Duchy College Rural Business School
A Specialist Unit within Duchy and Bicton Colleges, Providing Research, Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer
The Rural Business School prides itself on being able to deliver a programme of research and technology transfer capacity in the land-based sector.
RBS works with other land based colleges and training providers to ensure that training opportunities are offered across the region, providing first hand specialist knowledge and technical support where it matters.
The Rural Business School also plays a key role in a number of applied research projects, providing research facilities and expertise to trial cutting edge solutions to the issues faced in the industry.
In the past 10 years, the RBS has engaged with over 10,000 farm businesses in the South West. The following are a snapshot of its current activities:
Rural Business Research (RBR)
The RBR is the most authoritative research collaboration into the financial and business performance of farmers and growers in England. Read more
Future Farm
This £3.6 million dairy research and knowledge transfer facility at Duchy College’s Stoke Climsland farm will focus on a green hoof print approach to dairy farming. Read more
Agri Carbon Kernow
Part-funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Agri Carbon Kernow is a collaboration between Duchy College, Westcountry Rivers Trust, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the Farm Carbon Toolkit and the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Growth Hub to deliver support to a limited number of farms during 2024.Read more
Resilient Catchment Communities
Resilient Catchment Communities (RCC) is a collaborative project and approach in community monitoring of river resilience, and capacity building and capability in the design, implementation and monitoring of community-led Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to deliver Integrated Catchment Management (ICM).Read more
Farm Net Zero
A 5-year project funded by the Lottery Community Action Fund to encourage reductions in farm carbon emissions and to share knowledge between farmers and the wider community. Read more
Home Farm Natural Capital
Led by the RBS and Duchy of Cornwall Estate, Duchy College is creating a 25-year environmental plan to develop the natural capital asset in its Home Farm and associated landscape. Read more
Dairy-4-Future
The project aims to increase the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of dairy farms by identifying, evaluating and then widely disseminating knowledge on innovative dairy practices. Read more
Farm Health Online
An animal health and welfare web information service for sustainable livestock farming – bringing together a wide range of recent research and sources of advice. Read more
BVD Stamp It Out
Incentivising farm vets to support cattle farmers to eradicate or keep out the costly Bovine Viral Diarrhoea disease from their herds. Read more
Challenge of Rural Leadership
One of the most prestigious short courses future leaders of rural organisations. Read more
“The great thing about the Healthy Livestock initiative is that it enables our practice to perform preventative medicine on BVD, Mastitis, Johne’s, and Lameness in greater depth. Some might find it quite prescriptive, but it guarantees a comprehensive approach to all our farmers.”
Peter Plate
Damory Vets, Blandford
“The training allowed me to make more money through sheep shearing. It also meant that the sheep get a better cut, with fewer scratches from the clippers. Since I have been shearing the availability of the training course have meant that more local people are staying in the industry.”
Andrew Pennington
For more information go to www.ruralbusinessschool.org.uk