The new unit is seen as part of the way forward for dairy farming

The �1.3m unit comprises a milking parlour with the equipment to maximise productivity and animal welfare.

It includes a robotic milking machine in a cubicle which cows can enter at any time.

College Principal Russell Marchant said the unit could be a great boon in difficult times for the industry.

"It is a very clever machine and it exploits very clever cows," he said.

"The cows decide when they want to be milked here on the unit, when they want to be fed and when they want to go outside."

'Efficient cows'

Mr Marchant said that this allowed dairy staff to focus more on welfare rather than getting milk out of cows.

"The marriage, hopefully, of welfare and technology will produce a happy, efficient cow and efficiency means profitability for dairy farmers," he said.

Regional National Farmers' Union chairman Robin Spence, from Roberthill, near Lockerbie, recently sold his dairy herd to concentrate on more profitable parts of the business.

He said facilities such as the new Barony unit would be vital for the future of those farmers who keep on dairying.

"We need a training facility so that whether they are farmers' sons, local lads or people from eastern Europe they can be trained to the standard you need," said Mr Spence.