How I turned idle dryland into a golden beef venture

In 2000, Warren Evans resolved to take over the family farm; he wanted to make it profitable.

By then, he was the only one willing to inherit the old farm started by his grandfather in 1968.

Driven by the conviction that anything is possible, Mr Evans worked hard to turn around his new venture.

This was despite Ol Maisor Farm being located in the dry Rumuruti area in Laikipia County, which sometimes experiences a shortage of pasture.

Since then, Evans has never looked back. Today, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

“The beef cattle business is quite a profitable and satisfying venture if you are passionate about livestock. All you need is to identify what works well for the ­­business and anything else will follow,” he begins.

Some of the things he learnt fast include haymaking, the introduction of more dams and boreholes, harvesting and storing water and efficiently distributing it across the farm. Apart from water for the herd, he also uses the water to irrigate pasture, especially during the dry seasons.

Today, Ol Maisor Farm has about 3,000 beef cattle. But Mr Evans first had to identify the type of breeds to keep in such a dry environment.

Compared to any other breed, Evans says, the Boran cattle breed has done well for all these years. “I came to prefer Boran because they do well under all sorts of weather conditions,” he says.

“Boran are also productive animals with a high meat to bone ratio that butchers go for. “Since l took over this farm, Boran has given me the best. I am yet to get any other that can replace it,” says Mr Evans.

He adopted a rotational grazing system whereby he regularly moves the cattle into different paddocks but warns that one should avoid overgrazing.

“Overgrazing leads to environmental issues, and we need to be careful with the effects of climate change,” says Mr Evans.

Although he has maintained his stock of about 3,000 cattle for years, Evans reveals he sometimes reduces the number during severe droughts.

“At times, it gets dry for long. So l try to destock to match the cattle with the amount of pasture available, till the rains return,” he says.

For instance, the rains have failed in the last two years, forcing him to destock to manage the available pasture.

To reduce the stock, Evans sells his cattle as steers to various feedlots, especially Naivasha, where they are fed to be mature bulls for meat.

The health of the cattle is also important on the farm. “A good indicator of a healthy beef cattle is their body condition. And the first step in keeping animals healthy is to prevent diseases from entering the farm,” says Mr Evans.

He says foot and mouth disease is prevalent in the area, especially during the dry season.

To manage it, Mr Evans ensures his herd is vaccinated three times a year. This has helped him to keep the disease at bay.

Also, having an in-house veterinarian has worked well for him. He explains the veterinarian has formed a relationship with the staff and is always quick to notice any strange behaviour in the livestock. If it is a disease, treatment begins early enough to avert any loss of cattle.

He explains it is also important for a visitor to disinfect their shoes when coming to the farm.

At the farm, pasture is the main diet for beef cattle, but he also gives them some supplementary feed, such as mineral lick.

“We supplement high protein and urea mixture. On average, each gets 150g per day of that lick, and that allows them to digest the grass,” says Mr Evans.

Mr Evans doesn’t buy calves from outside but uses his breeding herd to grow the herd.

He explains that calves born within the farm easily conform to ranch conditions.

At any given time, Mr Evans says he has between 900 and 1,000 breeding herds.

“I only sell the breeding herd when they get older and stop performing,” he explains.

On average, he keeps a breeding herd for 12 years, during which each gives him at least seven calves.

His beef cattle have a huge market locally, especially in Nairobi where he supplies tens of butchers.

In a good month, he sells around 80 to 100 beef cattle. The animals are sold whole, with a kilo going for Sh180.

“Generally when you sell a bigger animal, you can easily make upwards of Sh60,000 per cattle, depending on the weight,” he says.

Beef cattle take between three and four years to mature, depending on the availability of rainfall.

Mr Evans says despite beef cattle being a lucrative business, it has its fair share of challenges, including the high cost of feeds and insecurity.

All his animals have microchips to help in keeping records and identifying them in case they are stolen and the thief wipes out the physical branding.

“We have a computer programme where records are entered, and you can track the animal records throughout their lives using the microchip, for example, calving, vaccination, production and treatments.”

Recordkeeping, he further notes, helps in identifying productive animals.