Maria Lupton has New Zealand's only leech farm, with tens of thousands of the parasites in tanks on her Waikato property. She even takes them on holiday so she can respond quickly if a hospital needs them for helping repair skin after surgery.

Summerfruit NZ is launching a campaign to attract tertiary students to Central Otago over summer to pick fruit.

Northland's farmers are reluctant to buy in stock and the sheep farmers in the southern South Island seem to have made it through this week's weather bomb with fewer than expected lamb deaths. Find out what's happening on the farms and orchards of New Zealand.

If you're squeamish don't listen to Country Life this week! No ... do! We learn about farming leeches and go hunting with a possum trapper in the Marlborough Sounds.

Dana Thompson and her family are living off the land in South Otago and helping others who want to do the same. She shares what she has learned in a weekly blog and a vlog. She's also penned several books ranging from raising meat rabbits to growing a food forest in a temperate climate, that sell on Amazon.

Construction of a new 'centre of excellence' for horticulture is expected to begin in Katikati early next year. The education hub will be based at Katikati College and will bring together training providers to equip people for a career in horticulture.

Plant and Food Research would like to empower the development of a much larger bumblebee industry in New Zealand. It has developed the technology to successfully breed bumblebees, now it wants beekeepers to run with it.

It's been a kind spring so far with good lamb survival rates and a pleasing bud break in Hawke's Bay orchards but a lot more rain is needed around the country except in Southland and on the West Coast. They've had plenty!

This week on Country Life, Dana Thompson and her family are living off the land in South Otago and helping others who want to do the same. She shares what she has learned in a weekly blog and a vlog. She's also penned several books ranging from raising meat rabbits to growing a food forest in a temperate climate, that sell on Amazon.

Tapanui farmer Mark Tiller came across the Speckle Park cattle breed several years ago while managing a dairy farm. Now he's breeding the cattle full time under the Aniwaniwa Stud name. Speckle Park is an eye-catching Canadian breed developed from three British breeds: Teeswater Shorthorn, Aberdeen Angus and a British white. Three years ago Mark visited some breeders in Canada to select some different bloodlines and brought back 24 embryos. Since then, he's purchased two cows in Canada that are flushed every year for eggs. Mark has been gradually building up his Speckle Park herd and plans to have his first on-farm purebred cattle auction next year.