Country Life

Sarah Mosley is a chip off the old block. The former Wellington hotel manager is following in her father's footsteps after she headed home to join the family potato-growing business in South Otago.

When Sarah Mosley, who studied hospitality in Switzerland, got a call from her Dad she jumped at the opportunity to quit the city and roll up her sleeves.

Now, the former hotel manager is following in her father's footsteps as she helps to run the family potato-growing business in South Otago.

"Dad was wanting an extra set of hands and my brother couldn't leave his job. I guess I was probably a bit more flexible," she said.

Fast forward a few years, and she's the operations manager at Kowhai Bush Farms near Balclutha.

Mosley is proud to be a sixth-generation potato grower.

"In 1850 William Alfred Moseley, who came out on the John Wickliffe, started growing potatoes and we still grow on some of the same land."

The farm grows seven varieties of potato across 140 hectares in South Otago and Southland.

"We have Red King, Red Rascal, Van Rosa, Desiree, Agria, Nadine, Maraska, and we're testing out a couple of different varieties, Flamenco and Everest, to see what their shelf-life is like."

The farm and packhouse employs up to 25 staff, who process about 15 tonnes of spuds every day.

Sarah is keen to grow the business, but there are some major obstacles in her way.

"We'd need all new machinery, realistically. We're sort of running at capacity with what we have currently. So yeah, we'd need to look at investing in more technology, I guess."

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Country Life meets a former hotel manager who's swapped swipe cards for growing spuds, goes for a skate at a country ice rink and visits the farm at the centre of Wellington's kiwi project.

This week Country Life meets a former hotel manager who has swapped swipe cards for growing spuds in South Otago, Cosmo goes skating at the newly refurbished community-run ice rink in Staveley and Gianina's out on a farm that's become the cornerstone of the Capital Kiwi Project.

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Terawhiti Station, a 4800-ha farm off Wellington's west coast, is the cornerstone of a project that has seen kiwi return to the capital.

By Gianina Schwanecke, producer

Established in 1843, Terawhiti Station has seen many changes over its 180-year history - the most recent being the re-introduction of kiwi to the hills surrounding this 4800-hectare property on Wellington's southwest coast.

The kiwi release is the culmination of a project several years in the making.

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It's here that the first of 138 kiwi were released in 2022 as part of the Capital Kiwi Project.

There are over 1000 traps on the farm - just part of the 4600 or so set across the 24,000-hectare stretch of land which underpins the project.

It's a partnership between private landowners, tangata whenua and local communities determined to do their bit for New Zealand's national bird.

Michael Grace, a shareholder and director of Terawhiti Station, had known the project's founder Paul Ward for many years.

When first approached with the idea, his reaction was one of surprise. "Who wouldn't want kiwi in their backyard?"

Factors to consider were whether the kiwi could survive, any pest control, and how the project would be managed on a working sheep and beef farm.

Grace, a descendant of James McMenamen who took over the farm in 1847, grew up on the property near the rural Wellington settlement of Mākara.

"Having native flora and fauna back on the property is really exciting because we want to leave the property in a better space than I grew up with ... and the reintroduction of kiwi is a good step towards that."

He's proud of the project's progress within a short time frame - the first kiwi chicks hatched on the farm late last year.

"In four, five years, we've got a burgeoning population. In the kiwi conservation world that is lightspeed."

Farm manager Guy Parkinson admits he was sceptical at the start, though he and his wife, Carolyn, have always been "environmentalists at heart".

He believes the kiwi aren't the only things to have benefited from the project; the swathes of regenerating bush on the steep hills are good for other bird life, too.

Parkinson says having kiwi on the property has been "pretty seamless", fitting in with the farm operation.

"When I started here 15 years ago, it was almost like a blank canvas."

"Cattle here were virtually a feral mob of wild cattle and we only had about 270 wild sheep when I started. So, yeah, it's completely different, a complete transformation."…

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A round-up of the week's agricultural news from RNZ's rural news desk.

Avian flu concerns are among stories from the RNZ rural news desk this week.

The Ministry for Primary Industries says it's only a matter of time before avian flu arrives in New Zealand. The disease has killed millions of wild birds on six continents and it has spread to mammals and dairy cattle in the United States. People are being urged to report any unexpected dead bird sightings and avoid any contact with carcasses. More on the story here.

Tractor drivers have to use public roads to get to their farm jobs but they say median barriers on some of them are unsafe. They say the barriers mean they face abuse and are being clipped by other drivers who can't pass them. Some solutions were discussed at the Rural Contractors Conference in Masterton this week. Read more here.

There's been a mixed result from the latest farmer confidence survey. Farmers are feeling more optimistic about their own businesses but less confident about the wider agri-economy. Rabobank's quarterly survey of about 450 farmers found the number thinking of their farm business as unviable dropped from 9 percent last quarter to seven per cent. Most pessimistic are sheep and beef farmers. More here.

Theft has been plaguing blueberry growers and they met at Marian Hirst's orchard, Bay Blueberries, in Hawkes Bay to discuss ways to stop the culprits. In January, she had hundreds of kilos of blueberries stolen from the orchard. The full story can be found here.

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Georgina Lawson and her husband Willie farm 3000 sheep at Merton in North Otago. Last year, Georgina launched a line of 100 percent woollen coats made from the clip of their farm's Romdale hoggets.

Fashionista and farmer, Georgina Lawson

A sustainable fashion label was born and now grows on Georgina and Willy Lawson's sheep farm in Otago.

The wool from the their Romdale hoggets is crafted into Atér designer coats and blazers.

"Atér is my grandmother's name backwards" says Georgina, the label's founder, designer and mother to three young boys.

Listen to the Atér story here

Georgina's grandmother, Rita, was a professional dressmaker who specialised in wedding dresses.

"I spent lots of time in her sewing room as a child, fiddling around with her. She tried to teach me a thing or two. She was pretty clever. Very clever, actually."

Modelling another coat at the sheep pens.

It was Georgina's inspirational grandmother and also the low value of strong wool, that gave her an entrepreneurial lightbulb moment.

"I was grumbling at my husband about declining wool prices and he said, well, why don't you try and do something with it? And that's how I started finding out what I could do with this great fibre that we grow here on the farm."

Willy Lawson checks on sheep on the 1400 hectare property.

A mob of Romdale sheep navigate a steep hill.

Woollen coats were a natural fit for the budding designer.

"When we were living in London I got a bit of an obsession with coats so I thought, I'm going to start making my own."

A lack of strong wool innovation has been a major frustration for New Zealand growers. Lawson is bucking this trend.

She said her coats require a medium to high micron fibre, for strength and for the weaving of the fabric.

"Strong wool has been used in carpets forever, and I thought, why can't we use that in the fashion industry and make a great piece that is going to last forever?"

The coats are made from hogget wool grown on the farm.

One of the biggest challenges she had to overcome was turning the raw fibre into a designer coat within the country.

After much research, she mapped out a manageable production process for the wool.

It's scoured in Timaru, carded and spun in Wellington, then it goes to Auckland to be woven into fabric, before cutters cut the pattern and it's sewn into the end garment.

"It didn't make sense to have this great product here and then send it overseas, and then bring it back and sell it as New Zealand wool."

Georgina works on a design…

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This week on Country Life, we take you inside a beehive and the mind of a man who's been tending to them for half a century, we head to an on-farm Charolais bull auction near Motukarara and we meet a North Otago farming family that's spinning a new yarn, producing 100% woollen coats.

This week on Country Life, we take you inside a beehive and the mind of a man who's been tending to them for half a century, we head to an on-farm Charolais bull auction near Motukarara and we meet a North Otago farming family that's spinning a new yarn, producing 100% woollen coats.

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A herd of young bulls went under the hammer at the annual Silverstream Charolais and Hereford Stud sale in Motukarara, but with farmers tightening their belts, prices were back a bit compared to last year.

An on-farm sale was held on Wednesday at the Silverstream Charolais and Herefords Stud at Motukarara in Canterbury.

Brent and Anna Fisher put 75 of their two-year-old bulls up for auction, but with farmers tightening their belts, prices were back a bit compared to last year's sale.

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With more than 50 years' experience in the apiary industry, Frank Lindsay is a hive of information when it comes to all things bee.

There's an art to beekeeping, and it starts with pheromones - the invisible chemical scents you produce.

"Working beehives you've got to be totally relaxed," says Frank Lindsay, a man with more than half-a-century's worth of experience tending to bees.

His fascination with bees started after a childhood visit to a Havelock North honey factory. However, a failed attempt to start his own hive in which his father and brother were stung multiple times, saw him banned from keeping bees until he got older

Later working as a technician for the Post Office gave him enough time to tend to bees and he got his first hive in 1970. At its peak, Frank kept about 450 commercial hives across Wellington, Horowhenua, Ōtaki.

"Most beekeepers only have their hives within 30km radius but we had ours over a 100km radius because it's just a coastal strip.

"Wellington is known for its southerlies. When the southerlies occur during our summer and spring we don't get much honey. And in Ōtaki it's sheltered from the southerlies. So when it's bad weather here, it's good weather there ... best of both worlds."

These days he's focused on helping grow future and hobbyist beekeepers through helping tend to hives on the outskirts of Wellington, run by the Wellington Beekeepers Association.

"Generally a box of bees is around about 15-20,000 bees. In Wellington area, it's around about 30 kilos per hive."

Bees gather pollen from trees in spring, then from pasture from December onwards, which they use to make honey.

The wider Wellington region produces a bush blend, often marked by dark orange pollen from gorse flowers, as well as the white, sugary honey made of pollen collected from pōhutukawa flowers.

"Everything that is a weed is great for bees. If you're in an area that has a bit of bush and open farmland, the bees do really well.

It all depends on how many beekeepers are around. Frank says this is the first year they've really started producing honey with many beekeepers exiting the mānuka honey industry.

"They're entering season collapse," he says. "It was a gold rush and then everybody jumped on it. Even the family businesses are hurting and they've dropped their numbers to be more sustainable."

Changes in farming practices have also influenced changes in beekeeping, with the rise of rotational grazing practices reducing the amount of clover available for bees…

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A round-up of the week's agricultural news from RNZ's rural news desk.

This week marked the kick off of the 56th National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek near Hamilton. Our team was there and you could read more about what they found here.

Some big announcements for the agriculture sector this week, with the Government confirming the sector will not enter the emissions trading scheme. It's also immediately disbanding He Waka Eke Noa - the government, industry partnership that had come up with a way to price on-farm emissions - to be replaced by a Pasture Sector Group, which will include groups like Dairy NZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Federated Farmers to come up with solutions to reduce emissions. You can read more about that here.

The Government has also announced an inquiry into rural banking, following months of hearings about how rural lenders tend to face higher interest rates than their urban counterparts. You can read more about that here.

The Government has confirmed agriculture will not enter the emissions trading scheme. Pictured here, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Fieldays.

Picking for this year's avocados is underway and growers are hopeful of a turn around after two really tough seasons. Meanwhile a smaller apple crop could mean the fruit is in shorter supply this year. New Zealand Apples and Pears says the exportable crop is 11% lower than estimates made earlier in the season - with 18.9 million trays carton equivalents heading off-shore. You can read more here.

While the numbers are down, fruit quality is up and growers are eagerly waiting to see what returns they'll fetch overseas. Meanwhile, some vegetable growers are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, due to a national surplus of veggies and low prices.

The avocado harvest is underway.

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This week Country Life catches up with a collector of rare and exotic sheep breeds who has just sold his farm, we learn about how a Taranaki dairy farmer's collection of antique farming books and detailed weather records helps him milk and breed his Jersey cows, and we dive into the archive for a look at life as a country vet in 1975.

This week Country Life catches up with a collector of rare and exotic sheep breeds who has just sold his farm, we learn about how a Taranaki dairy farmer's collection of antique farming books and detailed weather records helps him milk and breed his Jersey cows, and we dive into the archive for a look at life as a country vet in 1975.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details