Country Life

Damaging winds around Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty have blown over shelter trees in kiwifruit orchards and whipped flowers off the vines. On the West Coast of the South Island mating is going well on dairy farms and contractors are finishing making baleage on run-off farms.

On Country Life, a wrap of farming conditions around NZ; Farm talk with Benthem Farms in Michigan and Vanya Maw has been running Wyenova Organics since 1992 and farms just about anything edible that grows with passion and pride.

Angus cattle and merino sheep share the rolling hills on a scenic farm near Culverden. Third generation farmer Jono Reed was only 14 when he started breeding cattle at the property. His wife, Sarah, uses the fleece from their hoggets to produce blankets and knitting yarn for her Grumpy Merino brand.

A western Australian farming leader says supermarkets have taken control of the fresh milk price and dairy farmers in his state are only just breaking even.

The tiny Staveley Museum displays a photographic collection that tells the story of the foothills area of Mid-Canterbury including timber milling, coal mining, limestone quarrying, farming and family life.  Retired farmer and museum custodian Alan Totty says the earliest photo dates back to1860.

Farmers will need to know how much greenhouse gas their farms are producing by the end of next year. There are at least ten tools at the moment they can use including Beef and Lamb's GhG Calculator. It was built by Ben Hancock.

Country Life visits a sheep and beef farm near Culverden that has it's own brand of fine merino blankets and yarns, a Western AustralaTasman dairy farmer talks about the challenges he's facing, the team visiting a tiny museum in Staveley that celebrates local history and finds out about a new tool to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

Find out what's happening on farms and orchards around the country. Hawkes Bay had a 29 degree day this week and a bit of rain. That makes it a risky time for fire-blight in apples. Spring sowing of next year's winter feed paddocks is in full swing in Canterbury.

Angus cattle and merino sheep share the rolling hills on a scenic farm near Culverden. Third generation farmer Jono Reed was only 14 when he started breeding cattle at the property. His wife, Sarah, uses the fleece from their hoggets to produce blankets and knitting yarn for her Grumpy Merino brand.

A western Australian farming leader says supermarkets have taken control of the fresh milk price and dairy farmers in his state are only just breaking even.