“There’s two million non-replacement calves killed at four days of age - there needs to be a solution found to that.” (7-minute read)

Kakanui man Daniel Carson has a solution, and it’s mīti. 

Daniel grew up in Southland, studied at Otago University, and worked in sales, and business development for technology companies, before he married. 

His then wife’s Canterbury-based family was interested in getting into farming, and offered him the opportunity to stop travelling for work, start a family and help farm a 20ha piece of land. So that's what he did.

“We started with Fresian bulls, or four-day old calves, and we were all about management through measurement. 

“So, because of my technology background, I just measured everything, and quickly read a lot of material . . . By the time my farming career at that point came to an end, we were farming over 2000ha and wintering 7000 stock units, and I really wanted to do something positive for an industry I was passionate about.” 

In 2020, when the country went into lockdown, and Daniel was facing other life changes of his own, he wrote to the Government, who had put out a call out for suggestions around “Projects of National Significance”.

“I said that we needed to make a system of software and sensors to capture environmental and agricultural data, ultimately at scale, that would then allow us to use machine learning, and AI (artificial intelligence) to export our agricultural IP (intellectual property), to the world. And essentially be able to offer our know-how to countries, and create opportunities for smaller and remote Māori landholdings, through automation, that type of carry on,” he said.

“They came back saying, ‘that sounds good, we encourage you to keep going, but it’s not going to be our project of national significance’. Which, you know, I expected.” 

It is an idea he still believes in, but couldn’t afford to follow through on - he lacked the connections and the finances - and so on to the next idea.

The next concept is a value-add food product using a source he has experience with and is passionate about - dairy beef - mixed with another passion, science and data.

“I’d raised a whole lot of bulls in my previous occupation, and understood, essentially, all the data for those animals is recorded from birth through to death . . . They’re regularly weighed, and they grow very fast - their feed conversion efficiency is awesome, and it’s a major issue for the dairy industry.

“I just looked at it from, I suppose, a different perspective from what everyone else is doing, and from what they are traditionally used for, which is manufacturing (minced) beef - and thought well, why don’t we make a new product that doesn’t exist from it, that represents New Zealand, and what I see as the best for New Zealand and the future for New Zealand.”

For a long time he had wondered why the country did not produce its own version of a dried meat product, such as a beef jerky or biltong.

“I thought well, why don’t I do that - and why don’t I incorporate a whole lot of other ingredients unique to New Zealand.”

The easiest way he saw was to start with a manufacturing beef base, which allows other ingredients to be mixed in.

The minced beef also means the end product is easier to chew, making it more viable for a wider group of consumers - such as children and the elderly.

“I looked at what exists currently, and I’ve always believed that meat was a nutrient-dense health food. I thought that there was a whole lot of science coming to support that, and I was like, ‘well, how do we enhance that story, and not essentially take away from it, by filling it with salt preservatives, like other dried meat products are’.”

One prerequisite was the product needed to have shelf-life, so it wasn’t a “price taker”. 

Friends at Staveley, who own Southern Alps Honey in Canterbury, harvest honeydew from the black beech forests. Daniel’s research revealed honey has been used as a natural preservative for thousands of years, and so he investigated that option further. 

“It’s got some very unique properties, so I decided to use that as our natural preservative, but also as a prebiotic and all the natural health benefits that go with it.” 

And from there, he started networking. 

“The first thing I did - and it was really beneficial, there was a Food, Fibre and Agritech Challenge, which is actually running again at the moment. So I was in that this time last year.

“You go through a series of courses around setting up a business, and you’re assigned a mentor and that was really good, but it also made me realise that the flavour of the day was plant-based meats, it was technology, it wasn’t meat foods.”

After that, he applied for funding with the Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AgMardt).

“They essentially supply money for agricultural ideas, innovative ideas, they do a whole lot of different fundings - and so I applied for funding for a proof of concept, just to try and do this with FoodSouth and Otago University - to see if we could get the shelf-life ultimately, and how the honey would mix with the beef.”

Success with that application gave Daniel the confidence to engage with AgResearch for help around meat processing issues. 

It is currently inefficient to process the 12-month animal, as all the processing companies he has spoken to indicate the costs involved are similar to those for a full-sized animal.

“So there was no issue at farm level. There was no issue with supply of these animals. The issue was with the meat processors - they ultimately want to charge you the same amount for half the amount of beef, which ends up making the raw material very expensive.

People at AgResearch suggested Daniel apply for funding via the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) with their support.

“I did that, and was fortunate to be given enough funding to take this through to commercialisation trials.”

While production trials had already begun, the initial samples were very dry, and lacking in flavour. Daniel found it frustrating to deal with food scientists and academics who had maybe been “assigned” his project, but were not particularly interested in the concept, and had no vested interest in the outcome.

“I found that quite difficult, early days, and as I mentioned - meat products aren’t the flavour of the day, so it was hard. 

“I think a lot of people thought it probably wasn’t going to go anywhere - and look, it may still not go anywhere - but I managed to engage with really good people at AgResearch - a really well-known meat scientist there, and some food-related and production people there.” 

Along with that, he found an experienced food technologist in Auckland who is “very enthusiastic about the product”.

“She’s been really good, and has essentially super-charged the pace at which we’ve been able to go at, since.” 

Since then, a number of different samples have been produced, containing ingredients such as the native bush spices horopito and kawakawa, seaweed, and kanuka and manuka smoke, in an effort to perfect the recipe.

Daniel is particularly keen to incorporate “functional, medicinal” native plants, which provide extra health benefits, but also make the product even more uniquely New Zealand.

“So we’ve been able to incorporate a lot of what I think are future foods - easily sustainable, and also nature positive ingredients - to make this a true, high-protein, nutrient-dense meat snack.”

With a goal to launch the product mid-June at Hamilton’s Fieldays - the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event - the pressure has gone on in the past few months in particular, to turn out a product Daniel is happy to present to the thousands which flood through the gates.

He has settled on a prototype, and has 6,000 samples to share, provided they pass all the necessary food safety tests.

“It’s not perfect - there’s a lot of science that goes into getting the process right. 

“From a drying/shelf-life/bacterial perspective, when you’re not using preservatives, or nitrates, or a whole lot of salt - there’s a reason why people don’t go down that track by default - it is very difficult.”

Daniel measures out some nori seaweed, and horopito for his next batch of Mīti samples at the Food Innovation Network in Auckland, for Hamilton's Fieldays this month. PHOTO: Ashley Smyth

The perfect shape for the snack is still undecided, with the correct equipment to deal with the meat mixture hard to come by. People who sample the product will be surveyed, among other things, for their opinions on what size and shape they would prefer to consume.

“There’s still a lot of work. We’re launching at Fieldays in the Prototype Innovation category, and we’re hoping to generate a lot of public interest. And if the interest is there from industry, and also the public and farmers as a solution to this bobby calf, or non-replacement dairy calf issue, we hope to generate funding to establish a facility or get a co-packer in to perfect the process.”

As well as helping to solve a problem within the dairy industry, Daniel also wants to show his two sons, Harrison, 12, and James, 9, that you can achieve something if you set your mind to it and are not afraid to work hard. And it has been hard work.

“It's always hard, but it’s not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, everybody would do it. 

“I think the best thing about this for me, is I think I have found a bit of a calling or a passion. It’s something I believe in.”

Working a full-time job, being a single dad with shared custody, and then working an extra 10 to 15 hours a week on mīti, seems like a lot. 

“But this was never work, it was exciting,” he said. 

“I felt like I could change things, and I also felt like my unique circumstances and background sort of made me a good person to be talking about this, because I had the farming background, I had the technology background, I had the sales background, and my passion and love for reading scientific things.

“There’s just a whole lot of things that sort of fell into place, that made me a good proponent to push this, and now I’ve convinced myself it's the way forward.”

So far, Daniel has garnered huge industry support from the likes of Dairy NZ, the Meat Industry Association, Ngāi Tahu, Rural Innovation Lab, as well as AgResearch and MPI, but he said crucial to the success of this idea, is the support of the farmers.

“Because it’s going to be the farmers - and especially the dairy farmers - they currently supply 51% of all beef sold out of New Zealand.” 

They have a lot of power to influence what happens long term - and if other companies started creating similar products out of the same stock class, it would be a “win, win, win”. 

“So for example, if McDonald’s was to start purchasing 12 months of age manufacturing beef - they already buy a whole lot of bull beef that we used to rear - their ESG (environment, social, governance) goals become achievable way more easily, because dairy cattle raised for beef have significantly lower emissions per kilogramme of product they produce.  

“Farmers on the ground don’t have to change a whole lot of the way they manage things. We take a whole lot of wintering out of our farming systems, which means a whole lot less nitrate to groundwater issues, and it’s a lot easier management for farmers as well.”

A big part of making things come together this far, has been Daniel’s willingness to collaborate. In order to secure the significant funding he received through MPI, he had to gather letters of support from other players in the industry.

He reached out to many through business social media platform LinkedIn, and made strong connections with a number of people he is yet to meet.

He has also made connections locally, and sees the Waitaki District as an ideal place to base his business.

He spoke on the issue of non-replacement calves at last year’s South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) held in Ōamaru, and shared his idea. The reception from that, and the resulting connection with Dairy NZ gave him encouragement to keep going.

He was also hopeful a manufacturing facility could be established in Ōamaru in the future, and saw other opportunities in the Waitaki, albeit a bit further off-shore. 

“At the moment we’re having to use imported seaweed in our product because there is no food grade seaweed being produced in New Zealand, which is crazy. 

“It’s a massive opportunity - that in itself, for areas like the Waitaki and further afield, and we’ve been working with Cawthron Institute in order to get some trial work off the ground with that as well.”

New Zealand already has a good reputation internationally, and mīti builds on that, Daniel said.

He encourages people to look further into combinations of ingredients unique to New Zealand.

“Because that’s a competitive advantage we’ve got . . . We’ll find out how those products are received, but I think it just sort of plays into the future trends of what consumers are demanding now in their foods, from a transparency, traceability, environmental sustainability, and health perspective.”