Country Life

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy

A stoush between the British National Farmers Union and Beef and Lamb New Zealand continues.

A wrap of the week's rural news from RNZ's rural news desk.

Fresh rain across much of the North Island this week has been welcome news for some, but caused further headaches for farmers in Te Tairāwhiti still struggling with post-cyclone repairs. Meanwhile, a Wairoa-based farmer says the losses he is carrying with his maize crop this season is far worse than anything Cyclone Gabrielle threw at him.

Listen to a wrap of the week's rural news

A stoush between the British National Farmers Union and Beef and Lamb New Zealand continues, over opposition to large supermarket chain Morrisons trialling the sale of New Zealand lamb in its stores. Morrisons says the move is due to consumer demand for cheaper prices and that the blunt commercial reality is that New Zealand lamb is cheaper to source. Find out more here

Kiwifruit marketer Zespri has seen its profits drop about 27%.

Over to the primary produce export sector, where kiwifruit marketer, Zespri, has reported a 27% drop in profits mainly due to mainly to reduced licence revenue - as growers were paid less to grow gold and red varieties last season. Major honey exporter Comvita has also downgraded its forecast revenue due to weak consumer demand in China, but major apple exporter , Scales Corporation, says that issue is not affecting its overall sales too much. Find out more here

Dairy prices are on the move again, continuing to trend up.

Meanwhile dairy prices are rising at at their fastest level in three months. The average price at this week's global auction rose 3.3% to USD$3861 a tonne. The price of wholemilk powder, which strongly influences the payouts for local farmers, rose 2.9% to USD$3408 a tonne. Prices for all other products also rose, including butter, up more than 5%. Recent market prices support a forecast payout of $7.80 per kilo of milk solids. Find out more here

A chicken farm in the Australian state of Victoria, has culled hundreds of thousands of chickens after detecting an outbreak of avian influenza.

One to watch, hundreds of thousands of chickens have been euthanised at an egg farm in Australia after avian influenza was detected. The property near Meredith in Victoria is in quarantine and testing has revealed that the strain of the disease is H7N3, the most commonly occurring variant in Australia. The detection comes amid fears of a global avian flu outbreak after the widespread detection of the H5N1 strain overseas - most recently found in the US dairy cow herd. Find out more here

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Blacksmith Jamie Hughes has a niche business crafting knives and hand-forged metalwork for chefs, farmers and tourists from his smithy in Norsewood. Tough economic times means he's feeling it from all angles like many small businesses in rural New Zealand.

Blacksmith Jamie Hughes has a niche business crafting knives and hand-forged metalwork for chefs, farmers and tourists from his old-fashioned smithy in Norsewood.

But tough economic times means he's feeling it from all angles, like many small businesses in rural New Zealand.

Listen to the interview with Jamie Hughes

Hughes has been running the forge for three years now, showing off traditional blacksmithing skills in one of the heritage buildings lining the main street.

Bespoke knives are a specialty of the The Norseman Blacksmith, as well as more decorative metalwork hammered into shape in a corner of the workshop, which has a distinctly Norwegian flavour, echoing the town's roots.

Hughes is proud of his Norwegian heritage and has discovered only recently he is a direct descendant of one of the immigrants on the first ship carrying Norwegians to New Zealand, the Hovding.

"I do feel at home here in Norsewood."

He chairs a group promoting the town and helps run the Viking Festival which takes place here in February.

He is self-taught and has spent the past three years growing his 16-year old hobby into a business.

He has customers in Norway and other parts of the world, as well as local farmers and chefs and Scandinavian tourists intrigued by the town's Norwegian links.

"They see something Norse and they've got to have a look."

Hughes was able to employ another blacksmith Jar Menzies-Winson who in turn has been helping to train a young student in the craft.

"We're a bit of a dying breed but it's coming back fortunately," Menzies-Winson said.

"A lot of people are staying away from mass production items and wanting some quality and handcrafted stuff."

But now Hughes is having to rethink how he does things as the recession bites, costs rise and people hold back on luxury items like bespoke knives.

"I sell knives to chefs which is a hospitality trade which is in a downturn currently, I sell knives to dairy farmers and sheep farmers and they're struggling at the moment, so they're not spending, as well as the tourism market.

"I'm feeling it from all angles at the moment."

Hughes has decided to downscale, "get back to our roots", keep up his online store and keep open on Sundays, then readdress things in the summer…

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This week Country Life meets a traditional Māori healer helping shearers around the motu and things heat up in a blacksmith's forge in Norsewood. Later we explore a native forest that grew from rough, gorsey farmland and meet the botanist behind the impressive regeneration project.

This week Country Life meets a traditional Māori healer helping shearers around the motu and things heat up in a blacksmith's forge in Norsewood. Later we explore a native forest that grew from rough, gorsey farmland and meet the botanist behind the impressive regeneration project.

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From a block of gorse-infected scrubland on Banks Peninsula, renowned botanist Hugh Wilson has spent half a lifetime growing Hinewai Reserve into a 1600-hectare paradise of regenerated native forest by leaving nature to it.

In addition to the birdsong of pīpipi as they fly through the bush, those visiting Hinewai Reserve in Banks Peninsula will soon also be able to hear the sounds of the sea, with the private reserve having recently expanded down to the coast.

Hugh Wilson, a renowned botanist and conservationist, had long held a dream of managing a bit of land where he could just "let nature re-assert herself". The 79-year-old has certainly found that in Hinewai, which he has called home for close to 40 years.

Wilson is affectionately referred to by neighbours as an "ecological imperialist", he says with a smile. Under his management as an on-site kaitiaki, the reserve has grown steadily from a 109-hectare block of bush in 1987 to over 1600-ha of regenerated native bush, largely in thanks to income gained through carbon sequestration.

"A lot of our land purchase fund comes from carbon credit income."

The recently purchased 80-ha block by the sea is one example, with work now underway developing a new track on the land.

However, Wilson and the Maurice White Native Forest Trust which manages the reserve are conscious of the tension that exists in allowing business to continue emitting behaviour through offsetting via carbon sequestration.

"We ethically vet every business our carbon credits are sold to. We only sell to businesses who are committed to carbon zero."

One-hectare of regenerated forest sequesters about 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, he explains.

Carbon credits have paid between $15 per tonne at their lowest and up to $70 when prices are high.

"It is a significant income for sure," Wilson says.

Canterbury farmers, too, are increasingly willing to retire steep gulleys and fence them off to gain carbon credits and also increase biodiversity. Most were skeptical of Wilson's project when he started, he said.

Enemy of farmers, friend to few, gorse once infested the land which makes up Hinewai Reserve.

It's a scrub weed with vibrant yellow flowers and prickly leaves.

"The only effective way of getting rid of it was to let the native bush come through and shade it out and kill it," Wilson explains. Admittedly, he got a lot of flack over his plan to leave the gorse to give way to native forest…

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Country Life visits a food garden in Taranaki, where whānau are getting their hands in the soil and finding out how to sustain themselves from their own backyards.

It's early autumn and we're heading to a tunnel house - heaving with late harvest tomatoes and a flourishing vine.

It's part of a māra where whānau are getting their hands in the soil and finding out how to grow food in their own backyards with the help of Pounamu Skelton.

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

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

Fonterra is looking at full or partial divestment options for two of its consumer businesses.

A wrap of the week's rural news from RNZ's rural news desk.

Listen to a wrap of the week's rural news

Fonterra is looking to sell two of its consumer businesses. The co-op is looking at full or partial divestment options for Fonterra Oceania, which runs brands like Mainland, and Anchor - and Fonterra Sri Lanka. Find out more here.

The country's winegrowers are concerned changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme will impact their workforce and therefore future harvests. Find out more here.

Meanwhile close to 15 hundred ni Vanuatu Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers are stranded in New Zealand, after Air Vanuatu went into voluntary liquidation leaving them no easy way to get home. Find out more here.

Air Vanuatu going into voluntary liquidation is causing issues for RSE workers trying to get home.

In other labour news, the Ministry for Primary Industries says it will disestablish 391 jobs or about 10 percent of its workforce - slightly more than the original proposal of 384 jobs. It does not include frontline roles like vets, animal welfare officers or border biosecurity teams. Find out more here.

Beekeeper Steven Brown - Springbank Honey hives destroyed because of American Foulbrood detection.

Honey producer Springbank Honey is calling for a new approach to addressing honey bee disease American Foulbrood (AFB) after having to burn more than 10,000 of its beehives and equipment in response to an outbreak.

However, Apiculture New Zealand says alternatives like vaccines aren't yet approved in some markets like the US, and the use of antibiotics would threaten export market access. Find out more here.

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Fifth generation dairy farmer Jason Christensen took a break from the family farm to try life as a DOC ranger. His experience in the world of conservation, evident on the Mt Bruce farm in the foothills of the Tararuas, saw him awarded two of this year's Greater Wellington Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

Jason Christensen overlooking recent plantings on the farm.

You can trace much of the Christensen family's 144-year-old farming history through the items on display at the Mount Bruce Pioneer Museum located in the heart of their dairy property.

It started with milking machines, which dairy farmer Henry Christensen started collecting in the 1980s.

Among other items like washing machines, a telephone exchange, old record player, and commercial butter-maker, the machines would go on to form the backbone of the museum in 1986.

It took him over 50 years to bring together the collection, thought to number in the tens of thousands.

It's grown over the years, with Henry being gifted items from estate sales or purchasing them off other local collectors.

"It keeps going alright," Henry told Country Life on a tour of the museum.

"Some of the oldest items would be over 100 years old."

An interactive pedal milking station at the Mount Bruce Pioneer Museum.

Not afraid to leave his own mark on history, Henry was also an early adopter of new technology such as the rotary shed and he built the first in Wairarapa.

Told it wouldn't last more than a month, 50 years later it's still used for milking - though the deck is admittedly "pretty thin in some places".

That pioneering spirit lives on in Henry's son Jason, who now runs the family farm which was first purchased in1879. Jason is the fifth-generation in charge.

"Yeah it's pretty special," Jason told Country Life. "It was one of those earlier blocks that was divvied up in the 1800s. We've stayed here ever since."

Fernhill's rotary milking shed was one of the first to be built in Wairarapa.

Fernhill, a 562-hectare farm nestled in the foothills of the Tararua Range, runs just under 300 Jersey cows for milking.

Before taking on the farm, Jason spent over a decade working as a ranger for the Department of Conservation, primarily on Mana Island off the Kāpiti Coast and later out of Waikanae.

"Everyday was different, it's a bit like farming. One day you could be greeting visitors, the next day you could be head down, bum up doing a whole lot of maintenance."

As the job changed to become more "officebound" and Henry started thinking about retiring, Jason made a return to the family farm…

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This week on Country Life we hear about a country vet's daring horseback escape from Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. We meet Pounamu Skelton who is on a mission to help Maori grow their own food and later we head to the foothills of the Tararuas, where a former DOC ranger has put his conservation background to use on the family dairy farm.

The Mount Bruce Pioneer Museum shows what life on a dairy farm was like over the last 100 years.

This week Country Life hears about a country vet's daring horseback escape from Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. We meet Pounamu Skelton who is on a mission to help Māori grow their own food and later we head to the foothills of the Tararuas, where a former DOC ranger has put his conservation background to use on the family dairy farm.

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

Neil and Sandra Chesterton and their two sons escaped Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. The Inglewood vet was working for a charity there. He and Sandra chat to Country Life about helping vets in the country and their extraordinary departure.

After the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, a New Zealand vet and his family found themselves in a tricky situation in Afghanistan.

The family from a small town in Taranaki risked being caught up in a dangerous global conflict in the country which had played host to Al-Qaeda, mastermind of the attacks.

Listen to the interview with Neil and Sandra Chesterton

At the time, Neil Chesterton was working with a German charity in the ancient city of Fayzabad in north-eastern Afghanistan, helping opium addicts.

It was his second trip to the region. Nine years earlier he had worked over the border in Pakistan for three years training Afghan farmers in veterinary techniques.

Arriving back in 2000, with his wife Sandra and youngest two children in tow, he was also able to reconnect with the vets and help them in the field.

"They just so impressed me," Chesterton said.

He would go with them to summer pasture high up in the mountains vaccinating sheep, cattle and goats and help them treat lame donkeys or injured horses after a game of Buzkashi, where players on horseback aim to put a headless goat carcass in goal.

The Chestertons' sons learned to speak the local language and for two years the family lived a very simple life in a traditional mudbrick house with a long drop and a spectacular view.

They were sitting in their garden one evening when the news of the attacks broke over the short-wave radio and in subsequent days there was a rush of Westerners to flee the country.

The Chestertons were living in the only province not yet taken over by the Taliban but expats in all the other provinces had been kicked out, leaving via Russia and Tajikistan, Sandra explained.

Soon the family was among very few expats left and with winter about to close the mountain passes, and no flights out, the Chestertons decided to make the journey out of Afghanistan on horseback, over the Hindu Kush.

"A nice adventure," Sandra said.

With tension in the area, they dressed in local garb and - apart from a bus breaking down on their way off the mountains - they made the three day journey to Pakistan successfully.

But, despite reaching safety, Chesterton felt the need to help out the locals they had left behind, so, after settling the family in Peshawar, he returned to Afghanistan for a month to finish off the project.

"I didn't want to feel I'd run away from it."…

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

Meat and log prices have hit new lows, with weakened demand from China partly to blame.

A tough time for foresters and sheep and beef farmers alike, with weakened demand from China driving log and meat prices down to new lows. Find out more here.

It's seen major meat company ANZCO Foods report a net profit after tax of $44.4 million for the year ending 31 December, down from $106.6m profit in 2022. Find out more.

Listen to a wrap of the week's rural news

Things are better for dairy farmers though, with global prices lifting, hopes the ailing dairy goat industry has turned a corner, and Māori dairy company Miraka saying a focus on higher value products like cream and frozen milk over milk powder is paying off.

There are hopes the ailing dairy goat industry has turned a corner.

Work on a new 'holy grail' vaccine to lower methane emissions is ramping up. Find out more.

Meanwhile an oft-overlooked fruit, the persimmon, is gaining new favour, while great growing conditions have made for great veggie prices for shoppers.

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