Country Life

A group supplying lamb to some Michelin star restaurants is looking to recruit more farmers as it aims to scale up production. Te Mana Lamb is bred in the New Zealand high country and costs about 50 percent more than normal lamb. It is marketed as being to lamb what Wagyu is to beef, with a fine marbling of Omega-3 fats achieved through breeding and grazing on a specific type of chicory pasture. The product is part of the Omega Lamb Project, a programme which started in 2015 and involves New Zealand's largest sheepmeat exporter Alliance Group, the Ministry for Primary Industries and 35 farmers.

Dr Santanu Deb-Choudhury and his team at AgResearch have found that proteins from sheep wool fibre can help improve the digestive health of cats.

In Bay of Plenty the kiwifruit export picking season has started, and, for the first time ever, Zespri will pack more gold kiwifruit than green this season. Marlborough farms are looking a picture after about 65 millimetres of rain this week.

Jeff Grant is New Zealand's Red meat Sector representative in London. He puts a human face on some of the implications of Brexit

Unwanted spuds become Tuahiwi Gold, Turning wool into food,  Mark Williamson from the Omega Lamb Project, New Zealand's Red Meat Sector representative in London Jeff Grant and the Regional Wrap. stock for it in the country.

Called 'the Goldies' by those in the know, The Golden Shears is the Wimbledon of shearing – or the shearing equivalent of a Grand Prix. The winner of the Open final is considered the creme de la creme of shearing and their purple sash is like gold.

Paua fritters, whitebait, crayfish and venison are on the menu for shearers and supporters at the three-day Golden Shears championship in Masterton. Southland shearing ace Nathan Stratford isn't too serious during his downtime.

Beautiful gentle rain has been falling in King Country and Nelson/Mouteka has had a good dose too.

Last weekend the winners of 2019 Manawatu Dairy Industry Awards were announced and the Dairy Trainee of the Year award went to 25-year-old Nick Besinga, who works on a 360 hectare, 1250-cow farm near Bulls.

On Country Life this week the programme has been high-jacked by the Golden Shears .. the Goldies … we hear about the event many call the Wimbledon of shearing. Also over paua fritters in a shearers' motel we hear what the guns do while waiting for their event to start.