Country Life

Jamie Engelbrecht was born and bred on a sheep and beef property in Waimate then studied farm management at Lincoln University. He quit his job recently as an ASB rural manager to focus on a hemp growing and processing business he started with some Lincoln mates a couple years ago.

Willy and Kelsi Haenga's Gisborne-based business, FarmCare, is plugging a gap helping busy farmers plant trees to keep waterways clean and stop erosion.

Max Nelson is one of the last of the old-time rabbiters who fought plagues of rabbits in places like the back country stations of Marlborough. He worked for Awatere Rabbit Board in the 1960s and a lot of his work was battling the pest on Molesworth Station.

Waikato is trucking steadily into a drought and Marlborough has seen one of its earliest picks for pinot noir bubbles.

On Country Life tonight, an old-time rabbiter shares stories of his life fighting the rabbit plague on Molesworth Station and Cosmo talks to Jamie Engelbrecht who quit his bank job to focus on hemp growing and processing - a business he started with some Lincoln mates a couple of years ago.

For the musterers at Molesworth Station, it's an early start to beat the heat. Josh, Duncan, Connell and Liam are moving the cattle during the mating season. Country Life spends a day with the stockmen, the farmer and the cook, peeling back some of the mystique of New Zealand's most famous farm.

A Raglan dairy farming family set up a wee milk bottling plant three years ago. They produced 30 litres of drinking milk a week and delivered it to local customers. Now they bottle and deliver 5000 litres - in one litre bottles - from the west coast to the east coast. Soon they'll stop supplying Fonterra altogether and may start looking to make cheese. They only have 150 cows but there are nine people on their payroll.

Over much of New Zealand pasture quality is dropping in the heat but stock are generally doing well. There are some sensational Hawkes Bay nectarines in shops.

The FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition is back says New Zealand Young Farmers CEO Lynda Coppersmith. The 2020 season was cancelled for the first time in the contest's 52 year history due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Country Life is out with musterers on horseback at Molesworth Station, New Zealand's largest farm and demand is soaring for milk from a small Raglan farm.