Ewe scanning is underway in the north, which has seen more welcome rain this week and dairy farmers are catching their breath before calving.

Ewe scanning is underway in the north, which has seen more welcome rain this week and dairy farmers are catching their breath before calving in six weeks' time. Jenna O'Sullivan was born in the 90s and is working in her dream job at for livestock genetics company CRV Ambreed. Leftfield Innovation is looking for ways farmers can use their land to make high value food products that consumers want, It's investigating six crops we currently import but could grow and use to develop products. David Young makes and sells 100 types of wine on his small orchard 24kms south of Auckland. His family has been on the same piece of land since 1896. Award winning wagyu beef farmers Evan and Clare Chapman were going to cut down a row of willows at their Kakahu property until they discovered a colony of long-tailed bats/pekapeka had made the old trees their home. Now the couple is working with Environment Canterbury to protect them.

Award winning wagyu beef farmers Evan and Clare Chapman were going to cut down a row of willows at their Kakahu property until they discovered a colony of long-tailed bats/pekapeka had made the old trees their home. Now the couple is working with Environment Canterbury to protect them.

Charteris Bay farmer Laura Beck hung up the milking cups in the dairy shed in 2018 and now she is raising cattle on 22 hectares of farmland she leases from the Orton Bradley Park Trust on Banks Peninsula.

With the large number of people losing their jobs because of Covid-19, Dairy NZ has launched a publicity campaign to encourage people to consider changing careers and get into dairy farming. On June 8 it is running a "farm-ready" entry level training course which is free for those serious about working on dairy farms.

Agricultural engineer Troy Prendergast has custom-built a free range poultry farm on 11 hectares of land near Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere in Canterbury. "It was something we could do at a large scale without a huge amount of land" he says.

Our guest on the 90s file this week is keen to tell stories about farming and its people, despite ructions to the media landscape.

Farmers in the far north have had to get their wet weather gear out this week and pruning has started on orchards and vineyards.

Country Life this week talks to workers who've switched to dairying from quite different careers and love the farming life. In The 90s File we speak to Riley Kennedy who is keen to tell stories about farming and its people. We also visit a free range chook farm in Leeston and Laura Beck tells us why she prefers homekill on the farm to sending her cattle to an abattoir.

Feilding lost its usual Friday bustle during the Covid-19 lockdown with the historic stockyards closed and the farmers' market shuttered. But it came to life again last week when the lockdown lifted. Country Life went along to see how producers, growers, farmers and stock agents have been faring.