Country Life

Seven-hectares can produce a "magnificent" amount of food. So says small-scale farmer and Kellogg scholar Alison Bentley who's done just that, growing beef cattle, hazelnuts and a wide range of fruit on her small farm near Rotorua.

Alison Bentley's Kellogg research report titled "Small scale food growers and their role in New Zealand's sustainable food future" can be found here

Here is a link to the "Peri-Urban Design" concept Alison spoke of.

Results of the hazelnut trial can be found here

Alison’s website: https://tikiterefarm.co.nz/

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Plastic free paddocks have become a reality thanks to Grant Lightfoot. The Orepuke deer farmer has invented a nonpolluting baleage wrap that animals can eat.

More info and photos can be found here

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Golden Shears President Trish Stevens shares her love of the wool industry and which heats the one to watch at this year's shearing and woolhandling championship event in Masterton.

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Grapes are being picked in Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa, Taranaki's in drought and the hop harvest is about to start in Tasman.

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We meet a farming couple in Southland that are making health products from the hemp they grow, and we get some insights into the Chinese market for New Zealand wine.

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A hemp crop flourishes beside wheat, barley and peas at Blair and Jody Drysdale's farm in northern Southland.

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Fang Mei fell in love with wine after working in the banking industry in New Zealand and China. Now she has her own vineyard here and educates people in China about New Zealand wine.

You can read more, here.

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We check back in with Hamish Best of Conscious Valley just outside Wellington. A keen ag student the last time he spoke to Country Life, he's now a finalist for the prestigious trans-Tasman Zanda McDonald Award.

You can read more, here.

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A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.

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Head inside a Hawke's Bay packhouse and orchard once covered in millions of litres of silt after Cyclone Gabrielle and meet a topdressing pilot who's still flying after nearly half a century on the job.

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