Country Life

A Waikato farmer and former farming leader Malcolm Lumsden says 50 percent of the dairy farmers in his district want to leave the industry. He says paperwork, a fear of prosecution and a back-lash from urban dwellers is sucking the joy out of  farming and is creating stress.

Hawkes' Bays grape harvest is 80 to 90 percent through. Horowhenua's had good grass growth but temperatures have taken a dive. Some rain and cooler temperatures this week in Canterbury have seen irrigators turned off and some put away for the season.

Chairman of the Tamarillo Growers association, Robert Morris.

High Hopes for Hemp, Sussing out Soils, Confidence Crisis in Dairying, Harvesting Tamarillos and the Regional Wrap.

The tiny northern Hawkes Bay settlement of Nuhaka has chess champions, a large Latter-day Saints congregation and a large apple & kiwifruit orchard that looks like it will need more than 100 seasonal workers this year. It's also been a centre for Māori language revival thanks to people like Liz Hunkin.

Santanu Deb-Choudhury and his team at AgResearch have found that proteins from sheep wool fibre can help improve the digestive health of cats. The proteins, extracted from cross-bred wool are then added in powder to cat food. Dr Deb-Choudry says exciting possibilities are opening up for wool to improve digestive health for a broader range of animals, and potentially human beings.

AgMatch is a web-based initiative that gives farmers, who pay an annual membership fee, access to lower priced farming supplies and hopefully increased returns by using their combined numbers as a bargaining tool. It's the brainchild of Otago businessman Ken Algie. His latest project is a wind-proof jersey. The crossbred wool for the jersey and the funding for the knitware venture are supplied by several South Island sheep farmers and AgMatch members. Their next goal is to produce socks and a line of carpet.

North Island grape growers have had ideal weather for their harvest so far and, in the South Island, Canterbury has had its first frost of the season. Read our guide to what's happening on NZ farms and orchards.

The Regional Wrap and AgMatch's wind-proof jersey.  Santanu Deb-Choudhury and his team at AgResearch have found that proteins from sheep wool fibre can help improve the digestive health of cats and Nuhaka - an East Coast town.

Reza-Abdul Jabbar believes he is the only Muslim dairy farm owner in New Zealand. He is also the Imam at the Southland Mosque – the most southern in the world. Reza came to New Zealand from West Borneo 27 years ago and, after years of working for others, he and his accountant wife Sylvia now own a 349-hectare farm near Invercargill.