Country Life takes you down country roads to meet ordinary people achieving their dreams. We live in a beautiful country...
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 18 October 2024
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.
10/18/2024 • 49 minutes, 7 seconds
From the Archive: A day in the life of a rural postie
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.
10/18/2024 • 19 minutes, 22 seconds
Shifting times for sheep in Wairoa
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.
10/18/2024 • 9 minutes, 17 seconds
Farming 101: What's a dag?
In this first episode of Farming 101, we check in with sheep grazier Peter Crook to find out about dagging.
10/18/2024 • 6 minutes, 40 seconds
A garden in Moerewa
If you're heading to the Far North via State Highway 1, you might spy Daphne Andrell busy at work in her garden.
10/18/2024 • 4 minutes, 36 seconds
Rural News Wrap for 18 October 2024
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
10/18/2024 • 7 minutes, 18 seconds
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 11 October 2024
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.
10/11/2024 • 49 minutes, 9 seconds
The next generation of land girls
Girls who Grow: The new education programme helping empower the next generation of wāhine in agriculture.
10/11/2024 • 20 minutes, 15 seconds
Hunters supply foodbanks with tonnes of wild venison mince
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.
10/11/2024 • 20 minutes, 20 seconds
Rural News Wrap for 11 October 2024
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
10/11/2024 • 6 minutes, 25 seconds
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 4 October 2024
This week Country Life checks in on Miley the sheepdog in training and joins Katikati College students learning more about a future in horticulture.
10/4/2024 • 50 minutes, 14 seconds
Dig This - Grow Hub ignites teens' interest 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.
10/4/2024 • 17 minutes, 34 seconds
From pup to pro: Miley's diva days
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.
10/4/2024 • 12 minutes, 26 seconds
On the Farm for 4 October 2024
A monthly look at conditions on farms and orchards around the country.
10/4/2024 • 8 minutes, 6 seconds
Whale watching while picking winter grown greens
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.
10/4/2024 • 9 minutes, 54 seconds
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 27 September 2024
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.
9/27/2024 • 50 minutes, 33 seconds
Off the beaten track tourism sustains two generations of sheep farmers
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.
9/27/2024 • 19 minutes, 46 seconds
144 Islands - A Northland vineyard inspired by vines from days gone by
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.
9/27/2024 • 16 minutes, 15 seconds
From steering tractors to the helm of Leaderbrand
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.
9/27/2024 • 6 minutes, 50 seconds
Rural News Wrap for 27 September 2024
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
9/27/2024 • 6 minutes, 6 seconds
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 20 September 2024
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.
9/20/2024 • 50 minutes, 35 seconds
From selling shoes in China to sprouting microgreens in Te Puke
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.
9/20/2024 • 19 minutes, 8 seconds
Catch crops help prevent nitrogen from leaching into waterways
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.
9/20/2024 • 13 minutes, 41 seconds
Kerry Worsnop on a better approach to policy
Nuffield scholar and former Gisborne District Councillor Kerry Worsnop on how policymakers can better work with those on the land.
9/20/2024 • 9 minutes, 6 seconds
Rural News Wrap for 20 September 2024
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
9/20/2024 • 6 minutes, 28 seconds
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 13 September 2024
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.
9/13/2024 • 50 minutes, 5 seconds
A cut above: Couple making 'one of a kind' knives
Jacinda and Richy Sheridan have carved out a niche for themselves, making hunting and farm knives using deer antlers.
9/13/2024 • 20 minutes, 8 seconds
Milk high fliers move into hops and plant proteins
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.
9/13/2024 • 13 minutes, 19 seconds
The inside skinny on China's consumers from Mark Tanner
Mark Tanner knows what people in China are consuming. He's the founder of China Skinny, a market research company based in Shanghai.
9/13/2024 • 14 minutes, 50 seconds
Rural News Wrap for 13 September 2024
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
9/13/2024 • 5 minutes, 30 seconds
Farmer retires land he says "shouldn't ever have animals on it"
"I've been farming on my own account for 52 years and cut down a fair share of trees, so now is my time to leave this place better than we found it," Chris Bolderston told Country Life.
9/6/2024 • 18 minutes, 35 seconds
"It's lovely planting new trees and making nature"
Children are planting trees to recreate the understorey of remnant ancient forest on the edge of a South Wairarapa river. It's the second story in a series about the Ruamahanga Farm Trust which wants to connect the land, the river and the community.
9/6/2024 • 13 minutes, 36 seconds
Adding birds to the farmer's toolbox
The growing strips of plantings separating rivers and roads from farmland on the Canterbury Plains has piqued the interest of Dr Sara Kross, an expert in how to encourage biodiversity on farm.
9/6/2024 • 9 minutes, 40 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
9/6/2024 • 6 minutes, 29 seconds
Country Life Friday 6 September 2024
It's Conservation Week! This time the Country Life team meet a North Canterbury farmer who is retiring land he says "shouldn't ever have animals on it", we check back in with the school children helping restore an ancient forest on the edge of a South Wairarapa river and we learn more about the impacts of hedgerow planting on farm biodiversity.
9/6/2024 • 50 minutes, 9 seconds
A sweet life farming salt - "just a man and his bucket"
James Moore is up to his knees in the waves at Cable Bay in Northland, a bucket in each hand. He's a small-scale salt farmer, with a plan to help others into salt farming.
8/30/2024 • 20 minutes
The Ruatoria 'Noah's ark' for native plants
Māori conservationist Graeme Atkins at home in Ruatoria where he's collected the "Noah's Ark" of endangered wild cuttings, including the beautiful ngutukākā or kakabeak flower.
8/30/2024 • 12 minutes, 59 seconds
Guest - Dairy farmer Stephen Crawford
South Otago's biggest organic dairy farm might go conventional after news the dairy company which picks up the milk is reviewing the premiums for organic milk.
8/30/2024 • 8 minutes, 22 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
It's been a kind winter for most North Island farmers now busy with lambing and calving, with warmer temperatures and plenty of rain helping to keep the grass growing. Meanwhile sheep farmers in the South Island hope to see prices rise again.
8/30/2024 • 7 minutes, 2 seconds
Country Life Friday 30 August 2024
This week the Country Life team heads to a small-scale salt farm in Northland and meets a conservationist collecting endangered wildflowers.
8/30/2024 • 50 minutes, 21 seconds
Globetrotting envoy Hamish Marr grows the New Zealand agriculture story
Methven farmer Hamish Marr is proud to showcase farmers' and growers' innovations to overseas governments "and anyone else who is buying our products".
8/23/2024 • 22 minutes, 15 seconds
Tropical fruit tree seedlings in high demand as climate changes
Warmer weather means people can now grow fruits like pawpaw and bananas as far south as Invercargill.
8/23/2024 • 14 minutes, 14 seconds
Guest - A moment for the humble persimmon
Wayne Hall, general manager of Wi Pere Trust's horticulture team in Gisborne, shares his love of persimmons and a recipe for how to best enjoy the fruit.
8/23/2024 • 6 minutes, 14 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
8/23/2024 • 6 minutes, 5 seconds
Country Life for Friday 23 August 2024
This week the Country Life team introduces us to New Zealand's agricultural trade envoy, Hamish Marr. Cosmo visits his family's arable farm near Methven... and demand for tropical fruit trees like longan, jackfruit and bananas is keeping a Northland horticulture teacher busy on his lifestyle block overlooking Doubtless Bay.
8/23/2024 • 51 minutes, 14 seconds
Wellington's goat scapes and a family's dairy dream
Meet the Steenkamp family behind The Brooklyn Creamery, supplying Wellington locals with fresh goat's milk and goat's milk products from just outside the city centre.
8/16/2024 • 18 minutes, 46 seconds
Trees help combat erosion on Hurunui hill country
There's often little that can be done to prevent erosion of farmland, but the roots which grow from trees like willow and poplar are one way to help secure land that is at risk of slipping and slumping.
8/16/2024 • 11 minutes, 12 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's rural news.
8/16/2024 • 7 minutes, 18 seconds
Guest - Kellogg scholar Rebecca Hyde
Rebecca farms sheep and beef in Scargill with her husband and father. She's also authored a project aimed at building collaboration with farming communities and Runanga in the Hurunui District.
8/16/2024 • 8 minutes, 58 seconds
Country Life for Friday 16 August 2024
This week the Country Life team meet the Steenkamp family who are milking it in Wellington. The family runs The Brooklyn Creamery, supplying the city with fresh goat's milk and goat's milk products from just outside the city centre. Also...Trees are helping to combat erosion on hill country in the Hurunui District. Six farms in the Blythe Valley are getting willow and poplar poles planted on land at risk of slipping and slumping.
8/16/2024 • 48 minutes, 47 seconds
Growing future growers in Wairoa
Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa celebrates its first commercial apple harvest and the first of its horticulture cadets graduating. Along with Ohuia Incorporation, the trust has planted 28-hectares of Maori-land, transitioning from traditional sheep and beef farming to horticulture.
8/9/2024 • 9 minutes, 50 seconds
MenzShed - a place where blokes can be blokes
A backyard initiative is keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury. The Cheviot MenzShed is a tooled-up workshop where men can tinker, talk and share their skills with the local community.
8/9/2024 • 8 minutes, 57 seconds
The rural dunny - a good place to do your business
A trip to the archives with a nostalgic tribute to that most humble and human New Zealand institution, the dunny, from a feature produced in 1975 by the team from long-running RNZ show Spectrum.
8/9/2024 • 12 minutes, 5 seconds
Taking salad to the next level in Taranaki
A Waverley business has cut the ribbon on a 900 square metre state-of-the-art tunnel house. Salad Brothers took over the 1.1 hectare site about 18 months ago and aims to produce half a million lettuces a year.
8/9/2024 • 10 minutes, 40 seconds
Country Life for Friday 9 August 2024
This week on Country Life a high-tech lettuce farm in Taranaki, a tribute to the old fashioned dunny, a backyard project keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury and hort cadets in Wairoa getting their hands in the soil.
8/9/2024 • 51 minutes, 40 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
8/9/2024 • 6 minutes, 45 seconds
No lost sheep for this Bo Peep - pro shearer finds dream job
Shearer Brya Harrison, aka "Bow" Peep, gives lifestyle-block owners a helping hand with their sheep.
8/2/2024 • 22 minutes, 37 seconds
A 'beautiful abundant food system' for future generations
Jared Hiakita has been germinating a seed of an idea while nurturing his food forest at the off-grid family farm in Hokianga. The seed has grown into a charity which will grow and donate fruit tree seedlings to local marae so locals can grow and harvest their own fruit.
8/2/2024 • 15 minutes, 39 seconds
"They're not just clients they're friends "
Erin Middleton owns the only hair salon between Kaikoura and Amberley. The Cheviot hairdresser, who is also an emergency first responder, says she enjoys listening to her clients stories as much as cutting and colouring their hair.
8/2/2024 • 3 minutes, 25 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
In Pukekohe, a mild winter weather has prevailed with regular rainfall. Vegetables are literally jumping out of the ground. Marlborough grape growers have finished with pruning and most are on track for getting their maintenance work done.
8/2/2024 • 7 minutes, 12 seconds
Country Life for Friday 2 August 2024
This week the Country Life team meet a shearer nicknamed Bo Peep who's found her dream job and they explore a food forest in the Hokianga.
8/2/2024 • 50 minutes, 50 seconds
'See, feel, touch': How a riverside farm connects with community
A South Wairarapa riverside farm is turning into a rich classroom, offering lessons in science and the environment, maths, language, and legends of the land.
7/26/2024 • 21 minutes, 4 seconds
Cashmere goat farmer wants to reboot luxurious fibre industry
David Shaw has been on a 35-year goat fibre journey on his farm in South Otago. It began with 50 multi-coloured feral goats and now, through selective breeding, he runs 700 creamy white goats and believes their fine cashmere fibre is cut out for the world's top fashion brands.
7/26/2024 • 12 minutes, 36 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
7/26/2024 • 7 minutes, 37 seconds
Tips for farmworkers from dirt bike champions
Four of the country's champion endurance motorbike riders are offering lessons around the country on how to ride farm bikes safely. They're hoping the fundraiser will help them get to Spain in October for the world's premier off-road motorbike event, the International Six Days of Enduro.
7/26/2024 • 7 minutes, 58 seconds
Country Life for Friday 26 July 2024
Country Life meets a farmer who's been on a 35-year quest to breed the perfect cashmere goat, a dirtbike enduro champion is helping farm workers ride their two wheelers safely, and a riverside farm restores its wetland and gets kids excited about freshwater science.
7/26/2024 • 50 minutes, 52 seconds
From pup to pro: Following a Wairarapa working dog's journey
Meet Miley, a seven-month-old huntaway with great potential. She's the third generation bred by award-winning dog triallist Chris Shaw and we'll follow along as he trains her up.
7/19/2024 • 19 minutes, 29 seconds
Mosgiel tech company uses AI to help farmers figure out when - and how - to drench sheep
New technology is helping farmers to prevent drench resistance and keep sheep parasite-free.
7/19/2024 • 13 minutes, 24 seconds
Retired Working Dogs charity sees jump in old dogs needing new homes
The cost of living crunch has seen the number of retired working dogs looking for homes explode. We talk to the charity helping rehome them about why they make such great pets
7/19/2024 • 7 minutes, 12 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
7/19/2024 • 7 minutes, 46 seconds
Country Life Friday 19 July 2024
This week Country Life meets a Huntaway pup with great potential to become a top farm dog, we learn about the science behind protecting sheep from worms, a charity is helping to rehome old working dogs plus a wrap of the week's rural news.
7/19/2024 • 49 minutes, 59 seconds
AI cameras in pest traps recognise predators and birds
A pilot using artificial technology to differentiate predators from native birds could be a game-changer for pest control.
7/12/2024 • 22 minutes, 17 seconds
Eltham hotel an unlikely home to war relief project
Step inside an old post office in rural Taranaki and you'd think you were in a grand mansion in Europe. It's been converted into a small luxury hotel, but there's more than meets the eye behind its beautifully refurbished walls.
7/12/2024 • 13 minutes, 45 seconds
India poses challenges and opportunity for NZ meat producers
Strategic thinking is needed to break into the Indian market, Meat Industry Association's Sirma Karapeeva says.
7/12/2024 • 4 minutes, 51 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
7/12/2024 • 6 minutes, 41 seconds
Country Life for Friday 12 July 2024
This week Country Life meets a couple who have restored the old post office in rural Taranaki and ... a new pest trap driven by artificial intelligence is being rolled out around the Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Otago.
7/12/2024 • 50 minutes, 52 seconds
Agrivoltaics tested at Northland solar farm
Kohirā is a solar farm near Kaitaia that is experimenting with agrivoltaics - combining agriculture with harvesting the energy of the sun. They run sheep under the solar panels and are looking at other forms of ag to integrate into the farm.
7/5/2024 • 20 minutes, 26 seconds
What's the model sheep of the future?
Sheep breeders will increasingly have to address issues like animal welfare and the right to farm when they consider improving their sheep's genetics, experts say. But the biggest issue facing breeders is profitability.
7/5/2024 • 13 minutes, 5 seconds
East Coast farmers 'feel forgotten'
Farmers in Te Tai Rāwhiti have made huge progress since Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc on the region last year. However, successive severe weather events mean the work is far from over.
7/5/2024 • 6 minutes, 44 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Apple growers in Hawkes Bay are busy pruning trees and pulling out old blocks. Further south, farmers on the West Coast are feeding out silage, moving breaks and getting ready for calving.
7/5/2024 • 7 minutes, 6 seconds
Country Life for Friday 5 July 2024
Country Life looks at a farming system known as agrivoltaics where traditional agriculture runs alongside solar farming and Cosmo's at a sheep breeders field day on Banks Peninsula, to find out how genetic gains can boost farm profits.
7/5/2024 • 49 minutes, 41 seconds
Kaputī and kaitiakitanga in Taemaro Bay
Sandra Heihei is the 17th generation of her family living in remote Taemaro Bay. She and her husband Alfonso live off grid and are among kaitiaki of this ancestral coastal land. Passing on knowledge of and respect for the whenua is her goal.
6/27/2024 • 16 minutes, 22 seconds
Compost replaces chemical fertilisers on South Otago dairy farm
Regenerative farming suits Mark Anderson down to the ground. He's focused on putting as much life and diversity back into the land and says the benefits to the entire farm, and his own well-being, are evident.
6/27/2024 • 16 minutes, 23 seconds
Bringing kiwi back to the capital: A national taonga returns to Wellington
A night out tracking the new kiwi which call Wellington, and Terawhiti Station, home with the Capital Kiwi Project team.
6/27/2024 • 5 minutes, 41 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news from RNZ's rural news desk.
6/27/2024 • 7 minutes, 30 seconds
Country Life for Friday 28 June 2024
This week the Country Life team spends a night out tracking kiwi in the capital, meets a family living off-grid on their ancestral land in the Far North and visits a South Otago dairy farm where compost has replaced chemical fertilisers.
6/27/2024 • 48 minutes, 45 seconds
Where Wellington's wild things live
How Terawhiti Station, a 4800-ha farm off Wellington's west coast, became the cornerstone of a project which has seen kiwi return to the capital.
6/21/2024 • 21 minutes, 8 seconds
Get your skates on
People in the small farming community of Staveley in Canterbury are hoping their newly upgraded ice rink can stand up to global warming after locals pitched in to pay for a new refrigeration system.
6/21/2024 • 11 minutes, 37 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news from RNZ's rural news desk.
6/21/2024 • 7 minutes, 48 seconds
Swapping swipe cards for spuds
Sarah Mosley is a chip off the old block. The former Wellington hotel manager is following in her father's footsteps after she headed home to join the family potato-growing business in South Otago.
6/21/2024 • 8 minutes, 26 seconds
Country Life for Friday 21 June 2024
Country Life meets a former hotel manager who's swapped swipe cards for growing spuds, goes for a skate at a country ice rink and visits the farm at the centre of Wellington's kiwi project.
6/21/2024 • 50 minutes, 52 seconds
From farm to fabric to fashion
Georgina Lawson and her husband Willie farm 3000 sheep at Merton in North Otago. Last year, Georgina launched a line of 100 percent woollen coats made from the clip of their farm's Romdale hoggets.
6/14/2024 • 21 minutes, 8 seconds
The secret life of bees
With more than 50 years' experience in the apiary industry, Frank Lindsay is a hive of information when it comes to all things bee.
6/14/2024 • 12 minutes, 25 seconds
Prices not that bullish at Charolais sale
A herd of young bulls went under the hammer at the annual Silverstream Charolais and Hereford Stud sale in Motukarara, but with farmers tightening their belts, prices were back a bit compared to last year.
6/14/2024 • 8 minutes, 5 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news from RNZ's rural news desk.
6/14/2024 • 6 minutes, 39 seconds
Country Life for Friday 14 June 2024
This week on Country Life, we take you inside a beehive and the mind of a man who's been tending to them for half a century, we head to an on-farm Charolais bull auction near Motukarara and we meet a North Otago farming family that's spinning a new yarn, producing 100% woollen coats.
6/14/2024 • 49 minutes, 57 seconds
Small but perfectly formed
New Zealand's most productive Jersey herd is small but mighty and like family to Taranaki dairy farmer Cliff Shearer. He is up to his 10,250th or so consecutive milking in one of the region's last walk-in dairy sheds and gains much of his knowledge from his large collection of vintage farming books and herd records.
6/7/2024 • 16 minutes, 41 seconds
From the Archives - The Country Vet
This 1975 Spectrum documentary follows a day in the life of rural Gisborne veterinarian, Mac Wallace. His day begins with a cow having trouble calving and ends at Turehau station, where a group of calves have mild scours and an old mare needs some attention.
6/7/2024 • 20 minutes, 3 seconds
Of all sheeps and sizes
A large part of Brian Hales' farm recently sold and will soon go into pines. We caught up with the sheep and beef farmer, to find out what was happening to his flock of rare and exotic sheep breeds.
6/7/2024 • 6 minutes, 29 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy
6/7/2024 • 6 minutes, 17 seconds
Country Life for Friday 7 June 2024
This week Country Life catches up with a collector of rare and exotic sheep breeds who has just sold his farm, we learn about how a Taranaki dairy farmer's collection of antique farming books and detailed weather records helps him milk and breed his Jersey cows, and we dive into the archive for a look at life as a country vet in 1975.
6/7/2024 • 51 minutes, 22 seconds
Cuddly, closeknit and connected to the farmer
The Norsewear factory in Norsewood is a community affair, with families, an entire volunteer fire brigade and neighbours working alongside each other over the decades. They have been celebrating 60 years since the classic flecked farm sock was first produced, and now have a new owner at the helm.
5/31/2024 • 20 minutes, 31 seconds
Dam project aims to stop flooding in Christchurch's Early Valley
A series of dams to capture stormwater as it runs off the Port Hills are being constructed on farmland near Christchurch. It's the brainchild of Brent and Shirley Rawstron from Rossendale Wines, who are working with the Christchurch City Council to prevent flooding Early Valley.
5/31/2024 • 13 minutes, 56 seconds
Reaping pink gold from South Island hydro canals - caviar harvest
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon in the Mackenzie District began experimenting with caviar three years ago and is in the midst of its short harvest period. Sally Murphy caught up with the company's chief executive David Cole.
5/31/2024 • 6 minutes, 5 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
A dry autumn will make for a tough winter for many farmers across the lower North Island, meanwhile it's made a great end to harvest with growers in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough busy pruning.
5/31/2024 • 6 minutes, 48 seconds
Country Life for May 31 2024
This week on Country Life, caviar being farmed in Mackenzie Country, a flood-prone vineyard in Canterbury which has created flood prevention basins to keep dry and a woollen sock company which is at the heart of the tiny town of Norsewood.
5/31/2024 • 49 minutes, 10 seconds
"Nature's itching to put the bush back"
From a block of gorse-infected scrubland on Banks Peninsula, renowned botanist Hugh Wilson has spent half a lifetime growing Hinewai Reserve into a 1600-hectare paradise of regenerated native forest by leaving nature to it.
5/24/2024 • 22 minutes, 47 seconds
Forging through tough times
Blacksmith Jamie Hughes has a niche business crafting knives and hand-forged metalwork for chefs, farmers and tourists from his smithy in Norsewood. Tough economic times means he's feeling it from all angles like many small businesses in rural New Zealand.
5/24/2024 • 11 minutes, 31 seconds
Shear-will and the power of traditional healing
Serena Lyders has found her calling as a traditional Māori healer, giving back to rural communities and working with shearers all around the motu.
5/24/2024 • 6 minutes, 22 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy
5/24/2024 • 6 minutes, 47 seconds
Country Life for Friday 24 May 2024
This week Country Life meets a traditional Māori healer helping shearers around the motu and things heat up in a blacksmith's forge in Norsewood. Later we explore a native forest that grew from rough, gorsey farmland and meet the botanist behind the impressive regeneration project.
5/24/2024 • 49 minutes, 19 seconds
Fernhill - From DOC to dairy on the family farm
Fifth generation dairy farmer Jason Christensen took a break from the family farm to try life as a DOC ranger. His experience in the world of conservation, evident on the Mt Bruce farm in the foothills of the Tararuas, saw him awarded two of this year's Greater Wellington Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
5/17/2024 • 20 minutes, 12 seconds
Sowing the seed for Māori to grow food
Country Life visits a food garden in Taranaki, where whānau are getting their hands in the soil and finding out how to sustain themselves from their own backyards.
5/17/2024 • 15 minutes, 9 seconds
Vet's extraordinary escape after 9-11
Neil and Sandra Chesterton and their two sons escaped Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. The Inglewood vet was working for a charity there. He and Sandra chat to Country Life about helping vets in the country and their extraordinary departure.
5/17/2024 • 7 minutes, 24 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
5/17/2024 • 6 minutes, 40 seconds
Country Life for 17 May 2024
This week on Country Life we hear about a country vet's daring horseback escape from Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. We meet Pounamu Skelton who is on a mission to help Maori grow their own food and later we head to the foothills of the Tararuas, where a former DOC ranger has put his conservation background to use on the family dairy farm.
5/17/2024 • 51 minutes
The not-so-lame story of a country vet
Who knows what goes on among a herd of cows as they walk to the milking shed? Plenty, according to Inglewood vet Neil Chesterton who has made this his life's work and become a world-renowned expert in lameness in dairy cows.
5/10/2024 • 22 minutes, 44 seconds
Feeding time at the zoo
Have you ever wondered where all the food for Wellington Zoo's 500 animals come from? The answer might surprise you... Gianina Schwanecke meets with the zoo's animal science manager to find out more and joins a group of otters for dinner.
5/10/2024 • 10 minutes, 14 seconds
The last day of the kumara harvest with Doug Nilsson
It's the last day of the kumara harvest at Dunsmore Gardens, a farm on the outskirts of Dargaville. It's also time to celebrate after the grower lost 99 percent of his crop last season.
5/10/2024 • 5 minutes, 58 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
5/10/2024 • 7 minutes, 52 seconds
Country Life for 10 May 2024
This week Country Life is at the last day of the kumara harvest in Northland, joins a quartet of otters at Wellington Zoo for dinner to learn more about where the animals' food comes from and speaks to Inglewood vet Neil Chesterton about a lifetime of treating lameness in dairy cows.
5/10/2024 • 49 minutes, 1 second
City couple's mushroom venture sprouts from pandemic
On the rural outskirts of Taupō a young couple have started a mushroom venture far removed from their previous life in Auckland. Maggie Tweedie took a trip to a small block of land amid the green hills of Wairakei to meet Benson Thomas and Hattie MacLennan.
5/3/2024 • 19 minutes, 40 seconds
From the Archives - D-Day for Ducks
In 1973 Alan Wilkes was out with his Labrador Zara and comrades at the opening of the duck shooting season. This story from the Spectrum archives was recorded on Kohangatera, a network of lagoons along the Palliser Bay coast.
5/3/2024 • 16 minutes, 4 seconds
Duck shooting - a family tradition
West Otago farmer, Adrian McIntyre, says the late grain harvest down his way means there are plenty of ducks around for the opening of the duck shooting season. The first weekend is a bit like Christmas, he says
5/3/2024 • 6 minutes, 36 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Many drought-declared areas have now had some rain, but farms still have very low pasture covers going into winter. There's been superb weather for the gold kiwifruit harvest in Bay of Plenty which only has a couple of weeks to go and the Hayward variety is underway. Lamb prices remain depressed making some question the future of the sector.
5/3/2024 • 6 minutes, 48 seconds
Country Life for Friday May 3 2024
This week Country Life meets a young couple who left their city life to set up a mushroom farm and heads to the maimai with a hunter at daybreak at the start of the duck shooting season half a century ago.
5/3/2024 • 50 minutes, 47 seconds
The last of the ballot blocks - farm sale reflects tough few years
One of the last rehab soldier farms in Wairarapa has been sold for forestry, and the farm gear is going under the hammer. Gianina Schwanecke is at the on-farm sale and finds out why the owner is selling up.
4/26/2024 • 19 minutes, 15 seconds
A love for Clydesdales - 'they just become your mates'
Steve Muggeridge's beloved Clydesdales have returned to Taranaki. From his father's stud at the base of the maunga, he chats about the changing use of the heavy horse and hitches a pair up to a vintage wagon for a ride along the mountain's flanks.
4/26/2024 • 16 minutes, 51 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news.
4/26/2024 • 5 minutes, 42 seconds
Support on hand for RSE staff at Tasman orchard
Panadda Chittock is the pastoral care co-ordinator at Thomas Brothers Orchards in Riwaka. She supports about 80 Recognised Seasonal Employer or RSE workers from Vanuatu and Samoa who work on the orchard.
4/26/2024 • 7 minutes, 18 seconds
Country Life for Friday 26 April 2024
This week Country Life is behind a team of Clydesdale horses on a vintage wagon, finding out about the increasingly rare breed, and heads to a sale of farm gear in Wairarapa, where one of the last local rehab soldier farms has been sold into forestry.
4/26/2024 • 50 minutes, 52 seconds
Mt Taranaki ranger Tāne Houston - "we let the forest talk for itself"
Country Life takes a walk with mountain ranger Tāne Houston through the forest on the slopes of Mt Taranaki. We head up the volcano along a trap line, resetting bait, foraging and chatting about the progress made in restoring the landscape.
4/19/2024 • 22 minutes, 1 second
"She's got everything you want in a cow"
A 40-litres-of-milk-a-day Friesian called Evie has been Supreme Champion Holstein at the New Zealand A&P Agricultural Show for two years in a row. Cosmo Kentish-Barnes meets the farmer behind the cow.
4/19/2024 • 13 minutes, 16 seconds
The diverse experiences of farming
A lot of urban dwellers get their information about farming from supermarkets, new research suggests. A Massey University research project surveyed over 1300 urban and rural people about their views on farming.
4/19/2024 • 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Rural News Wrap
This year's annual Canterbury A&P show has been canned, while there's mixed results at the meatworks where venison sales have bounced back but lamb prices remain at historical lows, and new research suggests growing demand for alternative proteins could change the future of farming.
4/19/2024 • 8 minutes, 31 seconds
Country Life for Friday April 19 2024
This week Country Life is out with a mountain ranger foraging and checking traps on the slopes of Mt Taranaki and meets the farmer behind a champion milker. Also, a Massey University research project reveals what New Zealanders really think about farming.
4/19/2024 • 51 minutes, 11 seconds
The Food, Farming and Freshwater Roadshow hits Renwick
Farmers and growers around the country have been getting together to hear about research which might help New Zealand agriculture adapt to future challenges.
4/12/2024 • 23 minutes, 28 seconds
Rural Riders spins farmers' wheels - "I smile a lot here"
Rural Riders is a chance for farmers to get off the farm on a bike, spin some yarns and focus on the dips and the jumps rather than the weather and the milk price.
4/12/2024 • 10 minutes, 4 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.
4/12/2024 • 6 minutes, 54 seconds
Eric Fa'anoi - a view from both sides of the fence
Eric Fa'anoi has gone from helping farmers protect the environment to being a farmer himself. A visit to his ancestral village in Samoa also helped this young man from Porirua unearth his interest in agriculture.
4/12/2024 • 7 minutes, 28 seconds
Country Life for Friday 12 April 2024
This week on Country Life, farmers and growers around the country have been getting together to hear about research which might help New Zealand agriculture adapt to future challenges. The team also catches up with Rural Riders, a group of farmers taking some much needed time off-farm by mountain biking.
4/12/2024 • 50 minutes, 16 seconds
From techie to market gardener - "getting made redundant really pushed me"
Morgan Kane moved back home when she lost her job at a tech start up. It was the start of her move, with her husband, into market gardening. She and her parents welcome the advantages of multigenerational living and the chance to put a large lifestyle block of rich Taranaki soil into production.
4/5/2024 • 21 minutes, 38 seconds
One persons trash is another persons treasure
Every year on Easter Saturday unwanted bric-a-brac goes under the hammer at a huge Paddy's Market and White Elephant in Akaroa. It's run by the Akaroa and Bays Lions Club which raises thousands of dollars for the local community
4/5/2024 • 14 minutes, 45 seconds
Brothers on farms - competing for top farmer title
Brothers Callum and Archie Woodhouse have been named the top two finalists in this year's East Coast Young Farmer. We catch up with the siblings as they prepare for the next round of the competition.
4/5/2024 • 5 minutes, 44 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Rain is still needed in many parts of the country. Hay and baleage is being trucked around to ensure stock get their feed they need. The grape harvest is well through in Central Otago with good yields and clean fruit.
4/5/2024 • 6 minutes, 39 seconds
Country Life for Friday 5 April 2024
This week Country Life meets a young woman who lost her job in the tech industry and turned things around by getting her hands in the soil and starting up a market garden. The team also heads to Banks Peninsula where unwanted gear in farm sheds has been turned into cold hard cash for the benefit of the community.
4/5/2024 • 50 minutes, 20 seconds
From cow to cone - a big scoop from Nelson
Jersey milk from Murray King's farm on the lower Waimea River flats is crafted into award-winning ice cream. "We had to find a way of generating better income than we would by producing whole milk powder with the major dairy companies," he said.
3/29/2024 • 20 minutes, 58 seconds
Finding the flock - searching for stories from Flock House
A search is underway for descendants of hundreds of British boys sent out for farming training in New Zealand a century ago. Flock House, a flagship agricultural school in New Zealand was set up 100 years ago. What ever happened to its first cadets?
3/29/2024 • 13 minutes, 19 seconds
Raising fowls for families impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle
A hen rescued from floodwaters in Cyclone Gabrielle is helping bring back life to farms one year on. Hawke's Bay farmer Sally Newall hatched the idea to gift chicks to families impacted by the cyclone to help get them back on their feet and have fun with some feathered friends.
3/29/2024 • 6 minutes, 57 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.
3/29/2024 • 7 minutes, 15 seconds
Country Life for 29 March 2024
Appleby Farms, Flock House centenary and Cyclone Chicks
3/29/2024 • 50 minutes, 59 seconds
Rare bird returns to Wairarapa wetlands
A distinctive booming sound is returning to the Wairarapa Moana. Most of the surrounding wetlands have been lost after land was drained for farming. Now, after years of rehabilitation work, more of the Australasian Bittern have been heard lately. Country Life heads out at dusk to listen for the matuku-hurepō.
3/22/2024 • 20 minutes, 57 seconds
Low-cost posts for farms and no landfill charges for vineyards
A start-up in Marlborough is busy repurposing damaged vineyard posts, that were used to hold up the canopy, into sustainable posts for farm fencing.
3/22/2024 • 12 minutes, 31 seconds
A taste of the future of dairy
Justin Gregory tries Daisy Lab's prototype precision-fermented products, which aim to have the texture and mouthfeel of dairy product, but are made without input from a cow.
3/22/2024 • 9 minutes, 49 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A declaration of drought for Otago and Canterbury unlocking new funding support for struggling farmers.
3/22/2024 • 4 minutes, 48 seconds
Country Life for Friday 22 March 2024
This week Country Life takes you to an Auckland lab making cheese without the need for a cow, and a start-up in Marlborough which is busy recycling damaged vineyard posts into low cost posts for farm fencing, to wetlands in South Wairarapa where a rare bird has returned.
3/22/2024 • 50 minutes, 38 seconds
From woolshed to bed - two sisters spin their homeware dreams
How did two sisters design throws and blankets using lambs wool from the family farm? Kate Cullwick and Prue Watson share the secret to their Foxtrot Home business success and why it's essential to spread the good word about New Zealand wool.
3/15/2024 • 17 minutes, 40 seconds
A blast from the past - Mustering in Marlborough
It's 1956 and in the heat of February seven shepherds, a pack train and 40 dogs drove 4000 ewes from remote Bluff Station, 90 kilometres down the back country to Kekerengu for shearing.
3/15/2024 • 16 minutes, 2 seconds
Young fruit growers climb the hort ladder
Kaahu Birdling and Jordan Popata are supervisors at Thomas Brothers Orchard in Riwaka. They manage their own teams and are embracing every opportunity to learn about leadership and orchard management.
3/15/2024 • 11 minutes, 11 seconds
Country Life for Friday 15 March 2024
From woolshed to bed - two sisters spin their homeware dreams, Young fruit growers climb the hort ladder, A blast from the past - Mustering in Marlborough and a wrap of the week's rural news
3/15/2024 • 50 minutes, 55 seconds
A wrap of the week's rural news
More government support will be heading the way of farmers and growers in the Marlborough, Tasman and Nelson districts where an intense dry spell has been labelled a medium-scale adverse event.
3/15/2024 • 4 minutes, 33 seconds
'Give us a break!' say surfing farmers
Every Thursday afternoon, Banks Peninsula farmers head to the beach in Hickory Bay and ride waves to forget about work. Farmer and surfing coach, Kristin Savage, runs the Surfing for Farmers initiative, which doubles up as an apres surf catch-up and BBQ in the farmyard.
3/8/2024 • 20 minutes, 37 seconds
"Fresh ideas, younger muscles" - taking on the family farm
Sarah Maxwell goes from inseminating cows in the morning to shifting cows and sheep in the afternoon, working at the local sale yards and more besides.
3/8/2024 • 14 minutes, 13 seconds
'No turning back' - horsetrekking from Bluff to Picton
Karolin van Onna reminisces about a dream come true, riding 1500 kilometres from Bluff to Picton through the back country
3/8/2024 • 7 minutes, 7 seconds
Country Life for Friday 8 March 2024
'Give us a break!' say surfing farmers, a back country dream comes true on horseback, Sarah Maxwell's farming journey and a wrap of the week's rural news.
3/8/2024 • 50 minutes, 26 seconds
A wrap of the week's rural news
A chat about the top stories this week from RNZ's rural news team with Susan Murray in Kirikiriroa Hamilton.
3/8/2024 • 6 minutes, 52 seconds
Inspired farmers take action to clean waterways
A catchment restoration project in the Marlborough Sounds is bringing a farming community together to tackle water quality issues and achieve wider conservation goals
3/1/2024 • 21 minutes, 58 seconds
Wool, sweat and shears - Golden Shears underway in Masterton
The Golden Shears is underway in Masterton, and from early Thursday the War Memorial Stadium has been buzzing to the sound of shears, woolhandlers' brooms and the cranking of wool presses.
3/1/2024 • 12 minutes, 45 seconds
Australian winegrowers protest over plummeting returns
Many wine growers in Australia's largest wine region are in crisis mode due to plummeting prices for their grapes. Chris Archer works in the Australian and New Zealand wine industries and has been following developments.
3/1/2024 • 5 minutes, 20 seconds
Country Life For Friday 1 March 2024
Behind the scenes at the Golden Shears, a conservation project in the Marlborough Sounds, crisis among Australia's winegrowers and On the Farm
3/1/2024 • 48 minutes, 49 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms around the country
Kiwifruit are looking good in Hawkes Bay. Some flooded vines have died but generally recovery is better than expected. Conditions are very dry in Marlborough so many farmers are offloading stock due to concerns over feed and water levels.
3/1/2024 • 7 minutes, 3 seconds
Sheafs, cabers and tartan on show at Turakina Highland Games
Tartan, bagpipes, sheafs and cabers were out in force at the Turakina Highland Games, billed as New Zealand's longest-running such event. They're into their 160th year.
2/23/2024 • 21 minutes, 37 seconds
"He's a very good looking pig, that one!"
Rick Martin and Nairn Illingworth farm a drove of happy heritage pigs on their small farm in Marlborough's Onamalutu Valley
2/23/2024 • 15 minutes, 23 seconds
Truck driver takes to the water to reach farms
A large blue truck and trailer unit has become a common sight in the Marlborough Sounds as it's barged to farms to pick up and drop off livestock.
2/23/2024 • 5 minutes, 2 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.
2/23/2024 • 7 minutes, 30 seconds
Country Life for Friday 24 February 2024
This week on Country Life, how stock are barged in and out by sea after roadways are blocked, a visit to the Turakina Highland Games, and a chat with heritage pig farmers in Marlborough.
2/23/2024 • 50 minutes, 37 seconds
Ancestors roots run deep at Wairau Pā vineyard
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.
2/16/2024 • 20 minutes, 31 seconds
Farming to the beat of his own drum
Former Wellington Percussionist, Jeremy Fitzsimons, is now based on the family farm in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames. Bryan Crump paid him a visit.
2/16/2024 • 13 minutes, 46 seconds
Farmers from around the world, Jana Gäbert
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.
2/16/2024 • 7 minutes, 15 seconds
Rural News Wrap
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.
2/16/2024 • 7 minutes, 15 seconds
Country Life for Friday 16 February 2024
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.
2/16/2024 • 50 minutes, 41 seconds
More rugged than posh - playing polo the Kiwi way
Summer at a sportsground in Hawkes Bay means the thud of hooves and the knock of mallets under the hot summer sun.
2/9/2024 • 19 minutes, 10 seconds
Green learning hub grows on red zone land
Students in Christchurch are getting involved in projects to help bring about positive environmental change at the Climate Action Campus
2/9/2024 • 13 minutes, 32 seconds
A year after Gabrielle, "a little bit of a miracle"
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?
2/9/2024 • 7 minutes, 53 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.
2/9/2024 • 8 minutes, 21 seconds
Country Life Friday 9 February 2024
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
2/9/2024 • 50 minutes, 32 seconds
I'm a wee bit addicted to doing farm trials says Waipara farmer
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.
2/2/2024 • 20 minutes, 25 seconds
Kotare Subtropicals on a mission to reduce banana imports
Geoff Mansell is growing bananas and many other subtropical fruits to supply local supermarkets and he hopes others will do the same.
2/2/2024 • 16 minutes, 24 seconds
Banking on seeds for Raglan
People in Raglan have access to a community seed bank so they can plant their own vegetables and ensure local cultivars thrive.
2/2/2024 • 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Susan Murray.
2/2/2024 • 7 minutes, 55 seconds
Country Life Friday 2 February 2024
Country Life goes bananas, meets an award-winning Waipara farmer and checks in on Raglan's seed bank.
2/2/2024 • 51 minutes, 7 seconds
Egg farmer cracks the paddock-to-plate market
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.
1/26/2024 • 20 minutes, 36 seconds
Summer lamb prices slide down the big dipper
"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.
1/26/2024 • 13 minutes, 26 seconds
Nuffield scholar and agricultural journalist Claire Taylor
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
1/26/2024 • 7 minutes, 31 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
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.
1/26/2024 • 7 minutes, 8 seconds
Country Life Friday January 26 2024
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.
1/26/2024 • 50 minutes, 21 seconds
Summer Series: Country Life for January 19
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.
1/19/2024 • 48 minutes, 30 seconds
Summer Series: Country Life for January 12
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.
1/12/2024 • 49 minutes, 58 seconds
Summer Series: Country Life for January 5
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.
1/5/2024 • 50 minutes, 9 seconds
Summer Series: Country Life for December 29
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.
12/29/2023 • 48 minutes, 10 seconds
"My pop owned a milk run" says farmer who bottles his own milk
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.
12/22/2023 • 18 minutes, 51 seconds
All the time in the world at Colyton Clocks
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.
12/22/2023 • 17 minutes, 5 seconds
Rural Taranaki turns on the festive charm
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?
12/22/2023 • 4 minutes, 51 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms around the country
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.
12/22/2023 • 6 minutes, 17 seconds
Country Life for Friday 22 December
"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.
12/22/2023 • 49 minutes, 29 seconds
'Welcome to the top of the world' 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 the biodiversity.
12/15/2023 • 16 minutes, 29 seconds
Still farming, just doing it differently
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.
12/15/2023 • 16 minutes, 48 seconds
Bring a fork, a bucket and gumboots
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.
12/15/2023 • 9 minutes, 41 seconds
Rural News Wrap
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.
12/15/2023 • 5 minutes, 24 seconds
Country Life for 15 December 2023
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.
12/15/2023 • 50 minutes, 20 seconds
"I was given a cow and taught how to make a shed"
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.
12/8/2023 • 24 minutes, 6 seconds
Pest control creates balance for Northland farmer
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.
12/8/2023 • 13 minutes, 2 seconds
Yarn on the Farm
A visit to the dairy shed to find out about AI and how to keep cows cool during El Nino.
12/8/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.
12/8/2023 • 5 minutes, 20 seconds
Country Life for 8 December 2023
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.
12/8/2023 • 50 minutes, 10 seconds
Building a wetland on farm
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.
12/1/2023 • 17 minutes
Working horses adjust to new life off the track
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.
12/1/2023 • 10 minutes, 40 seconds
Finding Frank - a true deer hunting legend
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.
12/1/2023 • 6 minutes, 10 seconds
A show stopper for Christmas cake lovers
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."
12/1/2023 • 7 minutes, 47 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Changeable weather has prevailed in Pukekohe. Farmers in Otago are busy marking lambs and bulls are going out to the cows
12/1/2023 • 6 minutes, 36 seconds
Country Life for Friday 1 December 2023
Christmas cakes, a deer hunting legend, rehoming racehorses and building a wetland on farm
12/1/2023 • 50 minutes, 5 seconds
'It's the most sustainable fibre in the world'
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.
11/24/2023 • 22 minutes, 25 seconds
'Good to have a family business' says master cutler of Svord
Bryan Baker has been making knives for over 40 years in Waiuku - and now the legacy keeps growing as the next generation comes through.
11/24/2023 • 13 minutes
Shout from the rooftops, says farmers' markets rep
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.
11/24/2023 • 7 minutes, 13 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Monique Steele.
11/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 42 seconds
Country Life for Friday 24 November 2023
Wool's versatility showcased, knives out in Waiuku and a chat with farmers' market rep Jono Walker.
11/24/2023 • 51 minutes, 5 seconds
Mangaweka Asparagus - from fire to feast
George and Diana Turney went from tragedy to starting Mangaweka Asparagus three decades ago. After the community came to their aid, they have enjoyed giving back and helping others gain a living from the land.
11/17/2023 • 21 minutes, 15 seconds
Working hard to achieve the rural dream
Pigs, cattle, fruit and honey processing are all part of a sustainable farming business plan for first-time Motukarara farmers, Stacey and Ode Gielen.
11/17/2023 • 14 minutes, 1 second
Rare horses relax at show
Eleven rare equine breeds, including the only black Percheron in the country, are on display in a quiet and sunny corner of the Canterbury A&P Showgrounds.
11/17/2023 • 7 minutes, 21 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy
11/17/2023 • 6 minutes, 27 seconds
Country Life for Friday November 17 2023
Country Life is at an asparagus harvest near Mangaweka and meets some of the harvesters from Vanuatu. The team checks out some rare horse breeds at the Canterbury show and meets a Banks Peninsula farming couple.
11/17/2023 • 50 minutes, 57 seconds
A doctor, an island and oil: The olive journey of Peter Crelinsten
Twenty-five years ago on a Mediterranean island a retired doctor learnt about olives. Now he's brought that knowledge, and the pursuit of their health benefits, to Kerikeri at Puketi Olive Farm.
11/11/2023 • 15 minutes, 38 seconds
'The first thing I did was collect seeds'
89-year-old Fraser Ross has been restoring a podocarp forest remnant for nearly half a century. Arowhenua Bush near Temuka was damaged after a severe norwesterly gale struck the district in 1975.
11/10/2023 • 20 minutes, 30 seconds
"Rural, rustic and exploiting my mother's talents"
A vintage photo of a little girl called Molly Mabel sits above racks of pint-sized traditional woollen jumpers, booties and beanies in a Hunterville shop. Who was Molly and how is she helping to warm up desire for wool?
11/10/2023 • 4 minutes, 48 seconds
Country Life for Friday 10 November 2023
Country Life meets 89-year-old Fraser Ross, who has been lovingly restoring a podocarp forest remnant for nearly 50 years. Arowhenua Bush near Temuka was damaged after a severe norwesterly gale struck the district in 1975.
11/10/2023 • 50 minutes, 15 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.
11/10/2023 • 7 minutes, 26 seconds
Soldiering on - "There's no way that farm could have run without her"
Rhoda McWhannell ran her Waikato farm almost single-handedly when her husband went to war during WWII. She wrote a journal of her daily struggles weaving in her wry observations about war and love of the natural world.
11/3/2023 • 20 minutes, 16 seconds
Bees make a buzz at Mid-Canterbury show
The main theme at Ashburton's A&P Show were bees, bugs and butterflies. "It's covers the local gardener through to the cropping farmer and everthing in between!" says show president Victor Schikker.
11/3/2023 • 10 minutes, 30 seconds
From the Archives: Growing food without sight
How do you garden when you are blind? One of Taranaki's pioneering environmentalists shows his ingenious method using ropes to help the visually impaired continue to enjoy growing things. This story was first aired in February 2022.
11/3/2023 • 10 minutes, 32 seconds
On the Farm
Cattle prices have peaked and it's hard work selling sheep at spring fairs in Northland. In the Nelson region the late chill of August has set hops up well for strong growth.
11/3/2023 • 6 minutes, 35 seconds
Country Life for Friday 3 November 2023
The story of a woman left to farm alone when her husband went to war, Ashburton's A & P show, gardening for the blind and the monthly wrap of conditions on the land.
11/3/2023 • 49 minutes, 44 seconds
From sea to land: The kingfish farm of the future
For over 20 years NIWA scientists have been researching the feasibility of growing fish on land - now they believe it's ready for commercial uptake.
10/27/2023 • 14 minutes, 45 seconds
Addicts find hands in the earth help journey to recovery - 'It grounds us'
A rural addiction rehabilitation facility near Christchurch runs a farm-focused social enterprise that connects its residents with planting, growing and sharing.
10/27/2023 • 23 minutes, 33 seconds
The power of restoration from a Motupipi farm
After being encouraged to drain wetlands on their farm in the 80s a Golden Bay couple are already seeing the benefits of transforming the land back to its natural state.
10/27/2023 • 6 minutes, 21 seconds
Rural News Wrap
Rural news reporter Sally Murphy takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
10/27/2023 • 4 minutes, 58 seconds
Country Life for Friday October 27 2023
Kingfish farming, returning paddock to wetland, and drug rehabilitation through farming
10/27/2023 • 50 minutes, 54 seconds
School leavers grow into hardy shepherds on high-country cadet farm
A two-year farm cadet programme is turning fresh-faced school leavers in hardy, no-nonsense shepherds on a high-country station in Canterbury.
10/20/2023 • 23 minutes, 52 seconds
Sheep and Beef Farmer Bayden Anderson - It's as good as it gets
Porangahau farmer Bayden Andersen shares the unique challenges and triumphs of managing an estate like its his own, while raising a family in the Central Hawkes Bay.
10/20/2023 • 6 minutes, 38 seconds
Why rural schools rule
Take a trip with Country Life to Auckland's northernmost school, Tomarata School, where kids are found tending to chickens and planting fruit trees.
10/20/2023 • 9 minutes, 35 seconds
'Wouldn't want to do anything else' says head shepherd at Otapawa Station
A young man who switched from working in insurance to working the land was one of the finalists for Beef and Lambs emerging leaders award.
10/20/2023 • 5 minutes, 34 seconds
Rural News Wrap
The Rural Contractors body wants the new government to make it easier to get skilled workers and the seaweed sector is hoping some changes will be made so it can grow and profit from the lucrative wild algae, which is worth more than $20 billion a year globally.
10/20/2023 • 2 minutes, 56 seconds
Country Life for 20 October 2023
Country Life takes you back to school this week, where rural students plant fruit trees and tend to chickens. We also meet James Robbie who switched from working in insurance to working the land and a two-year farm cadet programme is turning fresh-faced school leavers in hardy, no-nonsense shepherds on a high-country station in Canterbury.
10/20/2023 • 50 minutes, 33 seconds
From water to wine: The story of Dancing Petrel
An idyllic lifestyle change for Kim and Graham Gilkison from Taranaki to the Far North saw them also purchase a languishing vineyard. Five years later, they're producing award winning wines.
10/14/2023 • 11 minutes, 46 seconds
A year on the farm: Lambing is in full swing on the Bird's hill block
The newborn lambs hide amongst gorse to escape the chilly winds and Alistair plants poplar poles on erosion-prone hill country.
10/13/2023 • 10 minutes, 20 seconds
'I don't expect perfection' says farm dog trainer
From the Country Life archives - we meet former shepherd Anna Holland who trains people to train dogs.
10/13/2023 • 22 minutes
Country Life for 13 October 2023
A year on the farm: Lambing is in full swing on the Bird's hill block, Canine Control, a feature from the Country Life archives by Carol Stiles, From water to wine: The story of Dancing Petrel and the Rural News Wrap.
10/13/2023 • 51 minutes, 19 seconds
Rural News Wrap
Duncan Smith and Sally Murphy take a look at the week's agricultural news.
10/13/2023 • 5 minutes, 54 seconds
Piglets go back to the same udder - says free range pig farmer
Sows lounge in the sun as their piglets play, while others feed their litters in the privacy of their own cozy shelter at Hamish and Angela Cottle's free range pig farm near Timaru.
10/6/2023 • 22 minutes, 32 seconds
Dog Trialling is in the blood
Champion dog trialler Clark Chrystal fosters his daughters love for the sport.
10/6/2023 • 13 minutes, 39 seconds
'Vegetables have something to do with it' says centenarian
Alan Wilcox of Pukekohe celebrated his 100th birthday. He walks down a lifetime and legacy of growing with Country Life.
10/6/2023 • 8 minutes, 10 seconds
Country Life Friday October 6 2023
This week on Country Life it's farrowing time when Cosmo visits a free-range pig farm near Timaru, Leah meets a horticultural legend and proud centenarian, and a dad and daughter dog-trialling duo chat with Maggie Tweedie.
10/6/2023 • 50 minutes, 18 seconds
Rural News Wrap
Duncan Smith and Sally Murphy take a look at the week's agricultural news.
10/6/2023 • 4 minutes, 12 seconds
Barker's of Geraldine thriving after linking up with French jam maker
The fruit preserving business was founded in the late sixties by Anthony and Gillian Barker as a way of supplementing their farm income. Now it employs over 250 people and produces about 800 finished goods.
9/29/2023 • 15 minutes, 39 seconds
From the archives: A visit to Sam Neill's Central Otago vineyard
Veteran New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill takes Country Life on a tour of his Central Otago vineyard just before the 2023 season got underway.
9/29/2023 • 18 minutes, 49 seconds
'Keep eating it' - Kumara growers need help to leave dismal season behind
Ruawai kumara grower Warwick Simpson hopes seed contingency schemes will bring hope to the paddocks.
9/29/2023 • 5 minutes, 55 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around
Despite a dry period in Pukekohe in the middle of the month, warmer temperatures and residual soil moisture has stimulated crop growth. Most farmers are through calving on the West Coast and are busy dehorning cows.
9/29/2023 • 6 minutes, 52 seconds
Country Life for 29 September 2023
This week on Country Life; Since the late sixties, Barkers of Geraldine has been filling Kiwi pantries with jams, syrups and sauces, and since linking up with a French jam maker the rural business continues to grow.. And.. Veteran New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill takes Country Life on a tour of his Central Otago vineyard.
9/29/2023 • 49 minutes, 27 seconds
Polar veteran turns to industrial hemp farming
So what hemp cultivars grow best on a Karamea dairy farm? Jake Gibbons is working towards finding out. One of his goals is to get local farmers using hemp to reduce carbon emissions.
9/22/2023 • 13 minutes
Must Love Dogs
Kelsie Meads and her sidekick heading dog Sass are one of 12 duos taking part in this year's Trans-Tasman Cobber Dog Challenge. Small in stature but not in attitude, Sass is vying for the top spot.
9/22/2023 • 8 minutes, 29 seconds
Passion unfurled at butterly house in Hope
Ian Knight has a passion for monarch butterflies. He used to farm them at his property in Hope, near Nelson, to be released at weddings all around the country. Now he just enjoys watching them hatch and grow.
9/22/2023 • 16 minutes, 22 seconds
Rural News Wrap
Fonterra makes a record profit, the wine sector is trying to make use of its by-product, a far north strawberry grower has had to diversify their crops and it's mental health week - what's the message for farmers?
9/22/2023 • 2 minutes, 55 seconds
Country Life for 22 September
Polar veteran turns to industrial hemp farming, Passion unfurled at a butterfly house in Hope, Porangahau's love of winter sports , Must Love Dogs - the Cobber Dog Challenge and the Rural News Wrap.
9/22/2023 • 49 minutes, 51 seconds
Pōrangahau's love of winter sports
The coastal village of Pōrangahau in Central Hawkes Bay has a rich history of supporting winter sport. Like many small farming communities in Aotearoa, sport brings people together.
9/22/2023 • 7 minutes, 31 seconds
'I've been chased by wolves twice' - Timaru farmer
An injured hawk rests on Remus Coman's arm. He found it in a ditch on his cattle grazing farm. Hidden under it, an inked wolf forms part of a tattoo that tells stories from his youth in rural Romania.
9/15/2023 • 21 minutes, 42 seconds
"Born with wellies on" - ex cop takes farming in her stride
Former cop, Lee Askew, traded her police vest for farmer's boots to rear a herd of Red Devon cattle near Gisborne. There have been plenty of challenges rearing artisan meat for her stall at the farmer's market.
9/15/2023 • 13 minutes, 39 seconds
Chocolate maker in search of the origin of his own confection
Young kiwi chocolatier Johnty Tatham traces the origins of the cacao beans he uses for his handcrafted chocolate - farmers in Peru.
9/15/2023 • 5 minutes, 46 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
9/15/2023 • 8 minutes, 11 seconds
Country Life for 15 September 2023
A cattle grazing farmer in South Canterbury is caring for an injured hawk he found in a ditch, Johnty Tatham's Lucid Chocolatier brand has been made from his family's sheep and beef farm and the team meets a hard-working producer bringing artisan meat to farmer's markets.
9/15/2023 • 51 minutes, 2 seconds
A rescue centre for lambs - 'where there's a heartbeat, there's hope'
Jacqui Friedrichs has almost reached the limit in her lamb orphanage east of Carterton. It's been a tough lambing season and there is high demand for her intensive care. Her husband thinks she's mad but she can't help herself giving the newborns the best lives until it's time to head off in the truck.
9/8/2023 • 20 minutes, 2 seconds
How a project on a race against time grew more than just trees
Native tree species in Rotorua are at risk of being lost forever, and yet the project to restore them has helped more than trees.
9/8/2023 • 13 minutes, 10 seconds
Spring has sprung and sowing has begun
The cash crops are going in and the last of the trading lambs are heading off at Tim Cookson's farm near Hororata in Canterbury.
9/8/2023 • 8 minutes, 42 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
9/8/2023 • 7 minutes, 25 seconds
Country Life for 8 September 2023
This week Country Life finds out what crops are being sown in mid-Canterbury, heads to a lamb rescue centre in Wairarapa and finds out how scientists and tangata whenua are working together to save native trees from myrtle rust.
9/8/2023 • 50 minutes, 54 seconds
Just pay what you can, says Ōtaki vege grower
Jon and Tae are preparing their rented land near Otaki to start producing "pay-what-you-can" vege boxes in the spring. It's a small-scale social enterprise aimed at making healthy food more accessible to people who can least afford it.
9/1/2023 • 15 minutes, 2 seconds
Home of the working horse
There were no tractors in sight when Cosmo Kentish-Barnes visited Erewhon Station. Instead a team of eight Clydesdales were churning the soil over in preparation for sowing.
9/1/2023 • 21 minutes, 42 seconds
Wellbeing programme 'grateful for rural New Zealand'
Rural Change founder Elle Perriam is proud of the efforts of rural New Zealand to help those who need it most.
9/1/2023 • 5 minutes, 39 seconds
Country Life for Friday 1 September 2023
Just pay us what you can, says Ōtaki vege grower, Home of the working horse, Wellbeing programme "Incredibly grateful for rural New Zealand" and On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around the country
9/1/2023 • 50 minutes, 43 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Nelson is a picture, positive mindsets are coming back in Hawkes Bay and there's a feeling that a genuine spring is around the corner. August's farming conditions around the country.
9/1/2023 • 6 minutes, 39 seconds
Calving brings the whisper of spring
Morrinsville farmer Peter Le Heron gives an update on the calving season.
8/26/2023 • 5 minutes, 9 seconds
Backyard bananas in the Buller
A botanist on the West Coast wants locals to start planting growing edible perennials that are growing in his nursery and food forest.
8/25/2023 • 15 minutes, 20 seconds
At the cutting edge - 'It's hard work making a top axe'
You won't find anything mass produced at Tuatahi, a small town business exporting handcrafted axes and saws to competitive woodchoppers around the world.
8/25/2023 • 15 minutes, 38 seconds
Bud burst can't come soon enough for Hawkes Bay apple grower
Country Life checks in with Hawkes Bay apple grower, Lesley Wilson. It's just over six months since the family orchard was struck by Cyclone Gabrielle and a lot has happened since then.
8/25/2023 • 5 minutes, 11 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
8/25/2023 • 7 minutes, 31 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
8/25/2023 • 7 minutes, 31 seconds
Country Life for 25 August 2023
A business at the cutting edge of axe-making, growing edible perennials on the West Coast, in the calving shed and a catch up with a cyclone-struck apple grower.
8/25/2023 • 50 minutes, 16 seconds
Aladdin's cave of country music memorabilia
There's no room left in Barry Skinner's music museum in Hector. "I've run out of wall space so I'm hanging off the roof now," says the dobro and lap-steel playing collector.
8/18/2023 • 8 minutes, 59 seconds
'His sperm is not that active'
A Year on the Farm with the Birds. In this episode Alistair and Genna have empty heifers to deal with after their new bull delivers low pregnancy rates.
8/18/2023 • 14 minutes, 11 seconds
Farmers help to restore one of New Zealand's most polluted estuaries
Leah Tebbutt heads to Bay of Plenty to find out how farmers are restoring the health of one of New Zealand's most polluted estuaries.
8/18/2023 • 15 minutes, 58 seconds
Rural News Wrap
A look at the week's agricultural news.
8/18/2023 • 9 minutes, 25 seconds
Country Life for 18 August 2023
A Year on the Farm with Alistair and Genna Bird, farmer efforts to restore the Waihi estuary and a visit to a small country music museum in Hector on the West Coast.
8/18/2023 • 50 minutes, 15 seconds
Maramataka another layer of diversity to a Bay of Plenty farm
Mohi Beckham is helping to turn a tired and depleted land into a fertile and productive farm. But the benefits extend to more than just the land.
8/12/2023 • 11 minutes, 40 seconds
Gin distillery fizzes with plans for home-grown juniper
Kapiti distillers harvest kawakawa from their historic Wairarapa farm to make award-winning gin. They're also trialling growing juniper berries and planting more natives. Novel pest traps, a bottle recycling scheme and bespoke gins for fundraisers are all part of the The Bond Store's plan for sustainability and community involvement
8/11/2023 • 19 minutes, 23 seconds
Supreme bacon brings home supreme prize for Hawke's Bay butcher
Wild Game owners Jordan and Varnnah Hamilton-Bicknell were named Supreme Winner in both the bacon and the ham categories of the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards.
8/11/2023 • 5 minutes, 38 seconds
Rural news wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's rural news.
8/11/2023 • 6 minutes, 27 seconds
Country Life for 11 August 2023
This week Country Life is in the bush picking kawakawa destined for artisan gin, a Bay of Plenty farmer recounts his story improving the land and his own mental health and - with the lambing season underway - there's plenty of bleating at a farm on the outskirts of Christchurch.
8/11/2023 • 50 minutes, 21 seconds
Lambing's taking off on end of runway farm
The paddocks on James Thompson's city limits sheep farm are starting to look like the arrivals lounge at Christchurch Airport during the school holidays.
8/9/2023 • 5 minutes, 33 seconds
Half price natives - and planted for free
Landowners in Karamea aren't beating around the bush when it comes to riparian planting. They're making the most of a local not-for-profit nursery and planting service that grows and eco-sources trees.
8/4/2023 • 20 minutes, 42 seconds
How one woman's 'childhood dream' led her to a Kiwi dairy farm
Chihiro Hanyuda moved to New Zealand seven years ago...now she is an award winning dairy farmer.
8/4/2023 • 10 minutes, 5 seconds
A conversation in the cookhouse
Country Life talks to Jen Chrisp who cooks for the shepherds at Puketoro Station. She's carrying on the cookhouse tradition of New Zealand's extensive and remote back country farms.
8/4/2023 • 7 minutes, 1 second
A tree for every woman
Kauri Forno runs a tree nursery in Gisborne which has been donating trees around Te Tai Rāwhiti for the past three decades. The Women's Native Tree Project Trust started with the aim of planting a tree for every woman in the region.
8/4/2023 • 1 minute, 52 seconds
Country Life for Friday August 4 2023
Kauri Forno, Jen Chrisp, Clean Stream Nursery, Japanese farmer and conditions wrap.
8/4/2023 • 49 minutes, 27 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms around the Country
A lot of lambs hit the ground during the recent cold snap and losses are a growing concern in Te Tai Tarawhiti while in Otago there's more feed sitting around than usual so farmers are set up pretty well for the incoming spring.
8/4/2023 • 7 minutes, 59 seconds
Crafting honey and art from bees
Cate and Mike King of Pauariki Honey lost a quarter of their hives after Cyclone Gabrielle hit Tairāwhiti in February. They also faced a poor season of manuka flowering. But the raw beauty of the region and its people keep them going and provide inspiration for Cate's batik-style art which in turn is helped along by the bees.
7/28/2023 • 19 minutes, 14 seconds
"Bring the cash in a suitcase and the farm's yours!"
Karamea dairy farmer Peter Langford says he and his wife Debbie are ready to hang up their gumboots. With none of their four children keen on taking over the farm, it's now up for sale - lock, stock and barrel.
7/28/2023 • 12 minutes, 28 seconds
Wild goats in hunters' sights in crack down on destructive population
Two organisations have teamed up to encourage hunters to cull high-density goat populations across the country with prizes up for grabs.
7/28/2023 • 4 minutes, 53 seconds
Pig hunting escapades of a woman in pink
Kim Swan, joins Country Life this week for a chat about her latest book and what it takes to be a woman on tough terrain.
7/28/2023 • 4 minutes, 12 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
7/28/2023 • 7 minutes, 56 seconds
Country Life for 28 July 2023
This week Country Life meets a couple who are still inspired by the rugged beauty of Tairāwhiti to produce honey and art from their bees despite having lost many of their hives to Cyclone Gabrielle, and they also chat to a pair of Karamea dairy farmers who are putting their remote and beautiful farm up for sale lock, stock and barrel.
7/28/2023 • 50 minutes, 21 seconds
Hard work makes dreams come true
Christopher and Siobhan O'Malley stand in a paddock with smiles that could melt one of the nearby West Coast glaciers. The couple have finally achieved their long-term goal of farm ownership and now have their own slice of paradise.
7/21/2023 • 21 minutes, 24 seconds
The Whanganui forest which never stopped growing opportunity
Richard Thompson planted Papaiti forest with alternative species 30 years ago. He never dreamt at the time he would become a timber merchant with a joinery workshop and retail shed.
7/21/2023 • 15 minutes, 15 seconds
Agricademy - reinventing agricultural training in NZ
Agricademy doesn't have classrooms or a campus, instead students can dip in and out of on-line videos, filmed with experts in the dairy or wool shed.
7/21/2023 • 5 minutes, 24 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
7/21/2023 • 6 minutes, 16 seconds
Country Life for 21 July 2023
This week on Country Life; It took ten years of scimping and saving for Christopher and Siobhan O'Malley to achieve farm ownership. Last year they bought an 80 hectare dairy farm on West Coast and with their 'licorice allsorts' herd of cows, they're loving the new challenge. The team also find out about a new form of agricultural training in NZ without classrooms or a campus and meet a forester making the most of his 30 year old exotic plantation.
7/21/2023 • 49 minutes, 57 seconds
Ngā kura huna - on a path to hidden treasure at Opepe
Push your way through a tangle of bush only kilometres from the Napier-Taupō highway and you are on an ancient pa site. Tangata whenua sheltered here hundreds of years ago but this site is known to only a few. Country Life joins a group documenting the region's cultural sites on a walk to discover a hidden treasure.
7/13/2023 • 19 minutes, 51 seconds
Farming and surfing a good balance for young Ag leader
As well as managing four farms and 35 staff at Pamu's Cape Foulwind farming complex near Westport, Jack Raharuhi's also a passionate surfer who finds mindfulness on the water.
7/13/2023 • 13 minutes, 5 seconds
"A dream from growing up" Bay of Plenty oyster farm
Under new ownership Tio Ohiwa, or Ohiwa Oyster Farm as it was formally known, is bringing fresh oysters and opportunity to locals plates.
7/13/2023 • 6 minutes, 49 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
7/13/2023 • 8 minutes, 21 seconds
Country Life for 14 July 2023
Oyster farm, Jack Raharuhi, Opepe and the Ag news roundup
7/13/2023 • 49 minutes, 34 seconds
Bulls for sale after Gabrielle - celebrating the wins
Kokopuru Station in northern Hawke's Bay had slips and sinkholes a-plenty but the Hallmark Angus cattle stud managed to rebuild the farm ahead of their annual bull sale.
7/7/2023 • 14 minutes, 39 seconds
Three generations on the same rural route
Lee Pryor has been delivering post along the Whakatāne coastline for 25 years, but he is not the first in his whānau and now his wife has even joined the ranks.
7/7/2023 • 14 minutes, 51 seconds
A quarter-acre food paradise in Gisborne
Adrian Sutherland has more than a hundred fruit trees on his slice of suburban Gisborne and plenty of veges besides.
7/7/2023 • 11 minutes, 59 seconds
Country Life for 7 July 2023
This week Country Life heads to a bull sale in northern Hawkes Bay where slips and sinkholes from this year's cyclones have not held back the stud owners from their traditional celebrations and showing off the best of their progeny. Rural postie Lee Pryor tells his story as he delivers the mail along the Whakatane coastline, something he's been doing for many years ...as have his mother and grandfather before him. Also - a vegetable gardener recounts his method of growing fruit and vegetables by the moon.
7/7/2023 • 50 minutes, 52 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
7/7/2023 • 7 minutes, 9 seconds
A green fingered grower with tunnel vision
Adrian Merhten's hydroponic journey began 20 years ago after being inspired by a local vegetable grower. He was a baker then, but now he's known in Hokitika as "The Lettuce Man".
7/1/2023 • 13 minutes, 42 seconds
Hunting for Tai Rāwhiti - "I don't see deer, I see a food bag"
A team of hunters heads out every five weeks to a hill country farm to harvest deer meat for Tai Rawhiti's food banks which have been under pressure after devastating weather hit the region this year. The deer are a pest, grazing paddocks meant for sheep and beef and their meat makes nutritious meals for hundreds of people in need.
6/30/2023 • 20 minutes, 23 seconds
Finding joy in retirement: Knocking toys into shape
Knocker Harris started making wooden toys for his grandchilden - 12 years later he can't stop.
6/30/2023 • 8 minutes, 29 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Wet conditions across much of the North Island are causing headaches and heartbreak for some, while the South Island is recording boomer seasons in parts, thanks to the wet. Kiwifruit harvest has been bleak, while the shortest day has marked the slowing down of grass growth.
6/30/2023 • 6 minutes, 6 seconds
Country Life for Friday June 30 2023
Lettuce man, Knocker the toy man, deer hunting, monthly wrap of conditions on farm.
6/30/2023 • 50 minutes, 20 seconds
Chef swaps good food for Good Farm
The Good Farm – a raw milk producer and market garden in the Bay of Plenty – is a real family affair. Former chef Loren Gibbs tells us about trading in the heat of the kitchen for digging in the dirt and dawn milking.
6/23/2023 • 14 minutes, 35 seconds
New direction for traditional farm
From regenerative agriculture and Wagyu beef to solar panels that run the irrigation pumps, Ryan Cockburn is changing the farming landscape on his grandparents farm near Ashburton.
6/23/2023 • 20 minutes, 58 seconds
Treat youself like you would a broken tractor, says Rural Support Trust
Taranaki branch chair Mike Green says we've not weathered the storm yet, but with support, we can.
6/23/2023 • 5 minutes, 24 seconds
Country Life for 23 June 2023
A new direction for a traditional farm, a chef swaps the heat of the kitchen for chilly mornings milking, and a chat with the Rural Support Trust on farmer wellbeing.
6/23/2023 • 50 minutes, 50 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
6/23/2023 • 8 minutes, 34 seconds
Voices from Tai Rāwhiti
From the back country to the coast, and the flats and rolling hills in between, you won't find many places or people untouched by the claws of cyclones Hale and Gabrielle which ravaged Tairāwhiti at the start of the year.
6/16/2023 • 40 minutes, 29 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
6/16/2023 • 9 minutes, 4 seconds
Country Life for 16 June 2023
Country life this week heads to Tairawhiti to hear stories from the hill country to the coast..finding out how people are dealing with the desctruction from massive weather events this year
6/16/2023 • 50 minutes, 44 seconds
Cow shed has the essence for coffee roasters
Essenza is home to the best-smelling cow shed in the North Island. Where cattle once sheltered, Mike Jobling now roasts coffee beans.
6/9/2023 • 17 minutes, 57 seconds
A quacking good win for Willow the Duck
This year, for the first time in the National Poultry and Pigeon Show's long history, a duck is the Champion of Champions. Willow, a rare Silver Appleyard duck who hales from the South Island town of Darfield, seemed unperturbed to be the 'duck horse' of 2023.
6/9/2023 • 20 minutes, 35 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
6/9/2023 • 9 minutes, 9 seconds
Country Life for Friday June 9 2023
Cow shed has the essence for coffee roasters, A quacking good win for Willow and the Rural News Wrap.
6/9/2023 • 50 minutes, 24 seconds
In love with yuzu
It's ancient, niche, sour and prickly - but what's not to love about yuzu? Country Life talks to Neville Chun about his passion for the fruit and follows it from the harvest to the brewery where yuzu zest is crafted into a Garage Project beer with the wow factor.
6/3/2023 • 18 minutes, 14 seconds
Tom the Young Farmer on his NZ farming experience
"It's going to be painful to go back to milking in a herringbone parlour after the speed that we're able to milk out in the rotary here," says Tom Everall, aka Tom the Young Farmer. The Shropshire native is working on a Canterbury farm for a few months before returning home to the UK.
6/2/2023 • 8 minutes, 21 seconds
Composting barn better for cows and land, says Karamea farmer
Frano Volkman's cows will soon be snuggling up on a thick bed of woodchips and sawdust in their new 6,300m2 composting barn. The organic fertiliser formed underneath Volkman's herd will be spread onto the paddocks of his Little Wanganui dairy farm.
6/2/2023 • 12 minutes, 51 seconds
On the Farm
Wet conditions in Northland have not stopped all year destroying kumara crops. Arable farmers in Canterbury have been battling to get autumn-sown crops of winter wheat and barley in the ground as paddocks have been too wet.
6/2/2023 • 7 minutes, 8 seconds
Country Life for 2 June 2023
Growing and brewing yuzu, a composting barn and Tom the Young Farmer, plus a round up of farming conditions around Aotearoa.
6/2/2023 • 50 minutes, 1 second
Dairy farmer bridges cultural gap beside braided awa
With the help of a cultural land advisor, North Canterbury farmer John Faulkner is creating a diverse mahinga kai - Māori food gathering site - on his riverside property.
5/27/2023 • 22 minutes, 48 seconds
From Cockpit to Countryside: pilot cultivates aromatic acre
With a spare acre or two wrapping around the house, Damian Paine's turned his paddock into purple. Acre Lavender Farm
5/26/2023 • 13 minutes, 16 seconds
Tractors wanted to help farmers in Tonga
If you've got an old Massey Ferguson tractor sitting in your paddock, the Pasifika Safe Shelter Trust would like to hear from you. Farmers in Tonga could do with them because ash from the huge volcanic eruption just over a year ago still needs tilling into the soil.
5/26/2023 • 5 minutes, 23 seconds
Country Life for 26 May 2023
Aeroplane pilot finds balance with lavender, Culverden dairy farm bridges cultural gap and tractors for Tonga plus the wrap of agricultural news
5/26/2023 • 51 minutes, 5 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
5/26/2023 • 8 minutes, 11 seconds
Dairying with deer
Hinds at Pāmu's Aratiatia deer milking unit are finishing up providing rich creamy milk for the season. Country Life is there at milking time to see how it's done.
5/20/2023 • 20 minutes, 32 seconds
Rural counselling fund drops as demand peaks
The Rural Change Fund saw demand increase from 5 applications a week to 25. Now, when rural people need it most, the wellbeing programme has been put on pause.
5/19/2023 • 7 minutes, 42 seconds
'Get your hands dirty!' says soil advocate and farmer
Australian food writer-turned-food activist Matthew Evans was in North Canterbury last weekend talking to local growers about what keeps the earth, and us, healthy.
5/19/2023 • 10 minutes, 19 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Leah Tebbutt, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
5/19/2023 • 10 minutes, 38 seconds
Country Life for 19 May 2023
Country life this week spends the morning in a milking parlour with a difference. All the stalls are highsided, tailored for the deer which are providing rich creamy milk. Also Australian chef and farmer Matthew Evans shares his enthusiasm for soil.
5/19/2023 • 51 minutes, 3 seconds
Community concerned about wellbeing of Waiau River
A dispute between the Waiau Rivercare Group in Southland and Meridian Energy over the health and flow levels in the Waiau River has been at a low ebb, but both parties are keen to bridge the gap.
5/12/2023 • 19 minutes, 22 seconds
The man behind the metal
Adrian Worsley designs and constructs unique one-off sculptures from recycling scrap metal, tools and farm implements.
5/12/2023 • 13 minutes, 13 seconds
Arthur Anae - from politics to farming chooks
Arthur Anae sleeps four hours a night and wakes in plenty of time to get his free range eggs to market in person. The former politician never thought as a young boy from Samoa he would end up with two big farms and he wants other kids to know where their food comes from too.
5/12/2023 • 8 minutes, 2 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
5/12/2023 • 8 minutes, 5 seconds
Country Life Friday May 12 2023
The banks are closing in over a troubled river, from scrap to sculpture, Arthur Anae - from politics to farming chooks and the Rural News Wrap.
5/12/2023 • 50 minutes, 47 seconds
'Like having a baby every day' - Remembering Ken the chicken champion
Country Life turns back the clock ten years to our visit with the late Far North farmer Ken Vincent. Back in 2013, he'd been breeding chooks for 70 years.
5/5/2023 • 17 minutes, 29 seconds
A tractor on crutches and a Wi-Fi drenching gun
Episode Six of A Year on the Farm finds out what happened in April at Alistair and Genna Bird's sheep and beef farm near Oxford in North Canterbury.
5/5/2023 • 9 minutes, 59 seconds
Future still uncertain for apple grower post Gabrielle
Lesley Wilson lost her home and most of the apple crop just before harvest when floodwaters filled with logs and other debris swept through the orchard in Puketapu. Nearly three months on, the clean-up continues and patience over funding is running out.
5/5/2023 • 6 minutes, 32 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms around the country
Autumn in Manawatu has been one out of the box. As a result, farmers are taking a fair bit of feed into winter. There won't be much work being done on farms in Southland this weekend - duck shooting season has arrived.
5/5/2023 • 7 minutes, 56 seconds
Country Life for Friday May 5 - 2023
Chicken Champion, A Year on the Farm - Part six, Future still uncertain for apple grower post Gabrielle, Community gets behind organic garden and a wrap of the week's ag news.
5/5/2023 • 49 minutes, 47 seconds
Volunteers dig in at community garden
Green-fingered locals in the Canterbury town of Kaiapoi love mucking in at their community garden.
5/5/2023 • 5 minutes, 55 seconds
A natural ferment - it's the yeast we can do
The winemaking process starts in the middle of the vineyard at Greystone Wines in the Waipara Valley. Juicy pinot noir grapes are poured into a large vessel among the vines and exposed to wild yeasts for four weeks.
4/28/2023 • 19 minutes, 10 seconds
Composting loo and eating insects because "why wouldn't you"
Melissa and Aaron Jacobson are trying to live as sustainably as possible on their small property perching ontop a hill outside of Eltham, Taranaki and plan to turn their way of life into a full-time business.
4/28/2023 • 14 minutes, 2 seconds
Polo school programme aims to shed elitist image
Teens from Flaxmere College are saddling up ponies and swinging mallets, learning to play the sport of polo.
4/28/2023 • 6 minutes, 32 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
4/28/2023 • 9 minutes, 24 seconds
Country Life Friday April 28, 2023
Country Life is at Greystone Wines in Waipara, finds out how humanure is helping a Taranaki family's sustainability journey and chats to a polo club owner who wants to shed the game's elitist image.
4/28/2023 • 50 minutes, 39 seconds
Trial vineyard has 4000 plants grown in lab
Scientists are researching how "jumping genes" can be used to develop more robust pinot noir grapes that still have an iconic New Zealand flavour. Dr Ross Bicknell and Philippa Barrell from Plant and Food Research are leading the project, which involves developing new genetic variants.
4/22/2023 • 14 minutes
Off grid and farming carbon
Former Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown lives in a tiny off-grid house and regenerates native forest on a former sheep and beef farm on the flanks of the Tararua mountain range. The carbon sequestered raises enough funds so she can spend time trapping pests, improving tracks and nursing seedlings.
4/21/2023 • 18 minutes, 9 seconds
A Tractor with the X-Factor
It's 100 years since the distinctive all purpose Farmall tractor was introduced on a Texas farm aimed at replacing horses between the rows and reducing the need for a hired hand on small family farms. An enthusiast shows off his New Zealand collection.
4/21/2023 • 5 minutes, 54 seconds
A pinnacle reached for pine nut producer
Marlborough's Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts was crowned supreme champion at this year's Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards. Co-founder Lee Paterson speaks to Susan Murray.
4/21/2023 • 3 minutes, 10 seconds
Country Life for Friday April 24 2023
Off-grid and farming carbon, scientists develop new variants of Pinot Noir grapes, a tractor with the X-Factor, pinnacle reached for pine nut producer and the wrap of ag news.
4/21/2023 • 50 minutes, 37 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
4/21/2023 • 7 minutes, 55 seconds
Healthy home for chooks at clifftop egg farm
When Anna Penn's flock of 3,000 hardy hens stop pecking and look up, they can watch waves crashing into the shore. They're residents at New Zealand's southernmost commercial egg farm, overlooking Te Waewae Bay in Southland.
4/14/2023 • 20 minutes, 48 seconds
Sunflower salad bowl paddocks keep cows smiling
Sunflower-growing and virtual fencing are just the beginning at Rachel Short forward-looking organic dairy farm.
4/14/2023 • 13 minutes, 31 seconds
Shearing with scissors goes blunt
A three-month stint with New Zealand shearing gangs has brought life changing skills to four Mongolian herders.
4/14/2023 • 6 minutes, 53 seconds
Rural News Wrap
Country Life has previously spoken about the damage to forest estates due to the cyclone - but are crews back at work? The cyclone has also affected the annual Kaimanawa Horse Muster, to control the wild population.
4/14/2023 • 7 minutes, 20 seconds
Country Life for 14 April 2023
Cracking good eggs on a cliff, Mongolian scissors shearers, Sunflower paddocks on a Taranaki farm and a wrap of the week's ag news.
4/14/2023 • 50 minutes, 6 seconds
For the love of wool
Patrizia Vieno is originally from Italy but now farms sheep and beef at Tinui's Rewa Rewa Station. The farm has suffered after Cyclone Gabrielle but Patrizia has not given up her aim of establishing a hub for wool in the station yards.
4/7/2023 • 19 minutes, 45 seconds
Stoked to win four good practice farming awards
A Year on the Farm - Episode 5. Alistair and Genna Bird tell Cosmo Kentish-Barnes about their recent success at the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards and what happened on farm in January and February.
4/7/2023 • 13 minutes, 20 seconds
The vertical farms of tomorrow
A French agriculture professor developing new indoor plant varieties and an Auckland man installing vertical farming tech in private homes were two of the attendees at Aotearoa's first-ever Controlled Environment conference this week. Farming tech experts told the Hamilton gathering that New Zealand and Australia are perfectly positioned to feed the world's rapidly growing population.
4/7/2023 • 7 minutes, 30 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
4/7/2023 • 7 minutes, 51 seconds
Country Life for Friday April 7 2023
Country life this week heads to a sheep and beef station near Tinui which was badly damaged in Cyclone Gabrielle. But the scars on the land are not stopping the Italian owner from fulfilling plans to turn it into a hub for producing bespoke yarn, employing locals and boosting the profile of the wool industry. Also, A monthly account of life on the land with Oxford farmer and YouTube vlogger Alistair Bird and his wife Genna. In this episode, the couple talk about their recent success at the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards and what happened on farm in January and February.
4/7/2023 • 49 minutes, 50 seconds
A slice of Te Kupe: hairy sheep and drone mustering
Taranaki sheep farmer Murray Jackson is looking forward to retiring his woolshed in a couple of years. He's phasing his family farm out of wool production to rear hardy and hairy Australian White sheep.
4/1/2023 • 12 minutes, 35 seconds
Ambitious farming sisters develop fashion and food hub
The shearers' quarters at Davaar Station are a popular stop-off for locals and tourists on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway. Inside, Anna Macdonald tickles their taste buds with sweets while her older sister Kate fits them with luxury jerseys made from wool grown on the family farm.
3/31/2023 • 23 minutes, 6 seconds
Golden Bay farmer opposes virtual fencing
Golden Bay dairy farmer Tim Rhodes says virtual fencing is a worry for the dairy cow, the farmer and the consumer.
3/31/2023 • 8 minutes, 22 seconds
Country Life for Friday March 31 2023
Country Life meets two ambitious farming sisters who've developed a roadside fashion and food hub, a Golden Bay farmer opposed to virtual fencing and heads to Taranaki to find out about hairy sheep and drone mustering.
3/31/2023 • 50 minutes, 55 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country
Sunshine's brought a sharp lift in fruit growth as kiwifruit begins its harvest, cooler temperatures are setting in and with grass growing in the South lambs can be fattened.
3/31/2023 • 5 minutes, 42 seconds
Adventure trails and organic garden add X-factor to family farm
In the last few years, Tom O'Brien's Southland farmland has become home to a hand-built bike and hiking track and an organic market garden.
3/25/2023 • 14 minutes, 41 seconds
Easing the way for farmers in difficult times at Field Days
Country Life is among drones, driverless tractors, nude sheep and comfy rocking chairs at the Central Districts Field Days, seeing what products are on offer to make the work of hard-pressed farmers and growers a little easier.
3/24/2023 • 18 minutes, 27 seconds
Mushrooms sprout new lease on life in remote woolshed
Kyle Davey took a winter off two years ago, but what sprouted from his boredom turned out to be some pretty fungi.
3/24/2023 • 8 minutes, 9 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
3/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 56 seconds
Country Life for 24 March
Sally gets in amongst it at the Central Districts Field Days to find out what's new in the ag world, Cosmo tracks down a bike trail that follows one of New Zealand's longest gold-mining water races and Leah meets a farmer, turned builder, turned mushroom grower in Taranaki.
3/24/2023 • 49 minutes, 51 seconds
Southland farmer caught on the hop
Harvesting is about to get underway at Garston Hops which has gone from traditional sheep farming to a two tier operation with big plans afoot.
3/17/2023 • 20 minutes, 12 seconds
How a freezer kickstarted a 50 year career in bag-making
Nearly 50 years ago, Dan Hickman swapped a freezer for a sewing machine. These days, you won't find many people in Otorohanga that aren't proud owners of a colourful Danzbagz bag.
3/17/2023 • 12 minutes, 47 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Maja Burry, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
3/17/2023 • 7 minutes, 54 seconds
Trappers unite over the net
Amid the shiny tractors, new sheep breeds and delicious smelling spit roast at the Central Districts Fieldays in Feilding this weekend, was a stand featuring different types of pest traps. People were hunched over computers finding out about the digital support system, Trap.NZ, which is connecting thousands of trappers around the country.
3/17/2023 • 8 minutes, 7 seconds
Country Life for 17 March 2023
NZ's southernmost hop farm, a small town business which has it all in the bag, an online trapping network tightens the net on pests and the ag news wrap with Maja Burry.
3/17/2023 • 50 minutes, 10 seconds
Crunch-time for Greytown apple orchard
It's a return to the old days for the Cooke family of Greytown who are inviting people to come with their buckets and baskets to pick their own apples fresh off the tree. It's been a struggle for Molewood Orchard to keep going in the pandemic and it's hoped PYO will stop apples going to waste and houses from taking over the fertile soil.
3/10/2023 • 17 minutes, 59 seconds
A bigger picture - dairy farmer discovers landscape photography
Capturing beautiful South Island landscapes is more than just a hobby for agricultural entrepreneur and aspiring mushroom-grower Edwin Mabonga.
3/10/2023 • 12 minutes, 38 seconds
A smooth roll for Kihikihi
Kihikihi Bowling Club has said goodbye to their mower and hello to a vacuum cleaner. Their new carpet green has doubled the clubs membership proving a smooth roll plays an important role in the community.
3/10/2023 • 5 minutes, 10 seconds
Rush of Jack Russells in Wānaka
Get your collars ready - a rush of Jack Russells are about to race through Wānaka. The annual K9 Natural Jack Russell Race is an undisputed highlight of the Central Otago town's two-day A&P show and this year over 60 dogs are expected to attend.
3/10/2023 • 4 minutes, 17 seconds
Country Life for Friday 10 March 2023
Country Life meets ag-entrepreneur Edwin Mabonga who also takes beautiful photos of Southland and drops in on a Wairarapa apple orchard throwing open its gates for a touch of nostalgia.
3/10/2023 • 50 minutes, 13 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Maja Burry, takes a look at the week's agricultural news.
3/10/2023 • 7 minutes, 55 seconds
Lou Lou the Cow Whisperer
Cows are Laura Murdoch's passion. She shares her everyday interactions with them on Facebook and Tiktok and some of her Cow Whisperer videos have racked up quite a few views.
3/3/2023 • 14 minutes, 10 seconds
Stubbs Farm protecting the future through windows to the past
With over 800 acres of protected land on the farm, Ben Stubbs shares the hidden treasures deep in caves that motivate him to never make the same mistake.
3/3/2023 • 15 minutes, 29 seconds
Mad about Mahinga Kai
Karl Russell has been gathering food from local rivers all his life and has witnessed the decline in water quality. Now he educates farm leaders on the importance of protecting the waterways for future generations.
3/3/2023 • 12 minutes, 41 seconds
On the Farm - a wrap of farming conditions around NZ
The effects of cyclones are still being felt, while the added rain in summer has grass growing berserk across the North Island. However, the south could do with a bit more and more supplementary feed is being dished out to stock.
3/3/2023 • 6 minutes, 26 seconds
Country Life for 3 March 2023
On Country life this week, a Southland farmer who has a knack of bonding with cows, the hidden treasures in caves on a Waitomo farm, a kaumātua who educates farm leaders on the importance of protecting the waterways for future generations and a wrap of farming conditions from around the country.
3/3/2023 • 50 minutes, 7 seconds
Cyclone aftermath: Keeping tabs on mental wellbeing a top priority
The Rural Support Trust is planning support hubs in remote places for those farmers and growers impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.
2/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 46 seconds
One step at a time for fruit growers who face uncertain future
Orchardist Lesley Wilson and her family plan the next steps for their apple growing operation after a traumatic escape from flood waters.
2/24/2023 • 8 minutes, 59 seconds
Farm kitchens fire up in wake of cyclone
The Greer family kitchen is headquarters to a group which is no stranger to dealing with hard times in rural communities. The Collective Hug, sparked by Hawkes Bay's 2020 drought, is on fire again - cooking and stockpiling meals for those affected by the cyclone. They'll need to be sustained during the tiring months ahead.
2/24/2023 • 6 minutes, 34 seconds
Black Hawk Up - fixing fences and feeding stock
Light planes and helicopters are among the workhorses helping in the cyclone recovery effort. Hundreds of kilometres of farm fences need fixing and donated feed is leaving as fast as it's being delivered.
2/24/2023 • 21 minutes, 43 seconds
Rural News Wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's agricultural news dominated by the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle.
2/24/2023 • 5 minutes, 59 seconds
Country Life for 24 February 2023
Country life meets some of the people doing the mahi to help cyclone-ravaged Hawkes Bay including those feeding people, fixing fences, choppering in supplies and dishing out feed for stock. And the show also features its new segment, the rural news wrap of the week.
2/24/2023 • 50 minutes, 55 seconds
New direction for traditional farm
From regenerative agriculture and Japanese beef cattle to solar panels that run the irrigation pumps, Ryan Cockburn is changing the farming landscape on his grandparents farm near Ashburton.
2/17/2023 • 20 minutes, 35 seconds
Guiding on the Heaphy Track
Angus McKenzie has spent the past ten years as a guide on the Heaphy Track in the Kahurangi National Park in the northwest corner of the South Island.
2/17/2023 • 5 minutes, 26 seconds
A city boy's love affair with growing green
From golf course turf to your well known Kikuyu, Mark Eman grows it all and has done for almost 40 years.
2/17/2023 • 10 minutes, 48 seconds
Will Halliday on dealing with livestock during disaster
Many farmers and people living rurally will be dealing with the issue of flood-stricken animals. Will Halliday of Beef and Lamb NZ has some tips for those handling stressed livestock.
2/17/2023 • 4 minutes, 57 seconds
Rural news wrap
RNZ's rural news reporter, Maja Burry, takes a look at the week's agricultural news which is dominated of course by the destruction caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
2/17/2023 • 8 minutes, 52 seconds
Country Life for Friday 17 February
Country Life visits a regenerative farm near Ashburton farming wagyu beef and hears some of the harrowing stories from rural areas hard hit by Cyclone Gabrielle. The show takes you onto the Heaphy Track and a turf farm and shares tips for dealing with flood-stricken livestock.
2/17/2023 • 52 minutes, 18 seconds
Fossil Creek Farm: 'It hugs you'
Children and teens with mental health issues are entranced when they spend time at Fossil Creek Farm just outside Nelson. The donkey Holly senses when she should snuggle close and the rhythm of egg collecting and duck feeding brings a sense of stability to all who spend time there.
2/10/2023 • 23 minutes, 23 seconds
Rugged farmland reverting back to bush
700 hectares of hill country on Nigel and Cathy Graham's Kaikoura farm is being retired. Income from honey and carbon credits are repacing livestock on the regenerating land. The couple have also protected a wetland that has one of the best examples of a raupo reedland in the district.
2/10/2023 • 12 minutes, 24 seconds
A taste of country in growing suburbia
Once on the outside of Hamilton sits an urban farm keen to deliver vegetables that don't cost the planet. Run by five women, Earth Stewards practices poly-cropping on their organic vegetable beds.
2/10/2023 • 7 minutes, 38 seconds
News Wrap
This new segment looks at some of the major agricultural news of the week with RNZ's rural news team. Reporter Maja Burry chats about dragonfruit, deer milk, rural support for flood-stricken farmers and the departing of Dairy NZ boss Tim Mackle.
2/10/2023 • 6 minutes, 46 seconds
Full Episode for Friday February 10 2023
Country Life vists a suburban market garden delivering vegetables that don't cost the earth and a beef farm where hills are being returned to native bush. Also in the show, a trip to Fossil Creek Farm in Nelson where people are at the centre ... its animals and beautiful setting help nurture and heal troubled minds.
2/10/2023 • 51 minutes, 5 seconds
Downhill adventures for diversifying farmers
A new mountain bike park has the run of the hills at Rick and Julia King's farm at Clarence near Kaikōura. It's the brainchild of their daughter Genevieve and has replaced the Merino sheep and cattle at Middle Hill Station.
2/4/2023 • 20 minutes, 19 seconds
From one bunch to four greenhouses
With no flora experience but the need for a new direction, Colin and Mary Birch have become the owners of a lily nursery in Cambridge.
2/3/2023 • 12 minutes, 39 seconds
More boots on the ground for Gisborne clean-up
Farmers in Tairāwhiti are looking forward to having more boots on the ground this month to help clean up their farms still littered with forestry debris from recent floods. Regional Federated Farmers president Toby Williams who farms sheep and beef talks about the pain his fellow farmers are going through after another major storm last month.
2/3/2023 • 7 minutes, 58 seconds
On the Farm - Floating onions and slipping farmland
Assessment of damage is underway in Pukekohe after a deluge of rain saw onions floating down the street and farms turned into lakes. Kiwifruit vines and structures have also been wiped out - while parts of the South Island start preparing for a drought.
2/3/2023 • 8 minutes, 3 seconds
Country Life for Friday February 3
This week Country life is at a new mountain bike park that has the run of the hills at Rick and Julia King's farm at Clarence near Kaikōura. The team also visits flood-stricken growers south of Auckland, a farmer cleaning up after another Gisborne storm, and a lily nursery in Cambridge.