Fairmont regional vice president for Africa and India Serge Simard (left) with Mr Tom Dobler of Morendat Farm in Naivasha. courtesy
Want to have an out of town leisure experience that entails valuable lessons on specialised beef farming and the art of making wine? Naivasha’s Morendat Farm may be a name worth adding to your list of travel destinations.
The farm, whose ownership is associated with the Kenya Nut Company, features a 40-hectare vineyard commonly known as the Rift Valley Vineyards and a beef farm where selected crossbred steers are fed exclusively on corn, silage and alfalfa raised on the farm to give their meat that fine texture as desired by target consumers.
It is a busy farm managed by specialists who strive to achieve excellent output of meat as its demand grows fast.
While James Farquharson, a South African, offers consultation on wine making, Tom Dobler, an American national with 30 years experience in cattle farming takes charge of the beef farm.
The vineyard, which started out as a pet project, has existed since the 1990s.
It has since grown into a big project with hotels, retail outlets and tourists as clients for the various wines, referred to as Leleshwa, produced from the farm.
The wines hit the local market three years ago at prices of between Sh600 and Sh700 for a 750ml bottle. Since 2008, the output from the vineyard has increased from 10,000 litres to 59,000 litres annually by last year.
Other than wine making, the vineyard also produces table grapes that are eaten fresh as fruit.
During our visit to the farm, we met Hubert Des Marais, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts East Africa executive group chef ready to serve special platinum steak, a product of the beef farm.
According to the hotel officials, Fairmont chose to partner in the specialised beef farming project due to a need to have a unique texture and flavour of the beef, which would make it outstanding in the culinary scene.
Serge Simard, Fairmont’s regional vice president for Africa and India, says at least seven animals are supplied to Fairmont facilities every week.
“We endeavour to provide our clientele with the best service and product offering,” says Mr Simard. “As always we are proud to offer them new and authentic experience.”
According to Mr Dobler, the cattle at the farm feed on 2.2 tonnes of maize daily, most of which is bought locally. Together with other supplements, he estimates the feed costs at least Sh76,000.
Calves, weighing a minimum of 200kg, are sourced mainly from Timau.
The special feeding programme then takes 180 days within which they should have attained at least 500kg to be ready for slaughtering. Also at the farm is a cold room. Once the animals are slaughtered they are stored here for 21 days or more, a process called dry ageing that further enhances their taste and texture of the beef.
There are 600 cattle at the farm. The beef farming project began two years ago and is set to replace a dairy project that was started five years ago but did not deliver impressive results.
Fairmont group officially took up procurement of the beef from the farm two months ago after a two-year pilot programme that saw change of feed to meet the desired quality.
The farm also cultivates lucerne for livestock consumption and sales the surplus.
With increasing prices of maize, they have had to rethink their strategy and invest in growing the crop to cut down the costs of feed.
Other than the Fairmont hotels, the farm also supplies beef to other local corporate clients. However, it is not sold to individual and walk-in customers.
