A new walkway has recently opened in the Cheviot Hills Reserve in North Canterbury. The project has been a labour of love for a group of local volunteers led by retired sheep farmer David Anderson.

Shawn Bishop happily admits she's dotty about animals. Her husband Michael Dixon agrees. Shawn and Michael have set up an animal sanctuary for abused, unwanted and neglected farm animals on their property an hour north of Auckland. They've found homes for thousands of battery hens, scores of baby goats and have a resident pig who was once tied to and towed behind a car, but now is showered with love .

The Country Life webpage is showcasing a series of classic country clips from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. This week's film looks at gorse. Last week featured the inventor of the post hole borer, Ron Lister. Beth Clayton has won a DVD of the New Zealand feature movie Mahana for emailing in with his name.

Soils are completely saturated in parts of the North Island - but on the west coast of the South, it's been dry.

Vanessa Corry is New Zealand's only registered breeder of Brahman Cattle. The huge, floppy-eared, loose skinned animals also have a hump and Vanessa's often been asked if they are camels or wildebeests. There are, in fact, more Brahman cattle in the world than any other breed of cattle. They can withstand hot temperatures and can be found out grazing and putting on weight in the heat of the day, when other breeds are seeking shelter.

Warren Bryant and three of his farming neighbours are behind the Mill Creek windfarm in Wellington's Ohariu Valley - a 26 turbine scheme that started harvesting some the capital's world class wind - back in 2014.

Jane Paul is the community programme co-ordinator at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

Welcome rain has been falling in coastal Wairarapa and crops are going in in Canterbury.

Five hundred barber's pole worms can kill a sheep. They suck so much of the animal's blood that when you cut its throat, it doesn't bleed. Sheep farmer Gordon Levet has spent a lifetime breeding sheep to be resistant to the parasite. He's recently been honoured for his work.

An update on how the more specialist meat breed Wagyu is doing in New Zealand. Wagyu is a traditional Japanese breed which is known for its fat-marbled meat. Firstlight Foods, the only commercial scale producer of Wagyu beef in New Zealand, says export markets are wanting more grass-fed beef, rather than grain fed beef, and it's keen to see dairy farmers use wagyu genetics over some of their dairy herd to produce a high value calf.