Charles praises Morrisons' £2m plan for farm

The Bradford-based supermarket will spend the money over the next five years at Dumfries House farm in Scotland.

The supermarket has spent 15 months reviving the neglected farm, connected to Dumfries House, the Ayrshire stately home restored by a charitable consortium led by the Prince last year.

It is already home to almost 250 cattle and more than 700 sheep and there are plans to invite schoolchildren to take part in educational projects.

Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips said he wants to keep fresh British produce at the heart of his expansion plans, and hopes to make the farm profitable by 2014.

The Prince has a long-standing interest in farming and has his own brand of organic produce, Duchy Originals.

A Clarence House spokesman said that the farm was not currently organic but parts of it could be converted eventually.

He said it could be used as "an exemplar for training and educational purposes" and this was part of the plan to restore and save the Dumfries House Estate.

"The farmland at Dumfries House had been left fairly depleted and it will take some time to restore all of it to good condition," he said.

Morrisons is rolling out a UK-wide farm research programme aimed at helping to build a sustainable British farming industry.

The farm will now operate as a living laboratory in a joint venture with the Scottish Agricultural College to investigate sustainable methods of meat production using traditional British breeds of cattle.

The project will examine how to increase the amount of meat produced per hectare, the use of natural fertilisers and crop rotation in growing food for the cattle, and how breeding and feeding techniques can reduce methane emissions from cows.

Mr Philips said: "It will be a profitable farm. That's critical, because if we can be profitable as a farmer then we can share best practice with the other 2,050 farmers we work with across the country."

It has also emerged that supermarket Sainsbury's is planning to invest 40m over the next three years in farming "development groups" to work on different product areas such as beef, lamb, milk and grain.

The funding will be used to improve infrastructure and efficiency at the farms, for benefits such as covering vets' bills and training, and for developing IT resources for the farmers.