Miti Wins Top Innovator Award at Australian Dairy Conference

Miti founder Daniel Carson received the Australian Dairy Conference Innovator Award in Melbourne this month.

Miti makes a protein snack from New Zealand grass-fed young beef with honey and touts its business model as one that could deliver more value with less environmental impact. The company's involvement in Australia is growing through a pilot project in Tasmania.

As his main prize, Carson receives a A$3,000 travel bursary to assist ongoing professional development in a chosen field.

Carson told Rural News that winning the Innovator Award matters "because it signals that dairy farmers are ready to support structural thinking, not just small tweaks around the edges".

"It opens doors. It accelerates conversations. It builds trust that this is bigger than a snack brand, it's a systems solution."

In New Zealand, Miti works with farmers to raise bobby calves to 12 months old then use their meat in Miti snack bars. The dairy sector has been under scrutiny for treatment of bobby calves. Fonterra farmers are now required to ensure that bobby calves should be raised for beef, slaughtered for calf-veal, or for the pet food market.

Carson points out that Australia has a similar structural challenge but on a smaller scale than New Zealand.

"The scale is different but there are still significant numbers of surplus dairy-origin calves, around 400,000 each year that don't have high-value pathways."

Carson says the bobby calves issue isn't a farmer problem, but "a system design problem".

"For decades, processing plants, carcass specs and boxed-beef programs were built for a certain animal, in a certain era.

"Dairy came along offering lean protein for manufacturing, but infrastructure didn't evolve with it. That's the gap we're focused on.

"Right now, our involvement in Australia is growing through a Tasmania pilot. The goal is simple: work with dairy systems, not against them.

"Finish animals younger and efficiently, design processing around lighter carcasses, use the whole animal, and turn that into lean, nutrient-dense protein for modern food manufacturers."

In New Zealand, Miti works with farmers to raise bobby calves to 12 months old then use their meat in Miti snack bars.

More Collaboration

Daniel Carson's message to Australian and New Zealand dairy farmers is not to change your farming practices but collaborate more with the beef sector.

"You already produce something incredibly valuable," he told Rural News.

"The opportunity isn't to change what you do, it's to build the infrastructure, and sales channels that finally value it properly.

"When beef and dairy collaborate intentionally, we unlock new revenue streams, better welfare outcomes, and lower carbon protein, without adding friction at farm level.

"That's what excites me most."