Ceremony 2018 which was sponsored by Sanofi, Society of Foresters, Eurofins, Dawn Meats, Comeragh Veterinary practice, Dairymaster and AIB.
Dairymaster “Dairymaster Student Award” 2018: The award is to recognise the achievements of BSc (Hons) in Agricultural Science degree students with the best final year project presentation. The two winners were Aishling Neville and Ellen Fitzpatrick.
The award helps students realise the relevance of their final year projects to a world beyond college. The bursary is very welcome in helping our students make the transition to the workplace following their studies. It also gives them an opportunity to excel and showcase their research to industry.
The awards were presented by Niall O`Hanlon and Pat Ryan from Dairymaster.
SETU Waterford, Cork Road, Waterford City, 
