AN MP could have been forgiven for saying "pull the udder one" when given details of a constituency engagement.

But the request from Houghall College, on the outskirts of Durham City, to Gerry Steinberg, was genuine.

The agricultural institution asked the city's MP to perform the opening of its new milking parlour, at the college farm.

Mr Steinberg dutifully fronted the official ceremony in the parlour, created following a £100,000 input to bring dairy training into the 21st Century.

The investment has allowed Houghall's dairy herd to be increased from 100 to 140 cows, and represented the first major development at the dairy unit since 1972, enabling farming students to train in the most modern milking techniques.

Mr Steinberg, who has attended hundreds of ceremonial engagements in his 13 years as Durham MP, said it was the first time he had been asked to open such a facility.

He welcomed the investment, which follows little more than a year after the merger of Houghall with East Durham Community College, Peterlee.

Principal Ian Prescott said the milking parlour was the first of a number of investments in land-based training at the college.

He said the next funding target will be to allow development of facilities in the college's equine and small animals operation.