Country Life

Confident sheep and beef farmers are paying top money and have out-bid foresters for land on the North Island's East Coast. In the South Island apple harvesting's almost finished in the Nelson Motueka region.

Fourth generation potato grower Brett De Campo says there's a glut of potatoes following the de-regulation of Western Australia's potato growing industry.

From Cape Reinga to Slope Point - Trekking to Raise Money for MS Research, Ecolibrium Biologicals, Fourth generation Australian potato grower Brett De Campo and the Regional Wrap.

Olia Alpatskaya is from the Ural Mountains in Russia and trained as a mining engineer. She came to New Zealand for a better life with her children and to escape biting minus 30 winter temperatures. She lives in the hills above Ohope in the sunny eastern Bay of Plenty and now her outlook is White Island which she says, on a clear day, seems like it's swimming towards you. These days Olia makes fragrances and natural cosmetics on an organic orchard where she grows olives, figs and old varieties of apples with her partner Greg Reid.

South Otago farmer Stephen Jack is working on a sheep breeding project that grows meat, but also has finer wool which can be sold for profit. He has developed a 23 to 25 micron dual purpose animal which is half-Dohne, quarter-Finn and quarter-Texel. He's called the sheep a Glenflora Hillender. The wool is contracted to NZ Merino to supply Smartwool who manufacture and market high quality socks.

The remote, rural Colville community is digging deep trying to fund a new wellbeing and education centre for its 700 strong population. The purpose-built complex would house medical and social services and provide training opportunities for rural doctors, carers and allied health professionals. It would also include housing for over 65s. The local doctor Kate Armstrong believes the Colville model could be a pilot for other rural communities.

It's been a marvellous week for harvesting kiwifruit in Bay of Plenty. On Marlborough hill farms calf weaning has finished and ewes are on a fast rotation while the ram is out.

Fruit, Flowers and Fragrances, The Colville Project, Micron Matters and the Regional Wrap.

Mack was the first person to be granted a license to grow industrial hemp (iHemp) in New Zealand and is currently developing eight hemp cultivars on his farm in the Catlins.

These days most regional councils are putting rules in place around what can and can't be done on the land and what level of nutrient run-off is allowable. To make changes and informed choices requires councils and farmers to know what's happening with the soils; do they leach nutrients easily, do they hold water, how naturally fertile are they? This information is contained in a soil map but surprisingly few farmers have one. And even councils like Waikato Regional Council, which is funding the production of new digital soil maps, won't have the whole region surveyed for another seven years.