Regarding Prince Charles’s new project at Dumfries House in Ayrshire (Prince Charles gets go-ahead for farming school in Scotland, 27 February), is he not aware that Scotland already has six countrywide centres of excellence teaching agricultural studies from national certificate level to degree and postgraduate study? One of them is in fact near Dumfries House, the Ayr campus of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). As well as offering six teaching and research facilities, SRUC also has eight farms, 25 consulting offices and eight veterinary practices.
Instead of raising money to fund a new farm-skills school, it would be better to liaise with the present network of agricultural colleges and work with them to promote traditional skills within existing courses or to establish new courses.
