Alan Warnock, CAFRE’s Dairying Development Adviser, has retired from the Department of Agriculture after serving DARD and the farmers of County Fermanagh for 42 years.

Alan started with DARD in 1973 and from then until 1989, worked as a general adviser based in the Crown Buildings, Enniskillen. When Inishkeen House was built at the Killyhevlin in 1989, Alan moved there and with the advent of specialist advisers, he became a dairying adviser and remained in that position for the remainder of his career.

Since 1990, Alan has been part of the CAFRE Western Dairying Team and has worked with Connor Maguire, Pat Donnelly and laterally Trevor Alcorn and Jane Sayers. He has worked with line managers Sam Morrow, Stanley Lytle, Alec Cromie, Diane Stevenson and Olwen Gormley.

Alan enjoyed his work with many farmers throughout the entire county and was held in high esteem by them all. Alan was very committed to helping farmers and always put their interests first. Alan has a long association with the Fermanagh Grassland Club and served as secretary for 34 years.  Alan has a range of outside interests including playing the bagpipes and competing with Tullylagan Pipe Band, playing badminton, and enjoying short breaks throughout Ireland with his wife Marie. He will have more time to support his daughter Elizabeth, a pharmacist in the South of England.  His colleagues arranged a night out in Francos, and a collection of £260 was raised for his chosen charity, Leukaemia and Lymphoma NI, to mark his retirement.

Alan’s post of CAFRE Dairying Development Adviser has been filled by Christopher Breen, a Fermanagh resident from the Kinawley area who has moved back to Fermanagh after spending some years at CAFRE Greenmount Campus.