A CENTRE of excellence worth £430,000 could secure the future of hill farming in the area.

Newton Rigg College is set to invest the money into a new sheep husbandry centre, which will be located at Low Beckside Farm in Mungrisdale.

The centre will ensure the industry's future workforce and leaders have the key skills they need and provide a focal point as a demonstration farm.

The project will see the demolition of the existing buildings and the construction of the new Sheep Husbandry Centre, which will be a steel portal framed building with Yorkshire boarding and a fibre cement roof.

There will be additional work provide new areas of hard standing to aid sheep handling, and improvements to the silage clamp. Work will begin later this month, and is expected to be completed by September.

Wes Johnson, Campus Principal, said: "Our vision is that Newton Rigg College will become the UK hub for training and education in uplands land management and sheep husbandry which will not only benefit students but the UK hill farming industry as a whole.

"This new Centre will enable us to demonstrate the best modern hill farming practice with high standards of animal welfare and hygiene and provide the future workforce with key hill farming skills.

"The UK uplands are a vital part not only of our countrywide and heritage, but of British agriculture and this initiative will help ensure the future viability of this important sector of farming."

Newton Rigg is the only college in England to have its own hill farm and it also hosts the National Centre for the Uplands.

It is part of York-based Askham Bryan College, which took over the running of Newton Rigg in 2011.

The project has been supported by the Cumbria LEP, through the Skills Funding Agency and Cumbrian farmers have had input as members of the college's Technical Advisory Group. Support has also been given by the Cumbria Farmer Network, Lake District National Park, NFU, CLA, and Cumbria YFC.