Country Life

Claire Wells is one of few farmers who get to meet all their consumers face-to-face. The Gladstone beef farmer has just launched a gate-to-plate meat box business. Her subscribers pay for a "kinder" way of farming which will eventually see nothing go to waste.

Organic farmer John Earney has been hosting WWOOFers on his Taranaki farm for ten years. "Willing Workers on Organic Farms or World Wide Workers on Organic Farms but I say willing workers because if they ain't willing they ain't here!" he says.

In Manawatu it's gone from being too wet to drive tractors on paddocks to hanging out for rain. While on the West Coast of the South Island, farmers are shutting up paddocks for silage, and some are past their peak milk production.

Out-of-the-box beef farmer aims for no waste, 25 Years of Country Life - Avonstour Farm, Guest - Mike Barham and On the Farm - a wrap of farming conditions around NZ.

Mike Barham, a farmer from Hawke's Bay, is leading a crowd funding syndicate to save one farm from being sold into forestry. Mangaohane Station, nearly 5000 hectares just off the Napier-Taihape Road, is for sale. However, Mike intends to keep the station in New Zealand hands and farming livestock on the property. He talks to Leah Tebbutt about his plans.

Two First World War soldiers have emerged from the remnants of a dying redwood at a fork in the road in rural Hawkes Bay. The massive sculpture is a tribute not just to those who went to war from small communities like Rissington but to the present-day locals who have banded together to create the memorial.

There are hundreds of drawings on limestone rock, some of which could be up to 1000 years old, in South Canterbury. Peter Evans believes it was his grandfather who discovered the ancient drawings on cliffs that overlook his Pareora Gorge sheep and beef farm.

Back in 2002, in this interview from the archives, Tim Leatherman recounts how he came up with the nifty gadget known as the Leatherman.

In Taranaki the temperature gauge is rising and pasture growth is finally looking good. In Southland, they're flat out tailing and some farmers are pleasantly surprised that their lambing tally is higher than scanning predicted.

This week Country Life heads to Rissington where locals in the tiny Hawkes Bay settlement have driven a huge project to remember those who went to war. An iconic redwood at a fork in the road has been transformed into a massive sculpture. They've marked its completion and Armistice Day at a special ceremony this weekend