Country Life

A two-year farm cadet programme is turning fresh-faced school leavers in hardy, no-nonsense shepherds on a high-country station in Canterbury.

Coleridge Downs overlooks the Rakaia Gorge on the northern side of the mighty river, and the scenery around the station's rolling hills is spectacular.

Mount Hutt, Peak Hill and the Benmore Range are constant reminders of the Southern Alps and the harsh environment it holds.

Cosmo Kentish-Barnes is there to find out about a farm cadetship programme that turns fresh-faced school leavers into hardy, no-nonsense shepherds.

Listen to how young teens turn into young shepherds on Country Life.

He first meets Jack Innes, a second-year cadet who was just 17 years old when he arrived. But despite his age, Innes says it was easy to settle into the new environment.

"Everyone was pretty friendly so you fit in pretty quick."

Innes was given a working dog pup when he arrived. Now he has three.

"And I'm planning on buying another broken-in heading dog at the end of this year."

Coleridge Downs offers four cadet placements each year, for a two-year cadetship.

Practical training is provided through working alongside senior staff in the day-to-day management of sheep, beef and deer farms.

In total, across the four stations are 9000 hectares running 45,000 stock units.

General manager Tony Plunkett says the cadetship programme has been running for nine years, but it all began with his own sons.

"We were looking around for a training program for them and just found that there wasn't a lot out there."

By pure coincidence, a good friend was pushing to start a programme in the South Island. And the rest is history.

The four cadets for next year's taking have been picked out of 30 that applied, Plunkett says.

"We probably see the other side of the industry. We get a bit sick of hearing about no young people coming into the industry and yet we've got this cadet thing going.

"We've got 30 kids apply for four. Of that, we could easily take 20 of them who all want to get into agriculture. They just need the opportunity to start."

Further up the gorge, first-year cadet Lucy Moffatt is checking on a mob of sheep.

Moffat said she had always wanted to work in the agricultural industry but did not want to head to university straight out of school.

"School wasn't really what I wanted to do. I wanted to do something a lot more practical and hands-on, and we're still getting a lot of learning.

"I'd love to go shepherding down south next."

The learning is centred around the farming calendar, as training manager Kristen O'Callaghan explained…

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Take a trip with Country Life to Auckland's northernmost school, Tomarata School, where kids are found tending to chickens and planting fruit trees.

Tomarata School is more than a school - it's a hub for the community that surrounds it.

While chickens cluck loudly in harmony with the sound of children playing, cows peer over the neighbouring fence to glimpse what they're missing out on.

In the summer evenings, a pile of utes line the school fence while the farmers that drive them use the school's courts for a match of tennis.

And while Country Life visits, pupils are busy planting fruit trees kindly donated by Ballance Agirnutrients.

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Principal Chris King believes there is such a unique element to a country school that they will always exist.

"I understand why there's a pull to a bigger school. There may be different opportunities there.

"But the uniqueness of a small school and the more personalised approach to education, I think it's really special and I think the community recognises that."

Tomarata is Auckland's northernmost school situated halfway between Pakiri Beach and Mangawhai in the Wellsford area.

It's just shy of celebrating 90 years after being established in 1934, which is a feat for any country school after many rural-based schools were shut down under Trevor Mallard at the turn of the century.

King says in a community such as Tomarata the school is a hub and its role and importance shone earlier in the year when a local family's house was affected by the Auckland floods.

King says they found comfort at the school where staff made them cups of tea and cared for them until short-term housing was available.

"I think the community views the school as a meeting place and a place that's historical and important to the community.

"There's just a lot of community buy-in to the school, not just the parent community."

Tomarata School is host to an orchard, chickens, vegetable gardens, and an off-site Nature Classroom, set in native bush, where students learn bush craft, plant identification, and how to be kaitiaki of the natural environment.

King says the rural philosophy helps children feel connected.

"It's part of our school's vision that kids will be outdoors, enjoying the outdoors, being healthy and getting involved. So things like having the fruit trees and the chickens and the vegetable gardens, are just ways to get kids outdoors and interacting with nature.

"You see the smiles on their faces. And I guess that's reassurance that we're on the right track."…

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The Rural Contractors body wants the new government to make it easier to get skilled workers and the seaweed sector is hoping some changes will be made so it can grow and profit from the lucrative wild algae, which is worth more than $20 billion a year globally.

The Rural Contractors body wants the new government to make it easier to get skilled workers and the seaweed sector is hoping some changes will be made so it can grow and profit from the lucrative wild algae, which is worth more than $20 billion a year globally.

Rural news reporter Sally Murphy takes a look at the week's agricultural news.

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A young man who switched from working in insurance to working the land was one of the finalists for Beef and Lambs emerging leaders award.

A young man who switched from working in insurance to working the land was one of the finalists for Beef and Lambs emerging leaders award.

Twenty-three year-old, James Robbie, says he simply woke up one morning an decided he wanted to head back to the family farm.

Now working as the head shepherd at Otapawa Station in the Taraua District - he's taken an active advocacy role in the sector.

Sally Murphy caught up with him ahead of the awards in Christchurch this week.

And on the night - Amy Hoogenboom took out the award - after studying veterinary science she shifted her focus and is now the beef genetics manager for Zoetis where she helps create on-farm solutions for raising beef cattle.

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Country Life takes you back to school this week, where rural students plant fruit trees and tend to chickens. We also meet James Robbie who switched from working in insurance to working the land and a two-year farm cadet programme is turning fresh-faced school leavers in hardy, no-nonsense shepherds on a high-country station in Canterbury.

Country Life takes you back to school this week, where rural students plant fruit trees and tend to chickens. We also meet James Robbie who switched from working in insurance to working the land and a two-year farm cadet programme is turning fresh-faced school leavers in hardy, no-nonsense shepherds on a high-country station in Canterbury.

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

Porangahau farmer Bayden Andersen shares the unique challenges and triumphs of managing an estate like its his own, while raising a family in the Central Hawkes Bay.

Bayden Andersen grew up on farms in Central Hawkes Bay, his father was a shearing contractor and by default Bayden spent a lot of his time as a child playing in woolsheds. In 2007 he was accepted into Smedley Station and Cadet Training Farm in Tikokino that gave him the itch for farming.

Andersen (34) has been farming sheep and beef in Pōrangahau, for three years managing the Walmsley Canning Estate property for a family trust."The farm is 500 hectares with 2500 breeding ewes to the ram and 150 female cattle to the bull".

His Uncle was managing the estate previously and encouraged Bayden to apply for the role. Although he loved the community of Weber in South-east Dannevirke where he was farming at Haunui he accepted the challenge.

When the Andersen's moved to Pōrangahau the farm was traditionally run.

"Most of the progeny was store bought. I've done a lot of fencing development, added in a lot of water". Bayden really enjoys running the place like it's his own and the opportunity isn't lost on him. "It's really cool to run the farm as if it's my own. Chuck all the passion and drive into it and get the results for someone else, it's as good as it gets really".

With rising environmental challenges and new regulations introduced left right and centre, Andersen is keen to keep one step ahead.

"On farm I grow as much feed to balance out the feed curve and store a bit of supplement away. I do a lot of summer crops for lamb fattening. Put some winter crops in to tup ewes on and pre lamb ewes with. With summer dry possibly looming every year that's always in the back of your mind and the central thing we try to avoid".

Nothing prepared the Pōrangahau community for Cyclone Gabrielle.

"You've got to farm for what's happening next month. I'm lucky I lean on some pretty good farmers that are mates and some older generation guys I can talk to. I'm not too bad at listening to other people's ideas which makes it easier".

Community is important to The Andersen family. Bayden's wife Shaye is a local school teacher at CHB College and a huge supporter of the Pōrangahau sports club. The couple have three children, which keep life full: their oldest daughter (8) and twins (6), all attend the local Flemington school. Andersen says, "It's a great place to bring up a family".

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The newborn lambs hide amongst gorse to escape the chilly winds and Alistair plants poplar poles on erosion-prone hill country.

The newborn lambs use gorse bushes to shelter from the wind on Alistair and Genna Bird's 560 hectare farm near Oxford in North Canterbury.

It's the only upside to the fast spreading perennial that's a thorn in the rear of many a farmer.

"If only we could gain some income out of gorse we'd be rich!" Alistair says.

Seriously. They've looked into it.

"We even researched if there was such a thing as gorse perfume, because I love the smell of gorse, it's like a honey vanilla scent!" Genna says.

The idea was chucked into the too-hard basket but perhaps that was a bit premature.

Country Life checked online and found a gorse-inspired Eau de Toilette.

So perhaps there's hope for Genna's gorse flower perfume range after all.

Halfway up a steep track that leads to the top of the couple's rugged property is a hillside dotted with new poplar poles.

"I got my gym work in for a week after planting the poles!" Alistair says.

He got the young trees through Environment Canterbury's Soil Conservation and Regeneration or SCAR programme.

"It's the first time the scheme's been in the Waimakariri District as a funding option, so ECAN subsidise the poles and then we've got to go out there and plant them," he says.

The programme aims to retain productive soils while delivering benefits to water quality, biodiversity and building on-farm resilience to climatic effects.

Alistair has already ordered 200 more poplar poles for planting next year.

After following the Bird's farming journey since September 2022, Country Life's A year on the farm series is winding up.

Keep watching their progress though on Alistair's KiwiFarmingNZ YouTube channel.

He normally adds a couple of videos to it every week.

In terms of the future, Alistair says continuing their lives on the farm is not a foregone conclusion.

"We jokingly say this but it's no joke, we want to be here in two years time, that's kind of how tight things are in the Ag industry at the moment."

To supplement their farm income Genna works as a fill-in teacher while Alistair makes some extra money from his popular YouTube videos.

The couple have also built a scenic hilltop cottage for people seeking a tranquil, rural retreat.

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An idyllic lifestyle change for Kim and Graham Gilkison from Taranaki to the Far North saw them also purchase a languishing vineyard. Five years later, they're producing award winning wines.

Kim Gilkison and her husband, Graham, have turned a once-languishing vineyard into an award-winning estate in just five years.

Around a decade ago the couple bought an old cottage at the base of Paewhenua Island in the Far North. The views from where it sits on the water's edge of Mangonui Harbour stretch out to Doubtless Bay.

The couple sold their engineering business in Taranaki and started renovating before realising in 2016 they'd completely moved in.

Two years later, they brought the surrounding vineyard which covers most of the island - connected by an umbilical cord directly onto State Highway 10.

Listen to how a languishing vineyard has turned right around

The resulting name of the wine, Dancing Petrel, is inspired by the bird that dances on the water, Kim states.

And yet while the bird maybe the mascot, water is a consistent theme onsite.

Visitors to the vineyard can experience its charm in the small tasting room just offset from the cottage. Here water laps at the land's edge mere metres from the outside table where Kim says many visitors have turned into friends and tastings into an afternoon in the sun.

Kim explains the changes they made to the vineyard:

"It was planted in 2006 with some really interesting grape varieties. We've relocated quite a few of the vines so they're more compact, we've made better use of the land, and we've put in some new varieties as well."

The vineyard now boasts Cabernet Franc, Tannat, and Syrah for the reds, while the whites include Viognier, Arneis and Pinot Gris. They've also introduced Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, and Chambourcin, a promising red grape that thrives in the Northland climate.

Kim says when they first took over the vineyard, it needed significant remedial work. The vines were overgrown, and the production was a fraction of its potential.

That meant the first three years were spent heavily pruning and reorganising the plants while also planting 6500 new vines.

In recent years, the vineyard has received numerous accolades and awards, including recognition for their Cabernet Franc wines, which are now highly sought after.

One of the significant challenges in revitalising the vineyard was the learning curve, as Kim admits.

"The biggest challenge was just learning what you needed to do in the vineyard itself. We've been so lucky with the support we've had from people in the industry." …

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Duncan Smith and Sally Murphy take a look at the week's agricultural news.

Rural news editor Sally Murphy dives into the news in a week where Fonterra lifted their forecast milk price, peanut growers in Northland hold out for El Nino and Cymbidium orchid prices have risen 20 per cent on last year.

Listen to this week's wrap of Rural News

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From the Country Life archives - we meet former shepherd Anna Holland who trains people to train dogs.

If you were a working dog you'd certainly want to be living with Anna Holland.

Some farmers might be surprised to learn she cuddles her working dogs - although Holland admits farmers might not be surprised she, in particular, cuddles her dogs.

This week Country Life has dipped into their archives for this piece on Anna Holland, who teaches people dog training.

Listen to Anna Holland from the Country Life archives

We met her in 2010 on the steep hill country of Taihape where she had 11 dogs at the time. However, by the end of the story she had 10 as one lucky farmer was able to walk away with a good-natured pup.

Holland is full of tips and tricks. She starts off by explaining there is no need to yell at your dog if it's close to hand.

"They've got fabulous hearing.

"If you shout at them and they're only a few feet away, what are you going to do when they're sort of half a mile away out in the paddock with the wind?"

Holland also believes it's "complete crap" that a person shouldn't pet their working dog.

"You can cuddle them and love them and pet them. And do all of this. And they can still respect you and do what they're told.

"Mine do most of the time. And I don't expect perfection."

Holland says some farmers expect total perfection from their dogs.

"And in order to get that the dogs' lives can be pretty bloody awful."

You can hear more of Anna Holland's thoughts about handling a working dog, by listening to the audio above.

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