"THESE are exciting times," said Prof Gareth Rees, principal of Askham Bryan Agricultural College, near York.

Not every college can express such sentiments but, having invested nearly £2m in the past two years and being given a £600,000 hand-out from the Government to create a centre of vocational excellence, Askham Bryan's future looks very promising.

Prof Rees has brought direction, enthusiasm and scope to the college since he arrived 18 months ago. "I have very firmly reaffirmed that the college is an agricultural, land-based one and I believe that is the way we should go," he said.

"In two years we will have invested almost £2m on our farm in the context of making it what it should be, a place where the farming community will be able to see good practice demonstrated in state of the art facilities in most appropriate farming technologies. Obviously, we cannot cover all aspects in farming, but our investment in our dairy is a leader.

"We have to demonstrate how good we are to both community and students. Not only are we putting in a robotic unit but also a conventional Rapid exit unit, one of the few colleges in the country which has the two side-by-side." Both are due to be fully operational this month.

All agricultural colleges had experienced terrible problems through failing agriculture, but Prof Rees said he had, unlike some colleges, put a hold on spreading activities and courses.

The main core remains agriculture and horticulture, but there are also equine and land management courses. "We are not, though, going down the Sports Academy line" he added.

Attracting more young people is one of the important aims as the average age of farmers is now 57.

"Who can blame youngsters for not wanting to come into the business when they have seen burning piles of animals and other tragedies," said Prof Rees.

The college is still attracting purely agricultural students, unlike many others where numbers are down to the teens. "I think this is because people can see that things are happening here, such as the investment in the dairy," said Prof Rees.

The college has already seen a great deal of interest from farming groups and other organisations it would not normally attract, and not just from students, in seeing the new facilities.

"We should serve the community and, by being good at what we do, we will get students. We are not all motherhood and apple pie but the land-based sector has had such a kicking this last 15-20 years that we want to show you can succeed," he said.

The college and dairy is moving towards food production, not by teaching less about agriculture, but by showing agriculture is part of the food market.

"Diversification is the mantra trotted out; farmers have already shown many good examples of this," said Prof Rees. "The idea is that we filter out to them our new ideas so they can support us by marketing the product.

"We have to attract youngsters back into land-based industry. It is difficult as we have long working hours and not much money, but 72pc of land is under management and the Government says farmers need to embrace commercial opportunities."

A practical example of the way the college is tackling this aspect is the food technology centre. It is to receive £600,000 over next three years from the Learning and Skills Council to set up an Centre of Vocational Excellence in food and technology.

"This will allow us to establish on our farm a demonstration unit; an on-side pasteurisation unit, and a retail outlet for cheese, yoghurt and flavoured milk. I look forward to the day when I can have an Askham Bryan cheese and pickle sandwich," said Prof Rees.

A second production line is expected to be added to demonstrate different processes for poultry or red meat. The main aim will be to improve links in the food chain from producer to processor, to retailer, to consumer.

"One of our aims will be to equip students with the most practical and modern skills needed by food industry employees," explained Prof Rees. "With this in mind, we are establishing working partnerships with those in the industry to ensure we meet their training requirements."

The centre will be used by students and the outside community, by farmers on short courses and for demonstrations.

Talking of the suggested injection of funds for an outreach college on the proposed auction mart site in Thirsk, Prof Rees said: "We are talking to developers and we are very happy to be part of that development, tailoring the type of provision for land-based training, as here, but more agriculturally-based.

"We have come to learn that the agricultural college has a very important place in the culture of Yorkshire - that is why it is so important to be successful. If the college closed, it would be a very sorry day."

More than half of the students are from the region, but it does attract a small number of students from Spain and Japan as Askham Bryan has an international reputation.

There are 550 full-time students, and 2,500-3000 part-timers on training courses of varying lengths.

Set up in 1948, the purpose-built college was constructed some years earlier, but it had to be redeveloped after damage while it was requisitioned for the Second World War.

Marketing of the college is very keen and outward looking. It is possible, for example, to book a short course for someone as a present.