Country Life

Meet the Steenkamp family who are milking it in Wellington. The family runs The Brooklyn Creamery, supplying the city with fresh goat's milk and goat's milk products from just outside the city centre. Also, trees are helping to combat erosion on hill country in the Hurunui District. Six farms in the Blythe Valley are getting willow and poplar poles planted on land at risk of slipping and slumping.

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Willow and poplar poles are one way to help secure land that is at risk of slipping and slumping.

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A round-up of the week's rural news.

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A backyard initiative is keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury. The Cheviot MenzShed is a tooled-up workshop where men can tinker, talk and share their skills with the local community.

A backyard initiative is keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury.

The Cheviot MenzShed is a tooled-up workshop where men can tinker, talk and share their skills with the local community.

On the spur of the moment, I popped in while in the Hurunui District to record farming stories.

It was a wet and cold day but Bruce Nicol was there with some fellow members.

"We're often here and sometimes not much works gets done! But we sort out all the political problems and sporting issues that might be going on," he said.

The first men's shed was opened in Australia in 1998. One of its goals was to promote social activities and provide vital health information to its members.

Bruce said the atmosphere of old-fashioned mateship is still a core philosophy, especially for retired folk.

"We've got a number of our members living alone and, on days like this, it can be too easy just to sit in the lazyboy and watch TV, when we have activities that you can do here."

Some men are still reluctant to talk about their health and don't ask for help. The MenzShed often fills this gap.

"If there's issues going on healthwise we might get the district nurse to come and talk about prostate cancer or something like that," he said.

And most importantly, there's the joy of making and restoring things and learning new skills.

The sawdusty machine shop is home to several large woodworking machines, most of which have been donated.

There's also an engineering room where people learn how to weld.

It's not just for oldies either. Younger blokes are on the work benches too.

"Our youngest member came when he was 16 and he's away now doing an apprenticeship," Bruce said proudly.

People with disabilities are also encouraged to join.

"We've got two guys that are severely sight impaired. We get them involved but we've got to be careful we don't put them near a saw bench."

There's nothing much the multi-skilled team of Cheviot DIY-ers can't do when they put their minds to it.

Recently, a couple of local farmers donated a combine harvester to the MenzShed.

"We actually drove it from the farm to a yard down the road here and we dismantled it and raised $3000 dollars!"

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This week on Country Life a high-tech lettuce farm in Taranaki, a tribute to the old fashioned dunny, a backyard project keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury and hort cadets in Wairoa getting their hands in the soil.

This week on Country Life a high-tech lettuce farm in Taranaki, a tribute to the old fashioned dunny, a backyard project keeping blokes busy in North Canterbury and hort cadets in Wairoa getting their hands in the soil.

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Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa celebrates its first commercial apple harvest and the first of its horticulture cadets graduating. Along with Ohuia Incorporation, the trust has planted 28-hectares of Maori-land, transitioning from traditional sheep and beef farming to horticulture.

It's been a year of firsts for Wairoa's post-settlement trust, Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa.

Not only did Haumako - the horticulture branch of the trust - celebrate its first commercial apple harvest, it also celebrated the first of its cadets graduating from its horticultural training course.

The cadetship, which started three years ago, has seen five rangatahi from the rohe complete their Level 3 horticulture certification through the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) while working on an orchard set up by the trust.

Haumako's general manager Robin Kaa (Rongomaiwahine) says it's part of the trust's aim to "utilise our whenua and grow our people".

The first five of its cadets all graduated this harvest.

The cadetship started by welcoming students aged 15 to 17, "fresh out of school" and "new to the industry", but has since expanded to include up to 30-year-olds, adding a mix of ages to the programme.

The "earn as you learn" approach not only offers employment opportunities, but is empowering Wairoa's rangatahi.

Kaa says sometimes horticulture isn't always the right fit or the timing might be wrong, but every cadet leaves having learnt something.

George Cox is one of the recent graduates, having been with the team for three years.

"I've been able to get my Level 3 through this cadetship," he tells Country Life. "It feels good you know. I got kicked out of school and stuff like that so I had no NCEA levels and now I've got something."

Horticulture is not a large industry in Wairoa, though that's something Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa hopes to change. It has planted 28-hectares of land owned by the trust and Ohuia Incorporation.

The orchard, where Country Life meets Kaa, sits alongside the Wairoa River and was previously a sheep and beef block.

Kaa says there was a lot of Māori-owned land in the rohe that could be better utilised than for cropping or stock grazing.

"The idea of this is to grow the horticulture industry in Wairoa, just knowing there is very little commercial horticulture in Wairoa."

It's been a "big transition" for the team, and one of the key factors which has enabled this land use change is the trust's ability to draw and store water from Wairoa River…

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A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

A round up of the week's agricultural news.

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A trip to the archives with a nostalgic tribute to that most humble and human New Zealand institution, the dunny, from a feature produced in 1975 by the team from long-running RNZ show Spectrum.

A trip to the archives with a nostalgic tribute to that most humble and human New Zealand institution, the dunny, from a feature produced in 1975 by the team from long-running RNZ show Spectrum.

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A Waverley business has cut the ribbon on a 900 square metre state-of-the-art tunnel house. Salad Brothers took over the 1.1 hectare site about 18 months ago and aims to produce half a million lettuces a year.

Salad Brothers co-owner Garth Archibald says business was quite rundown when they took over 18 months ago.

Tucked away on a Waverley side street, a South Taranaki business has cut the ribbon on a 900sqm state-of-the-art tunnel house aimed at putting the crunch into sandwiches across the region and beyond.

Salad Brothers took over the 1.1-hectare site about 18 months ago and aims to produce half a million lettuces a year.

Leafy greens have been a quiet contributor to the Waverley economy for most of the last 40 years, but as Salad Brothers co-owner Garth Archibald explained the Lupton Street operation had seen better days.

"When we first arrived it had been left vacant for a while so it was head high weeds all through here. There was another tunnel house similar to these wooden ones here and that was half collapsed and we had to remove it.

"And we've only just a year later got this replacement up and running which is why we had an opening party last week."

Salad Brothers was bringing the farm into the 21st century, beginning with the $350,000 tunnel house.

"It's a step into the future. It's got computer-controlled climate control where this vent along the top opens in relation to temperature and wind speed and certainly helps to keep the whole place at a more even temperature."

Salad Brothers raises up to 60,000 lettuces at a time or about a half a million a year.

The new tunnel can hold 60 percent more plants - referred to as pots - than the old one, and was designed to make harvesting easier.

There was lettuce in every direction.

"There's 16,000 what we call pots in here. We're just sticking to the green frilly in here at the moment. I think about half of all our lettuce is this green frilly. We've got another 30,000 down there and another 20,000 in the six house that are up here and as you'll see down here we go into all the different reds and spiky varieties."

The new 900sqm $350,000 state-of-the-art tunnel house features computer-controlled temperature regulation.

Salad Brothers grew about 60,000 lettuces at a time, or about half a million a year.

It was a nutrient fall technique hydroponics operation.

"As the water flows through, the plants feed and so when the water gets to this end the nutrients are depleted and it all flows back under the ground to the sump at the end here and just gets pumped around and around and then every month or so we just swap it out…

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In Pukekohe, a mild winter weather has prevailed with regular rainfall. Vegetables are literally jumping out of the ground. Marlborough grape growers have finished with pruning and most are on track for getting their maintenance work done.

Dairy calving has begun across the country.

Feeding out is a bit of a chore, with wet and muddy conditions for Northland - Te Tai Tokerau farmers. Our contact who farms near Whangarei says he had about 150mm of rain for the month of July while others he knew had 200mm. Frosts from a few weeks ago have slowed grass growth though soil temperatures remain steady. It's been a "pretty good" winter but farmers are hopeful of an early spring. Dairy farmers were happy with body condition scores and are now well into calving, some are even nearing the end. Our contact says beef farmers in the region are unlikely to make a profit this season. That's due to high interest rates, on farm inflation and increased transport costs due to the earlier State Highway 1 Brynderwyn closure.

In Pukekohe, mild winter weather has prevailed with regular rainfall. Vegetables are jumping out of the ground. Unfortunately, many consumers are not buying them resulting in a continuing oversupply of low price produce.

Dairy farmers across the Waikato are flat out with calving at the moment. Pasture covers have held well so feed levels are good and there's plenty of supplementary feed to be found. Farmers are "apprehensive" about recent price drops at the Global Dairy Trade auction, but hopeful it's a similar trend to last year where prices will later rise.

Bay of Plenty kiwifruit growers are well into pruning, having started on gold varieties and soon to get into the green varieties. They're also busy with general maintenance and picking up fertiliser. It was a great season with plenty of labour, good fruit and good growing conditions. Growers are hoping the tide will similarly change for avocados. Picking for the domestic market has already started in the Far North and those in the Bay of Plenty are not far off.

Pruning of kiwifruit vines is underway in Bay of Plenty.

Calving has just begun in King Country, with earlier scanning rates looking good. It's been a good winter, not too cold and the grass is still growing somewhat. Feed levels are good with plenty of silage still for sale around the region. Our dairy farmer contact says it'll still be a tight year for many, with uncertainty about the Fonterra brand sales and a lower GDT price. She's hopeful interest rates would start to drop. It's worse, though, for her sheep and beef friends…

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