Ruwan Wijayasena and his wife Niranjal Gamlath have taken out the 2019 Canterbury/North Otago Share Farmer of the Year title. Ruwan, who is from Sri Lanka, contract milks 1800 cows at Hororata and employs 8 full-time staff. The couple are devout Buddhists and have decided it's better not to own cows or make decisions about culling them. Instead they are expanding their contract milking business rather than taking the traditional road to farm ownership.

At the Port Chalmers dairy farm Holy Cow, each of Merrall and Alex MacNeille's 54 Jersey cows has a name and her own milking stall. The couple sell the cows' milk, along with butter, cream and yoghurt and soon ice-cream.

"It's in the blood, this collecting," says Geoff Ernst, the owner, curator and sometimes tour guide of a memorabilia museum in the Waikato town of Tirau. Geoff has spent five decades adding to his collection of artifacts and curiosities.

Frosts have catapulted the central North Island into winter. In Southland farmers are putting sheep onto crops but crutching has been held up by rain.

Veterinarian Anthony Oswald says parasites in sheep have developed a resistance to some drenches and farmers need to re-think when they drench and how they manage their stock to make sure their animals remain healthy and their farms productive.

Milk from Contented Cows, Tirau's Treasure Trove, Worms Defy Drenches and the Regional Wrap.

The Forest Owners Association, Federated Farmers and Fifty Shades of Green give their take on the Billion Trees project.

Tom Welch is tired of dairying and has been looking for another way to make money from the family farm. He’s begun growing pumpkin seeds – and thinks he may be the only person in New Zealand producing them commercially.

Global head of agri-business Ian Proudfoot outlines just a few of the many key issues covered in the agenda.

A selection of farmers tell us about conditions in their part of the country and how they feel about farming. Waikato, King Country, Taupo, Canterbury, West Coast, Central Otago.