Country Life

Country Life talks to a farmer picking up the pieces after the mid Canterbury floods and takes a tour of a multi-million-dollar Rotorua building designed to showcase the sustainable use of wood. And while Cosmo fights off sandflies at an organic farm near Nelson, Sally meets a country plumber with artistic talent.

Kim Spencer-McDonald says she knows a number of women who, as she did, have fallen in love with the farmer but not necessarily the farm. She says meaningful, stimulating off-farm jobs are difficult to come by in rural New Zealand. Over the years she's had to create her own opportunties to earn an income.

Chocolatier Johnty Tatham and his brother Paddy who is experimenting with chillies are forging new paths as the sixth generation on a sheep and beef farm on the Wairarapa coast.

New Zealand's largest dairy genetics company LIC says more and more farmers are choosing the sex of their calves. They don't want to put bobby calves on the truck so are happy to pay more so ensure they get heifers.

Very welcome rain fell on the East Coast, along with freezing temperatures in many places of the North Island. It was similiar in the South Island with cracking frosts and sunny days. Oturehua had a couple of minus ten degree mornings and the Ida Dam is frozen.

Federated Farmers is asking its members to write to government ministers outlining just what impact the labour shortage is having on them and their farming operation.

Country Life meets two Wairarapa brothers forging different paths on the family farm, one makes high quality chocolate from whoa-to-go and the other is dipping his toes into the niche food industry growing chillies.

Linda and Evan Potter are award winning "sustainable farming ambassadors". They farm sheep, beef and deer at Elsthorpe in southern Hawkes Bay. Nearly a quarter of their farm is preserved in the QE2 Trust. They say they have just been doing what feels right for the land.

Farming at Pōhatu Flea Bay on Banks Peninsula is a labour of love for Francis and Shireen Helps. Determined to protect ecologically significant land, they have established several QEII covenants on the sheep farm that is steeped in history. The bay is also home to a white-flippered penguin colony that the Helps have been protecting and monitoring for over 30 years.

Our guest this week has had a busy time travelling the country as part of the annual Dairy Industry Awards where top Share Farmers, Dairy managers and Trainees are acknowledged.