Gisbonre Wine, Andy Geissmann from Waikato Milking Systems, Robotics Plus, jobseekers get a taste of farming life at Taratahi and the Regional Wrap

A farm based wool carding business in Central Otago sends fibre ready for spinning to customers as far afield as Russia. Barb and Stuart Peel's carding machine was built in England in 1951 and was shipped to New Zealand where it was used in a Milton woollen mill. It now cards about five tonnes of wool a year. The natural, mixed and dyed fibre is then sold via the Tally Ho website and direct from Barb's wool shop in Roxburgh. Coloured fleeces are carded from the family farm which runs 300 sheep.

For 31 years John Larsen has been milling timber on the outskirts of Gisborne. As the returns from milling have dwindled, John has diversified and now manufactures gates, dunnies, dog kennels and meat safes for dog tucker.

Sam Tietjen trained in mechanical engineering but has come back to the family orchard and is now overseeing the planting of 2000 avocado trees.

Grass is bolting and tractors are humming in the North Island but farmers could still do with more rain. On the West Coast farmers are still waiting for paddocks to dry out enough to plant next winter's crops.

Full Episode for Friday October 23, 2020.

Three farms are now using start-up company Halter's cow collars that use sound and vibration to guide cows around the farm and to keep them contained, without the use of fences.

Pieter Bloem is a second generation Otago pig farmer. The family farm, overlooking Dunedin on one side and the ocean on the other, was bought by his parents in 1954. They were intending to milk cows but there wasn't enough suitable land to make it viable so started a piggery. Currently Pieter farms 3000 pigs with his son Gavin and each week 140 are sent to the freezing works in Timaru for processing. About 45 percent of New Zealand's commercial pork breeding herd is farmed outdoors but the Bloem's farm is an intensive indoor operation. As a result, Pieter has been accused of factory farming. He says they have tried outdoor pig farming but it was too wet and muddy so his focus is on continually improving his indoor facilities and feeding systems.

Plant and Food Research has developed an environmentally-friendly spray to help fend off the kiwifruit vine killing disease PSA.

Farmers in the north who were getting a bit twitchy with the lack of rain are pleased they can now almost see the grass growing after a good few millimetres in the gauge this week. Trading stock are being offloaded in Marlborough which is still hanging out for rain.