Country Life

The homestead at Merchiston Station in Rangitikei has fireplaces galore and an exquisite staircase carved by Ngāti Hauiti craftsmen. Little has changed since it was built in the early 1900s. But what is it like to live in and how do its occupants manage to preserve it and run a stud alongside?

Grass is climbing out of the ground around the North Island and Otago has had a 26 degree day and a frost this week.

Country Life this week speaks to a couple who have developed avocado varieties they say NEVER produce a dud, takes a tour of a grand historic home in Rangitikei and talks to an Otago couple making the most out of their wool.

A cropping farmer at Sheffield in Canterbury is milling his own wheat and selling the flour to bakers around the country. Marty Scurr imported a stone mill from Austria last year and installed it in the farm's potato shed. Most of the flour is sold online and the latest offering comes from a crop of spray-free wheat. Marty believes he's the only conventional farmer in the country milling grain to make flour.

Former SPCA welfare officer Bernice David-Goodwin runs a doggie day-care with a difference. She takes Gisborne dogs on excursions - sometimes 23 at a time!

Twenty-three year old Heather Gee-Taylor is one of New Zealand's youngest local body politicians and a charolais cattle breeder to boot.

There's been welcome rain and warmth in the north and clear patches for sowing and silage-making but too much rain on the West Coast is not helping the mating season.

Country Life this week visits a cropping farmer at Sheffield in Canterbury who is milling his own wheat and selling the flour to bakers around the country and heads off for a day out with a pack of dogs in Gisborne.

Former pilots, cafe workers and ex sales people are just some of those looking at a career in agriculture after Covid-19 disrupted their lives. Country Life spent a day with the budding beekeepers, tractor-drivers and dairy workers who have joined all-expenses-paid taster courses at the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre near Masterton.

Robotics Plus makes robots for the primary sector. It started ten years ago looking at a fully automated kiwifruit harvester. It is now working on an all terrain self driving vehicle for Yamaha Motors. The team has grown from 12 two years ago to 65 today and is always ready to employ engineers of all descriptions and level of experience.