Over £9 million is set to be invested in a new agricultural education unit and farm facilities at Wiltshire College.

The work at the college’s Lackham Campus will see a new Agricultural Technology Centre built as well as the development of a higher education centre, and the installation of a new milking parlour.

The work is expected to be completed by 2020.

The Lackham campus specialises in land-based courses including Land-Based Engineering, Farm Mechanisation, Agriculture and Horticulture.

Current facilities

The campus spans over 1,700ac of Wiltshire countryside and is home to three commercial farms.

Home Farm’s 140-cow dairy unit produces milk for Cadbury. The farm is also home to a small poutly unit, beef cattle and a pig unit.

The remainder of the beef cattle, mainly Limousin and Hereford breeds, are found at the Great Lodge Farm.

The third farm, Notton Farm, is home to the college’s sheep unit and deer park, and also hosts Lackham’s annual Lambing weekends each spring.

As well as pastoral industries, students at Lackham are also involved in a range of arable cropping programmes, including wheat, oilseed rape, maize, barley and producing grass for silage.

The campus also has some of the industry’s latest technology available to its students, including driverless tractors.

Salisbury Campus

The news of investment in the agricultural campus comes as another major investment has also been announced for Wiltshire College & University Centre’s Salisbury Campus.

More than £14 million will be spent on refurbishment and a new building to transform the Salisbury Campus, starting with work on recladding exterior walls that are remaining, along with internal conversion work.

The next stage of the project in June 2019 will be the development of a new building at the centre of the campus to replace some of the existing buildings.

John Mortimer, chairman of the Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Enabling businesses to have an appropriately skilled and competitive workforce to support growth, innovation and creativity remains an investment priority for the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

We have committed to providing better Further and Higher Education provision by 2021 and I am delighted to see the first of our projects in Salisbury getting started.

Amanda Burnside, principal at Wiltshire College & University Centre, said: “It’s fantastic that work is finally starting on this exciting project, which will be an important part of addressing some of the higher-level skills gaps in Swindon and Wiltshire and particularly in the Salisbury area.

“The campus project will see the launch of new courses including six foundation degrees in the life sciences including Biomedical Science, Pharmaceuticals and Health and Nutrition as well as higher level courses and apprenticeships in advanced engineering.”