40-acre Donadea Farm in County Kildare is home to a herd of dark Wagyu Cattle – the Japanese black cow
Jennie Doyle is in the unusual position of sitting in her office in rural Kildare and looking out upon a herd of dark Wagyu cattle.
They say that in Ireland, you’re never too many generations away from the land and in the case of Jennie Doyle, it was closer still, even before she and her husband Adam bought 40-acre Donadea Farm in County Kildare five years ago:
Adam, a business man he grew up on a farm and both his parents were involved with marts in Kildare and Sligo. This background, Jennie says, is vital to their success, providing a strong foundation of generational knowledge and advice.
From Business to Farming: The Doyle Family Vision
“He had this lifelong ambition to have a farm of his own,” explains Jennie. “He bought this farm with a vision to do something. We weren’t quite sure what that something was going to be!”
While visiting family on a farm in Scotland, they discovered the Wagyu breed – the Japanese black cow, most famously used in Japan to create the world-famous Kobe beef.
“Adam was thinking that, instead of having a number of breeds on our farm, that we’d concentrate on just one,” says Jennie.
Discovering Wagyu: A Japanese Tradition in Kildare
There is a point of confusion when it comes to Wagyu and Kobe beef. Kobe beef is produced in the area around the city of Kobe in Japan and it goes through a series of conditions in raising the animal (which is always a Wagyu beef animal) in order to be classified as Kobe Beef. In the case of Donadea Farm, the cattle produce the high-quality Wagyu beef but it’s not Kobe Beef that’s produced.
In a world where normal beef is already expensive, Wagyu is a premium product.
This means that branding and packaging are key to its success. Jennie and Adam realise this and put as much effort into that side of the business as into breeding and caring for their special animals.
“I think that if you’re ordering a premium product such as this, it’s important that it looks and feels special – whether you’re receiving it in a restaurant or it’s a package arriving to your home.”
Crafting a Premium Product: Quality Over Quantity
For their premium beef burger, for example, they spent 9 months developing the product to get it just right – and, she adds, with no more than half a percent of it containing salt and pepper.
“We’ve used good cuts of meat in them,” says Jennie. “It’s a very pure burger, with no binders or anything like that in it.”
Their B2B sales sector is very important, with restaurants such as the Enclosure Restaurant at the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth finding a steady market for their product on their menu. The curiosity factor is very strong, says Jennie, with people seemingly prepared to go that extra amount in search of high-quality food.
“For us, it’s about building a reputation for ourselves,” says Jennie. Continuity of quality is a challenge. “Every animal is different… they’re all reared the same way but when you go to process them, some animals can be very different to others and your marbling can be better in one than in another. What we’re trying to do is to keep that consistency.”
The animals are slaughtered and processed locally with Adam often accompanying each beast through the entire process.
Taking Wagyu on the Road: Ireland’s First Wagyu Food Truck
“We have an Airstream Food Truck trailer,” says Jennie, “and we’ve done a couple of events in it already. We do our burgers and also our beef sausages in hot-dogs. We do private events with it, as well as festivals, corporate events and others. We’ve a couple of really good chefs that run that and we’ve had great feedback from it… as far as I know, it’s the only Wagyu Food Truck in the country at the moment.”
There are challenges to the business, of course. Apart from all the usual extravagant costs involved in businesses today
“The restaurant trade can be tough too. We’re a new company with a unique product and you’re trying to build your reputation as you go along.”
Building a Reputation in Ireland’s Food Scene
The cost is the other challenge. With the cost of living continuing to soar for consumers, taking them away from the idea that you must cut corners in every department of your life is the challenge.
“There’s nothing wrong with saving money, of course,” says Jennie, “but with beef prices the way they are, if you’re paying only €1 for a burger, you’d have to question how good that burger is.
“We eat out as much as we can and one thing that really annoys me is when you pay a high price for something and it’s not good. I’d much rather pay an extra two or three euros for a burger, for example, and be assured that it’s really good.”
Chef Bernard McGuane at the Glenroyal Hotel has been a champion of their produce from the beginning
“He’s been a massive advocate for us. We were only at an event the other day that the Glenroyal and Bernard were catering for. Between our burgers and his skills, it was the talk of the event. We’re so lucky to have someone like that who is so passionate about food and where the product comes from to be able to give us feedback and very positive feedback too.”
They have reviewed their pricing policy on a number of occasions, she says, but in food (as in most things), the concepts of price and value-for-money are not the same and the feedback from the public so far would indicate that Donadea Farm is on the right track with a quality meat product like no other.
For anyone now salivating, their Wagyu beef products can be ordered online at donadeafarm.ie.
