From Farm to Freezer
South Island farmer and former meat industry executive, Wayne Cameron, brought his dream of beef bites to life after Covid. Words Lucinda Diack. Photo Elise Rutherford.
Growing up on the sheep and beef farm, ‘Ardroy’, Wayne Cameron relishes paying homage to his family heritage with his innovation of cow beef to fill a gap in the home takeaway market with Little Ardroy Beef Bites.
With his experience in exporting meat, Wayne saw a gap in the market – not only in the utilisation of prime cows, but in the freezer section of supermarkets.
“We have frozen fish bites, chicken nuggets and all the variations they offer,” says Wayne, “but nothing in the red-meat-sector.”
“I have built my career in the meat industry, working on special projects,” he explains, “and Little Ardroy is a personal project that allows me to get closer to consumers.”
With much of our cow beef sold off-shore, Wayne saw the opportunity to create the beef version of chicken nuggets using meat from cows that “live out a happy retirement – eating what and when they want’ on the Banks Peninsula farm he calls ‘a retirement village.”
Collaborating with Professor Pablo Gregorini, from Lincoln University, Wayne’s cows are presented with ‘a grazing buffet of grass’; following the Professor of Livestock Production and Agriculture Systems’ development of an optimal system for animal welfare and animal health.
Testing took a few years as Wayne wanted the flavour to appeal to both kids and adults and for the bite to work as both a snack and an ingredient. He knew he was onto something when his 12-year-old son, Ollie, kept bringing friends home after school and all they would ask for was more beef bites. “Parents started coming up to me asking what I was making as their kids were coming home and talking about them – it proved the idea would work,” he enthuses.
“The response was overwhelming. The quality and flavour complexity was there for adults, and the kids couldn’t get enough.”
Little Ardroy Beef was awarded the Small Supplier of the year title at the New World Emerge 2025 Awards, taking out both the judges’ and staff votes. New World is now working with Wayne to help upscale with a staged release of the product across their stores so everyone in Aotearoa can enjoy the benefits of red-meat-based food in the freezer section.
