Country Life

Pieter Bloem is a second generation Otago pig farmer. The family farm, overlooking Dunedin on one side and the ocean on the other, was bought by his parents in 1954. They were intending to milk cows but there wasn't enough suitable land to make it viable so started a piggery. Currently Pieter farms 3000 pigs with his son Gavin and each week 140 are sent to the freezing works in Timaru for processing. About 45 percent of New Zealand's commercial pork breeding herd is farmed outdoors but the Bloem's farm is an intensive indoor operation. As a result, Pieter has been accused of factory farming. He says they have tried outdoor pig farming but it was too wet and muddy so his focus is on continually improving his indoor facilities and feeding systems.

Plant and Food Research has developed an environmentally-friendly spray to help fend off the kiwifruit vine killing disease PSA.

Farmers in the north who were getting a bit twitchy with the lack of rain are pleased they can now almost see the grass growing after a good few millimetres in the gauge this week. Trading stock are being offloaded in Marlborough which is still hanging out for rain.

Carol Stiles pops in to a pilot farm in Waikato where cows are wearing high tech collars which keep them behind virtual fences and Cosmo KentishBarnes is in Otago with a second generation pig farmer and his 3000 pigs.

Johan Buys spends his days tending cows' feet. It can be a mucky job but he says it's enormously satisfying watching a cow that was lame stroll painlessly back to the paddock.

When Paul Awaikera graduated from Lincoln University he decided not to go back to the Solomon Islands as his degree focused on temperate agriculture. Back home because it's tropical, he says it requires a different approach to farming. Twenty years on Paul and his family are still here and after being a farm manager for several years, he switched to variable order sharemilking and hasn't looked back since.

Dr John Hellstrom is at the helm of a group leading the way in New Zealand in the battle against wilding pines which are being blamed for creating tinder box conditions in parts of the country. The Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust has made a lot of headway in its efforts to get rid of the trees.

Hungry lambs in Rangitikei are starting to put pressure on the amount of grass left for their mums and Nelson and Marlborough are already getting desperately dry. There's been historic low rainfall in Marlborough for the first eight months this year.

Traditional dairy farmers have the opportunity this month to learn from others who've taken the plunge into milking sheep. Sheep milk producer Maui Milk is running information sessions in the hope of getting more Waikato farmers to convert their farms. Maui Milk's Peter Gatley is Country Life's guest this week.

Country Life this week follows a cow podiatrist tending his patients' feet. It can be a mucky job but enormously satisfying! And Dr John Hellstrom talks about how the Marlborough Sounds is fighting the battle against wilding pines and getting some good results.