Students mucking in with the silage harvest

Now Walford Campus is in its 68th year, and things have moved on a fair bit from when silaging would have been carried out by horses and a lot of labour. In 2017, our harvest was carried out a little more hi-tech with our self-propelled John Deere forage harvester, and John Deere and Kubota tractors towing our 10 tonne trailers operated by our keen and able students.

In a little over three days, our 1,000 tonnes of grass silage off 170 acres was picked up and transported safely to the farm's silage pit, covered and secured with the students happily putting in the extra hours.

Students were given the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience and take responsibility for machine and crop.

Some of our second year agriculture students are fresh back from a trip to New Zealand. Some of these students will be heading back to New Zealand later in the year taking the skills they have gained in the last two years to work for contractors and farmers.

For our past Walford students, there is a summer reunion event being held on June 24 with proceeds going to the R D Park Trust, the college charity which supports current students with overseas study trips and visits.

The event includes a two-course dinner with long horn beef to carve at the table, wine, live music from local band The Vertigo Band, DJ, raffle and promise auction. Current and past staff from Walford will be in attendance as well as past students. It will be a great event to reminisce with old friends and familiar faces.

For more information and to book tickets for the Walford Old Students Association Summer Event, please ring the Walford Campus today via 01939 262100.

On August 30 an Advice and Guidance Evening is being held at the Walford Campus for anyone wanting information about starting in September 2017 at the college. Students are still applying now, however, so anyone interested should apply via the college website: www.nsc.ac.uk or contact the Admissions Team on 01691 688080.

Lucy Evans, North Shropshire College marketing & customer service manager