As a member of the Centre for Innovation in Livestock (CIEL), Duchy College provides a gateway to 12 world class national research centres.
“Duchy College provides state-of-the art facilities for student learning, offering young people a fantastic grounding for a future career in agriculture. Its farm research facilities are also excellent, which have enabled us to carry out important product development work in recent years. Duchy College has become a key calf trial site for our R&D, enabling the continued development and advancement of milk formulations for pre-weaned calves,” said Volac Milk Replacers Limited managing director John Reynolds.
Between 2019 and 2024, Volac Milk Replacers Limited has carried out six calf trials at West Coombeshead Farm.
“Each annual calf trial has consisted of up to 50 dairy heifer calves fed one of two milk formulations, via two computerised feeders, with weekly body weight and daily health scores captured from birth through to day 70,” explained Dr Jessica Cooke from the company.
“Calf performance on the farm is very good, and the data output is excellent, which is credit to the Duchy College research team who oversee the commercial sponsor trial work.
“The Duchy College team are great to work with and always very welcoming – so much so that we always enjoy hosting meetings at the site, which have allowed us to take advantage of the superb amenities and services available,” added Dr Cooke.
“Duchy College’s Rural Business School and farm teams are proud to partner Volac Milk Replacers Ltd and our Senior Research Technician, Rachel Renfree ensures that our Further Education students are engaged in trial data collection and our undergraduates in data analysis,” commented Research Manager, Paul Ward.
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