Agriculture

Agriculture is a really exciting industry, packed full of opportunities. How about being a crop farmer and providing food for the future? How about raising livestock such as cows, sheep or pigs? Or what about working on farm mechanisation, fixing tractors and other farming equipment? 

Whatever you want to do, it all starts right here at East Durham College’s Houghall campus.

You’ll be learning from the best - our lecturers don’t just teach agriculture, they live and breathe it too.

Our agriculture lecturers have worked for years in the agriculture industry. They’re on-hand every step of the way to give you real working experience of life on the farm.

Thinking of doing an agriculture course at Houghall?  Set on a stunning 476-acre estate, minutes from Durham City Centre, the Houghall Campus is a fantastic place to study agriculture. Providing the best facilities for our students is important to us at EDC. That’s why we recently invested £12.75 million into the redevelopment of our Houghall campus. £3.5 million of this investment went into a brand new agricultural centre, closer to the main site entrance. 

Our facilities are a full working farm, just like you’d get when working in the industry. You can expect all of the following at Houghall:

•   Pig Unit - complete with air conditioning
•   Cattle Unit - with 6 large pens and forage storage
•   Crop storage - secure facility for storing harvested crops
•   Huge Estate - with acres upon acres of arable land
•   Crop Growing - including winter wheat, barley, spring beans and lupins
•   Sheep Unit - with lambing season every year
•   On-site butchery to process meat - supplying the college canteen and Durham University
•   Agricultural Machinery - including tractors and seed bed preparation machinery

Houghall has over 200 acres of arable land. On this land, we grow crops which are harvested to feed the college’s livestock. We use our crops to feed our livestock the correct diet. This offers full sustainability and traceability, so the consumer knows exactly what our livestock if fed.

The farm has close partnerships with such names as Agrii and Carrs Billington for crop trials and feed trials. We also work closely with Lloyd Ltd, who supply the college with agricultural machinery. Training at the farm is also carried out in close partnership with Trading Standards, training their staff to help ensure food safety throughout the industry.

Why not take a look for yourself? Use our 360 degree tour below to take a look around the Houghall farm.

Tenstar Tractor Simulator

Agriculture students at EDC don't just get access to our amazing equipment on the farm, you can also hone your driving skills with our highly-advanced tractor simulator!

With several different vehicles to drive and a completely authentic experience that even jostles you around like a real vehicle, this is the perfect way to get to grips with driving advanced agricultural machinery without actually getting in a vehicle!

Check it out for yourself below in our TikTok with some of our Level 3 agriculture students!

What do you think of when you think of a career in agriculture? Chances are you’re probably thinking of getting up bright and early, perhaps gathering a few eggs from your hens, before driving a tractor round your field, unearthing your latest crop of potatoes. You’ll probably be thinking of being up to your shins in mud in a pair of thick wellies, or herding some sheep, a faithful sheepdog at your side.

This all, of course, is a part of agriculture and the potential work you could be doing. But what you perhaps didn’t know is this is just a small part of the potential careers you could find yourself working in. There really is a specialism for absolutely everyone in agriculture!  If you love getting outdoors, working hard and growing a rewarding career for yourself, agriculture is for you.

There’s never been a better time to join either – labour shortages in the UK mean 60,000 new people in the agriculture industry are predicted to be needed in the next few years!

Progression

If you want to stay in education after leaving us, a Level 3 course will help you get into university.

There you could study many different agricultural degrees. These include such things as Agriculture with Animal Science, Soil Science, Agriculture with Mechanisation and lots, lots more.

Houghall's the perfect springboard, no matter what you want your future to be. Our college slogan is Making Careers Grow for a reason you know!

Short Courses

Check out the details on our Agricultural-related Short Courses >> or please call the Short Courses team on 0191 518 8291.