Country Life

A mob of bouncy lambs locate their baaing mums after having their tails docked by Oxford farmers Alistair and Genna Bird.

Every year Country Life's three producers get to discover nooks and crannies around the country, visiting close to 100 towns and communities every year. We're marking our 25th birthday show by taking a bit of a road trip and meeting some of the show's characters.

Warm rain and a mix of sunshine has kicked grass out of the ground across the country. It's a relief for many across the North Island trying to get silage together. Farmers are treading water in Wairarapa and join those in Nelson wanting a bit more rain now the ground is drying up. And the last of tailing completed this week marks the end of the lambing season in Southland.

Billed as the Southern Hemisphere's largest agricultural event, Fieldays at Mystery Creek in Waikato is fast approaching. It's usually held in the middle of winter but the Omicron outbreak delayed things til early summer... you may still need the gumboots though after all the wet cool spring. Producer Leah Tebbutt caught up with the chief executive of the National Fieldays

There's a chance to win a special 25th birthday bucket hat on this edition of Country Life which takes you on a trip down memory lane to meet some of the characters who've been on the show over its quarter century.

A high-tech farming system which lets dairy cows move around without fences has also meant big changes for dairy workers. The young team on Pete Morgan's farm aren't just moving breaks and pushing cows along to the dairy shed, they're on an app remotely controlling the cows' trip to milking and designing paddocks to optimise feed, improve cow health and minimise the farm's environmental footprint.

Spencer Kahu has been farming in the Kaikōura District since he was 14. Now he's 24 and manages two large properties and for him, sustainability, conservation and gathering kai for the whānau go hand in hand with the business of farming.

Kiwifruit orchard foreman Dave Trafford takes Leah Tebbutt through the vines on the back of the quad bike, where mere metres apart the vines change from luscious and green, to barren as if they've just winter pruned.

Most farms are pretty short of grass in Northland and supplementary feed suppliers say there has been a big uptake. Strong wind has stopped spraying in its tracks for an olive grower in Wairarapa, while in Central Otago a frost at the beginning of the week was an early wake up call for cherry growers.

Country Life is at a lake brought back to life near Kaikōura, we find out the damage frost can do to kiwifruit vines, and meet two farm managers who no longer reach for their gumboots first thing in the morning.