Success is delicious at Meredith Dairy

MEREDITH Farm Produce – Meredith Dairy’s goat meat venture – has won the From the Paddock category of the 2025 national delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards.

This stream of the business produces Dairy Capretto (young goat in Italian) from the farm’s male goats and Ex Dairy meat from older female goats no longer producing milk.

“We were incredibly flattered to have won,” said Meredith Dairy marketing manager Angus Cameron. “The press that we’ve had from it has been amazing.”

Mr Cameron said the farm only started its own on-site micro abattoir in mid-2024, but in the last week of August alone, they sold one tonne of meat.

“It’s grown incredibly quickly,” he said.

Over the last 13 months they have picked up some high-profile customers, with their distribution through Flinders + Co.

“Our first customer was Matt Moran at Aria restaurant in Sydney, and very soon after that – it might have even been the same week – Guy Grossi at Florentino in Melbourne,” Mr Cameron said.

“Meatsmith, Andrew McConnell’s butcher, buys shoulders and legs, and we’ve done some special things with them.

“Meredith Farm Produce has grown largely through food service because we don’t really have the supply chain to sell to butchers. It’s always a consistent age, a healthy goat, and it’s just like our goats cheese; clean flavoured, fresh and delightful.

“It’s really been led by a lot of these high-end chefs, and for a lot of the same reasons that we got into it; trying to make change around sustainability and leave the world better than we found it.

“Food service is great, but we would love to sell to more families. We hope to one day sell all sorts of farm produce under this brand, including preserves, lamb, goat soap, honey, leather, et cetera.”

Meredith Farm Produce stemmed from a Meredith Dairy strategic review 10 years ago.

“We looked at all the threats facing the dairy, and what we could do differently, and we came up with the vision to produce food sustainably,” Mr Cameron said.

“One of our issues was what to do with the male dairy goats, because only the females produce milk. We need a certain amount to replenish the herd, but you get to a point where it’s not profitable to raise them all.

“We have a purpose-built shed for the male dairy goats, but we were still losing between $40 and $80 per goat that we raised.

“We still did it because if that’s the cost of looking after your males, then so be it, but it had always been a dream to find a purpose for them in the food system.”

Meredith Farm Produce won a delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award at a state level this year, and was automatically named a finalist for the national awards.

The awards judging panel included chefs Alla Wolf-Tasker, Alex Prichard, Danielle Alvarez, Jo Barrett, Karena Armstrong, Lennox Hastie, Matt Moran, Matt Stone and Peter Gilmore.