SO THE Duke of Cambridge is to attend Cambridge University for ten weeks to learn how to run the Duchy of Cornwall estate in the future.

Well, I have been in farming all my 81 years and if Prince William can learn to run an estate of that magnitude in ten weeks, I am the proverbial “Dutch Man”.

All agents of large estates must be laughing all the way to their estate offices. The prince would be better off going to an agricultural college and having a year on a farm – not one of their own or a friend’s farm, getting hands-on experience and roughing it as college students have to do.

Farmers never stop learning as new machines, sprays, seeds come on stream. Having to go on courses each year to keep up to date with spraying, forklift truck control, to name just a couple of tasks. Good luck to Prince William in his endeavours; he will need it.

Pamela Frankland, Lodge Farm, Hull Road, Dunnington, York.