New Zealand's largest dairy genetics company LIC says more and more farmers are choosing the sex of their calves. They don't want to put bobby calves on the truck so are happy to pay more so ensure they get heifers.

Very welcome rain fell on the East Coast, along with freezing temperatures in many places of the North Island. It was similiar in the South Island with cracking frosts and sunny days. Oturehua had a couple of minus ten degree mornings and the Ida Dam is frozen.

Federated Farmers is asking its members to write to government ministers outlining just what impact the labour shortage is having on them and their farming operation.

Country Life meets two Wairarapa brothers forging different paths on the family farm, one makes high quality chocolate from whoa-to-go and the other is dipping his toes into the niche food industry growing chillies.

Linda and Evan Potter are award winning "sustainable farming ambassadors". They farm sheep, beef and deer at Elsthorpe in southern Hawkes Bay. Nearly a quarter of their farm is preserved in the QE2 Trust. They say they have just been doing what feels right for the land.

Farming at Pōhatu Flea Bay on Banks Peninsula is a labour of love for Francis and Shireen Helps. Determined to protect ecologically significant land, they have established several QEII covenants on the sheep farm that is steeped in history. The bay is also home to a white-flippered penguin colony that the Helps have been protecting and monitoring for over 30 years.

Our guest this week has had a busy time travelling the country as part of the annual Dairy Industry Awards where top Share Farmers, Dairy managers and Trainees are acknowledged.

The green kiwifruit harvest is underway in the north where winter is making its presence felt and in the south feed is being trucked from the West Coast to bone dry farms in the east.

Country Life heads to Pohatu Flea Bay on Banks Peninsula where a sheep farm is also home to a colony of White-flippered penguins. The team is also out baiting traps at a Hawke's Bay farm whose owners have been named National Sustainable Farming Ambassadors.

School leavers hankering for a career in sheep and beef farming now have the option of applying for a place in the new two-year, fees-free Growing Future Farmers programme that sees them training on-farm under the guidance of farmer-trainers.