The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) offers full-time and part-time courses to educate new entrants and support staff working within the agri-food and rural sectors to improve business efficiency. We are the only 2Land-based College in the island of Ireland that offer Honours and Foundation Degrees in Agriculture, Food. Horticulture and Equine.

CAFRE has three campuses; Greenmount (Antrim), Loughry (Cookstown) and Enniskillen. One of the great things about CAFRE is that each of our three campuses deliver a specific range of courses and has the specialist facilities to match. We are continually investing in our staff, buildings, equipment and resources so you can get the most out of your time with us.

If you are looking for a course which offers hands-on learning to give you the best preparation for work in the industry – CAFRE is for you. We’ve invested in our buildings, equipment and resources so you can get the most out of your time with us. Get ahead of the competition with the practical skills you learn on our courses.

Greenmount Campus

Greenmount Campus is located 2 miles from Antrim and is the centre of all things green – that’s agricultural, horticultural and environmental providing an idyllic rural setting for your land-based studies.

The campus has excellent facilities for each discipline, with the main teaching rooms, conference facilities and Halls of Residence set in 18 hectares of mature and beautiful landscaped gardens and grounds. Horticulture facilities are among the best in the UK and have been developed for education, training, knowledge and technology transfer.

The 200 hectares around the campus provides Agriculture facilities for arable, dairying and lowland beef farming. We’ve recently built a state-of-the art Dairy Centre for 180 cows with a 32 point parlour. This unit will incorporate the newest technologies in comfort housing and cow handling, waste management and parlour systems.

The Hill Farm Centre comprises almost 1000 hectares of hill land, with 1,100 breeding ewes and 100 suckler cows and is managed in an environmentally sustainable manner to promote wildlife and protect habitats. Both farms are used by CAFRE technologists and advisers to demonstrate and promote the latest advances in agriculture and land use. Students get involved in these projects too.

We also have a constructed wetlands system, an artificial wetland which acts in a similar manner to the bio-filtration action of natural wetlands. There we channel waste water from the farm through a series of five ponds and at the end it is of good enough quality to release into a stream. Students use this site in their environmental science work.

Loughry Campus

Loughry Campus, which is based 2 miles outside Cookstown in Co Tyrone, showcases the latest design and technology to ensure compliance with best practice in food manufacture. The wide range of educational facilities are used by students and agri-food businesses.

The educational facilities are exceptional and include the Food Innovation Centre, Food Technology Centre, Science Laboratories and Packaging Centre. Each centre

Food Innovation Centre comprises product development labs, sensory suites, an ideas hub, and a package prototyping lab to assist in the creation of new food concepts to meet the needs of a dynamic market place. A new robotics project is currently underway in partnership with Queens University of Belfast. The facilities within the centre are used by students and many food businesses, retailers and industry bodies working in our agri-food sector.

Food Technology Centre showcases the latest technology and is designed to ensure compliance with best practice in food manufacture. The facility incorporates four food processing areas focusing on the meat, bakery, dairy, brewing, fruit and vegetable sectors.

This unique facility is equipped with an extensive range of modern pilot and industrial scale food processing equipment, used in equal measure by our students and technical team. Small-scale processing equipment allows the demonstration of computerised control systems used in food manufacturing. Utilisation of the facility helps students develop the competences and skills needed by the food industry.

Science Laboratories which include a microbiology and chemistry laboratory are a valuable resources enabling students to gain the practical skills essential to a career in the agri-food industry.Students spend time analysing food products, ingredients and water using internationally recognised methods. They learn the processes involved in preparing samples for testing, preparing media, plating out samples and analysing the results. Information gathered through microbiological analysis is used to determine product shelf life and check the food is safe to eat. Students also have the opportunity to examine unique processes used by food companies to test food processing equipment and work environment.

Food Packaging Centre provides a modern resource for evaluating packaging materials and distribution packaging systems. It is equipped with advanced, high-tech testing equipment, which allows the evaluation of a wide range of properties important to technologists in the food and packaging industries. Strength evaluation, permeability measurement and distribution evaluations are a few examples of the types of tests, which can be conducted at the campus.

Enniskillen Campus

Enniskillen Campusis located in the very beautiful county of Fermanagh. The campus was founded in 1967 and has provided over 50 years of high quality education and training with equine courses being offered since the early 1990s. The combination of excellent equestrian, teaching and residential facilities at the campus enables students to develop their practical and academic competencies in a pleasant environment. The students receive excellent support from members of the local equine industry. The campus has been redeveloped to provide an impressive range of indoor and outdoor facilities. There are stabling facilities for student livery horses, horse walkers, an indoor arena and a number of outdoor arenas, gallops, cross-country schooling and recently developed active turnout facilities

There are three main units on the campus – the Racing, Equitation and Breeding Centres which provide students the opportunity to put into practice what they learnt in the classroom. There are 10 Point-to-Point horses in the Racing Centre where students are very involved in the care, management, training and preparation for races. Some students who get their Jockey licence may get the opportunity to compete the horses in local Point-to-Points. The 24 horses in the Equitation Centre are core to developing riding skills on the flat, show jumping, cross country as well as in open spaces. Students will get the opportunity to compete at a number of shows including Balmoral. There is a range of broodmares in the campus breeding unit including Flat and National Hunt Thoroughbred and Sport Horse mares. Students are involved in a range of activities including preparation for foaling, monitoring mares around foaling, stallion selection and preparation of the Thoroughbred foals for the sales. Foaling time is always really exciting – seeing a new born foal helps students forget the sleepless nights on foal watch duty!