Country Life

Iwi are trying to reclaim their forest from mobs of wallabies which they say are killing the bush and gobbling up pasture around Rotorua. Country Life heads out on a wallaby hunt.

There's no looking back for a Golden Bay dairy farming couple who eliminated imported feed and synthetic fertilisers from their paddocks.

Young equestrian Sophia Stratford has gone to the other side of the world to learn the craft of saddle, harness and bridle making at prestigious Capel Manor College in London and is among its top students.

A wrap of news from the rural sector for the week ending 15 November 2024

This week we chat to a veterinarian at Wellington Zoo's animal hospital, Te Kōhanga, we visit a peony farm in full bloom, and we hear from scientists about the pros and cons of nitrogen.

We take you inside Wellington Zoo's animal hospital, Te Kōhanga, where they help rehabilitate native birds ready to be released back into the wild.

Scientists look at the details underpinning nitrogen and its use in agriculture, horticulture and its impacts on the environment.

Flower picking and packing for export is in full swing at Prebbleton Peonies near Christchurch.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

We chat to a rural vet, visit a farm where horticulture is helping addicts recover and find out about a novel plan to capture greenhouse gases for feeding farm animals.

In a Rotorua lab scientists are cooking up plans to create stockfeed out of captured greenhouse gases from geothermal power stations.

Country Life visited Nova Trust's farm near Christchurch where the charity is helping rehabilitate addicts through horticulture.

Rory Dean, graduated as a vet from Edinburgh University in 2015, and has already filled a book - Adventures of a Country Vet - full of adventures and experiences as a rural vet in his native UK and now New Zealand.

Kiwifruit is starting to bloom in Bay of Plenty, dairy farmers up and down the country are busy breeding the next season's calves, while North Canterbury farms have welcomed some recent rain to break the dry.

We catch up with a dairy farmer embracing regenerative farming, a flower farmer juggling a young family and visit a farm classroom connecting schoolchildren to the environment.

Schoolchildren are learning in a bell tent on a riverside farm in South Wairarapa. They're taking part in a project connecting the community to the river and moana.

Kate Briant, of The Rural Florist, on how growing flowers helps her juggle a busy young family while keeping her close to her roots in horticulture.

The last time Country Life visited John Legg's Leeston dairy farm, he was adopting regenerative practices across the property. We catch up with him again five years later.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

We meet a keen gardener in the Far North, hop in the sheepyards to learn about dagging and talk emissions with a sheep and beef farmer in Wairoa. And later we take a look back in the archives with a rural postman on his rounds.

In a trip to the archives we join rural delivery man Doug Wilson on his 100-kilometre daily run around the big stations around Taihape, from a feature produced in 1985 by the team from long-running RNZ show Spectrum.

A changing climate and shifting land use has prompted Wairoa sheep and beef farmer Dave Read to develop a new breed of low-input sheep.

In this first episode of Farming 101, we check in with sheep grazier Peter Crook to find out about dagging.

If you're heading to the Far North via State Highway 1, you might spy Daphne Andrell busy at work in her garden.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

We join Girls who Grow helping bridge the urban-rural divide for young women and meet two Canterbury hunters supplying local food banks with wild venison mince.

Girls who Grow: The new education programme helping empower the next generation of wāhine in agriculture.

Hunters for Hope's Steve Hill and Adam Kreisel turn surplus venison from hunters and farmers into high-protein food parcels for low-income families.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

This week Country Life checks in on Miley the sheepdog in training and joins Katikati College students learning more about a future in horticulture.

Teens in the heart of kiwifruit country are being trained up for a career in horticulture through the Grow Hub at Katikati College.

We check back in with Miley the Huntaway pup and her trainer Chris Shaw to see what progress she's made over the last few months.

A monthly look at conditions on farms and orchards around the country.

Ocean views makes harvesting of iceberg lettuce and broccoli a lot more pleasant for Ben Scott and staff at his winter grown vegetables farm in North Canterbury.

This week we're between the rows at 144 Islands vineyard in Northland and on the Hurunui River where off-the-beaten track tourism is helping sustain a sheep farming family.

Dome glamping, farm tours and jetting up the Hurunui River supplements income and highlights cultural heritage at a traditional sheep and beef farm in North Canterbury.

Old grape vines clambering over a tumbledown shed inspired Jake Dromgool's wine-growing venture 144 Islands. He grows an array of varieties on the volcanic soils outside Kerikeri.

Richard Burke, chief of Leaderbrand, one of New Zealand's biggest horticulture groups, is returning the reins to the family which founded the firm 50 years ago.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

We meet a mother and daughter growing microgreens and head to a North Canterbury dairy farm using crops to mop up nasties which could end up in waterways.

Kali sold shoes in China before coming to NZ. She discovered her green fingers just out of Te Puke where she has joined forces with her daughter to grow microgreens.

Trials on a North Canterbury dairy farm have found that early sown oats and Italian ryegrass are taking up excess urine deposited by winter grazing cows.

Nuffield scholar and former Gisborne District Councillor Kerry Worsnop on how policymakers can better work with those on the land.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

Hear from an expert on China's consumer market, meet a former dairy high-flyer now farming a very different sort of protein and learn more about a niche rural business using deer antlers.

Jacinda and Richy Sheridan have carved out a niche for themselves, making hunting and farm knives using deer antlers.

Meet a farmer who has developed a food supplement based on a protein extracted from green leaves and established North Canterbury's first commercial hop gardens.

Mark Tanner knows what people in China are consuming. He's the founder of China Skinny, a market research company based in Shanghai.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

Ancestors roots run deep at Wairau Pā vineyard, Farming to the beat of his own drum, Farmers from around the world: Jana Gäbert, dairy farmer from Germany and the Rural News Wrap.

Haysley MacDonald was born and bred on the family farm near Marlborough's Wairau Bar, or Te Pokohiwi. The coastal land, that overlooks Cloudy Bay, is where his ancestors first landed over 800 years ago, and have lived there ever since those early migrations.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy. This week marked a year since Cyclone Gabrielle tore through the East Coast of the North Island, causing wide spread damage to farms and orchards.

Former Wellington Percussionist, Jeremy Fitzsimons, is now based on the family farm in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames. Bryan Crump paid him a visit.

Jana Gabert runs a dairy farm about 30 kilometres south of Berlin. She is among farmers around Europe who have taken to the streets in protest about increasing costs and regulation amid high competition, loss of tax breaks and climate change. Last month she rode in a farm tractor to Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate to press home farmers' concerns.

School students are helping turn quake-damaged red zoned land green again at the Climate Action Campus in Ōtautahi/Christchurch.

A year ago the Wilson family's apple trees were bowled like nine pins when logs came crashing through stop banks and silt drowned many areas. Did the trees come good?

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.

Country Life this week - a chat with a Hawkes Bay apple orchardist one year on from Gabrielle, the Climate Action Campus in Christchurch and a polo match under the hot summer sun

Summer at a sportsground in Hawkes Bay means the thud of hooves and the knock of mallets under the hot summer sun.

Former ag scientist, Ian Knowles, likes to lead from the front when it comes to sheep and plant trials and comparative experiments on his diverse hill country farm.

Geoff Mansell is growing bananas and many other subtropical fruits to supply local supermarkets and he hopes others will do the same.

People in Raglan have access to a community seed bank so they can plant their own vegetables and ensure local cultivars thrive.

Country Life goes bananas, meets an award-winning Waipara farmer and checks in on Raglan's seed bank.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.

Country Life checks in on a paddock-to-plate free range egg venture and a Canterbury lamb sale as well as consitions on farms and orchards around Aotearoa.

All stock are doing very well in Waikato and the maize crop is outstanding. In Canterbury grass growth is slow and even farms with irrigation have been battling to keep enough water going on.

Scott Jimmieson sold cars to upskill for his paddock-to-plate free range egg business. It was tough-going but good training for understanding his customers. Country Life hops in the delivery van taking eggs to the people.

"It's going to be a tough year. Do you want to talk to the bank manager or me?" Sheffield farmer Tom Ferguson tells Cosmo Kentish-Barnes after his on-farm lamb sale.

Are farmers around the world telling their story well enough? Scottish ag journo and Nuffield Scholar Claire Taylor has been visiting New Zealand and spoke to Country Life

Country Life visits Pamu's deer milking operation near Taupo, learns about farming by the Maori lunar calendar - maramataka - and hears about the potential for banana-growing on the West Coast.

Stories from the 2023 archive: Cosmo's at a high country station in the far south, Leah checks in on a toy treasure trove in Te Puke and Sally's off grid with a former Wellington mayor.

Stories from the 2023 archive: Leah meets a Northland olive grower, Cosmo's scratching cows with Loulou the Cow Whisperer and Sally's out hunting for a good cause.

Stories plucked from the 2023 archives: Cosmo's with chooks on a cliff edge, Sally's picking apples and Leah meets a dairy farmer who hails from Japan.

Watermelons are growing well in Pukekohe and potato crops are producing good yields at harvest. In Canterbury, baleage is being made and jersey bulls are being taken out of the dairy herd.

The Grinch is surfing through paddocks and cows are driving tractors on the rural roadside of Taranaki...but who won the festive farm art competition?

Colyton Clocks' Bill Williams reckons he has the largest clock collection in the world. A converted church in the village of Colyton is home to his ticking, chiming, talking timepieces dating from the 1700s.

"My pop owned a milk run" says farmer who bottles his own milk, All the time in the world, Festive farm art in Taranaki and On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around the country.

A rural entrepreneur is pasteurising and bottling A2 milk from his families farm and delivering it to people's doors, just like his grandfather did.

This week Country Life heads to a chicken trailer in the middle of a paddock which is producing eggs and helping the soil and goes on the trail of the elusive whio at Blue Duck Station.

Country Life goes on the trail of the elusive whio at Blue Duck Station while learning about the efforts to conserve the history and preserve biodiversity.

The soggy ground has put East Coast arable farmers behind schedule. Only about half this season's maize crop has been planted. Also, the Big Feed Rural Telethon has raised more than 639-thousand mince and milk meals for food banks round the country.

Country Life meets former dairy farmer Lance Gillespie, who's launching a kiwi style chicken trailer. Pasture-raised egg production fits with his interest in regenerative farming practices and, alongside the trailer business, he runs workshops to help other farmers improve their soil heath.

Cam Booker is hoping a good crowd will turn up on Christmas eve to dig their own spuds and pick peas at his market garden in Sefton.

When Geoff Crawford started trapping for pests on his farms, he was catching 70 possums a week. Now he's lucky if he gets seven...and the community have jumped on board too.

This week on Country Life; A dairy programme in Sri Lanka is lifting rural communities out of poverty. Selina Prem Kumar and charity Tearfund set the programme up in 2009 and with help from Kiwi farmers, it's grown from helping eight farmers to five-thousand. Selina's been travelling around Aotearoa thanking the farmers for thier support.

A dairy programme in Sri Lanka is lifting rural communities out of poverty. Selina Prem Kumar and charity Tearfund set the programme up in 2009 and with support from Kiwi farmers, it's grown from helping eight farmers to five-thousand.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.

A visit to the dairy shed to find out about AI and how to keep cows cool during El Nino.

Frank Erceg was victim of New Zealand's first helicopter hunting accident, but now his story, and that of the deer culling industry has come to life through his niece, Louise Maich.

Christmas cakes, a deer hunting legend, rehoming racehorses and building a wetland on farm

Chanelle Dickie has taken dozens of retired racehorses under her wing. She's part of a rehoming and re-educating programme that cares for standardbreds that have fallen off the pace.

A wetland at the bottom of a dairy farm in South Wairarapa is reducing most of the nitrates being drained from the paddocks. The project at Kaiwaiwai Dairies is nearly a decade old and one of the owners takes us on a tour.

Cake convener Christine Beaton has a tip for fruitcake bakers at the New Zealand Agricultural Show, "you don't really cook a Christmas cake, you dry it out."

Changeable weather has prevailed in Pukekohe. Farmers in Otago are busy marking lambs and bulls are going out to the cows

Sheep farming and wool innovation took centre stage at the New Zealand Agricultural Show. The new Wool Zone section showcased the versatility of sheep and educated visitors on the myriad uses for wool.

Bryan Baker has been making knives for over 40 years in Waiuku - and now the legacy keeps growing as the next generation comes through.

Wool's versatility showcased, knives out in Waiuku and a chat with farmers' market rep Jono Walker.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Monique Steele.

Jono Walker, chair of Farmers' Markets New Zealand, is Country Life's guest this week. He's been in Rome mingling with other farmers' market representatives from around the world.