Country Life

Boys and bees make honey for fees, Surfs up for Canterbury Farmers, Our Favorite Friesian and the Regional Wrap.

A mental health initiative encouraging farmers to get off their farms and into the water was launched in Canterbury recently. Surfing for Farmers Canterbury follows on from a successful pilot run in Gisborne last summer, where up to 50 farmers gathered for 13 weeks over summer to try their hand at surfing and get together away from their farm environments.

Peas are an important part of the Christmas day meal for many New Zealanders. We grow a lot of them too, about 60,000 tonnes a year and most of them are grown in Canterbury. Lincoln arable farmer Chris Morrish and his father David are two peas in a pod. They have been supplying peas to the Watties factory, down the road in Hornby, for nearly 50 years.

Taranaki share-milker Trish Rankin is 2019's Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year. She's an active environmentalist, mother of four, teacher, is on the National Executive for the NZ Dairy Awards, is a Kellogg Rural leader and a climate change ambassador as part of the Dairy Action for Climate Change. Two days a week you'll also find her in the milking shed putting the cups on.

The Hantz family has been producing honey at Lakeside in Canterbury since 1951. Barry Hantz joined the apiary in 2001 and now, with 13 employees and 3500 hives in operation across the region, he says the business is a hive of activity. The biggest growth over the last 15 years has been in pollination work.

Country Life's whipping around the country to hear about 'the year that's been' for our food producers.

Canterbury pea growers pleased with crop, Dairy Woman of the Year, Making Money from Honey, and Christmas food producers.

John Wilton starts each day with an apple. And he knows which ones to choose. John's been a horticultural consultant for 57 years and was MAF's national pipfruit and summer fruit specialist for 15 years. Country Life's Carol Stiles headed out to an orchard with John to hear about the state of the apple industry and the changes growers have seen.

In the mid-1980s Philip McLennan planted the first and only blueberry farm on the West Coast at Ikamatua. He was always trying something new so planted tayberries as well. The tayberry originated in Scotland and is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. Late last year Philip was tragically killed in a car accident but his family want to keep his legacy and dream alive. The berry farm is now managed by Philip's sister Carolyn Straker. It's been a huge learning curve for Carolyn who has has no horticultural experience, but her goal is to give the berry farm a real shot at success and make her brother proud.

Who wants to work in agriculture? Country Life's meeting people born in the 1990s who do….