�250,000 is being spent on facilities for would-be dairy farmers

Glynllifon College, near Caernarfon, can now offer courses focussing on computerised milking facilities.

The college said it was looking to the future after a period which has seen the industry shrink.

Since the mid 1990s, roughly 2,500 farmers have given up working in the dairy industry in Wales.

We have got to look forward and be positive, we can't just sit back - we have got to move on. And that is what this is all about really, investing in the future. Rhys Williams, college lecturer

Unions point to rising costs and farmers being paid the lowest milk prices in Europe.

According to Welsh Assembly Government figures, there were 3,150 milk producers in Wales in 2005, the figure for 1993 was 5,510.

Future

But Glynllifon College said it had a long term plan to look forward.

The bulk of the investment is going towards the new parlour and it is hoped the first cow will be milked in August.

Rhys Williams, college lecturer, "We have got to look forward and be positive, we can't just sit back we have got to move on. And that is what this is all about really, investing in the future."

Students Dafydd Foulkes and Llion Pugh, from Dinas Mawddwy in Meirionnydd, say the new facilities would make a "big difference".

Dafydd said: "I don't milk at home but I will have the experience of using the technology in a modern parlour if I do work somewhere else or if I go abroad."

Llion added: "I think it will help bring more young people into the milk industry."

Eurwyn Edwards, director at the college added: "There are certainly problems and a quarter of a million pounds seems like an awful lot of money but in relation to the scale of things - as an investment over 15-20 years consequently on a yearly basis - it's not such a large investment".

Mansel Raymond, NFU Cymru Milk Board Chairman, told News Online that milk production costs such as labour, machinery and energy were rising.

"It has been a difficult five or six years for the industry," he said.

The union estimates that three dairy farmers a week are quitting the industry.