This week Country Life gets up close and personal with some of the animals at Massey University's teaching farm and heads to a high country station near Omarama where merino sheep run alongside shorthorn cattle.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

• 0:32 - Jefferson Fellow Kate Green on the future of food security
• 11:28 - Rural News Wrap
• 17:03 - Massey University's 'outdoor farm classroom' celebrates 30 years
• 29:28 - Living the High Country Life

With thanks to:

• Kate Green
• Mike Reilly and Professors Jon Huxley and Paul Kenyon
• Simon and Kirsty Williamson

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There's a romance attached to living in the Mackenzie High Country, but does it still exist? For Simon Williamson it is the only life he knows. He grew up through the harsh winters and hot summers and loves the challenge of it.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Simon and Kirst Williamson

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Set on 40-hectares near the university's Palmertston North campus, the Large Animal Teaching Unit, is home to a menagerie of animals for veterinary students to work with.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Mike Reilly, Professors Jon Huxley and Paul Kenyon

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.

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RNZ reporter Kate Green has recently returned from parts of Southeast Asia as part of a Jefferson Fellowship exploring food security issues across the region.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Kate Green

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Country Life meets Berwick Settle who's worked on huge dairy farms in Russia and China, joins a shearing gang for a day and finds out about the world of heritage seed saving.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

• 0:30 - A kiwi's life in the world's largest dairy farms
• 9:30 - Rural News Wrap
• 15:23 - From the Archive: Sheep on the board
• 35:31 - Saving seeds, saving stories

With thanks to:

• Berwick Settle
• Jemma Ostenfeld
• Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Make sure you’re following us on your favourite podcast app, so you don’t miss new episodes every Friday evening.

Send us your feedback or get in touch at [email protected]

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this story for the long-running programme Spectrum, first broadcast in 1972, Jack Perkins joins a Wairarapa shearing gang, on a farm near Masterton. It starts at the beginning of a day's shearing, with sounds of sheep in the yards, dogs barking and shepherd's whistling.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

There's a story to many of the heritage seedlings which Jemma Ostenfeld grows on a patch of borrowed land in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Jemma Ostenfeld

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Twenty years ago Berwick Settle was a Southland sharemilker. Since then he's worked in some of the biggest dairy farms in the world, helping set up farms in China and Russia where cows live year round in huge barns, a far cry from New Zealand's pastoral system.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

• Berwick Settle

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details