High Hopes for Hemp, Sussing out Soils, Confidence Crisis in Dairying, Harvesting Tamarillos and the Regional Wrap.

The tiny northern Hawkes Bay settlement of Nuhaka has chess champions, a large Latter-day Saints congregation and a large apple & kiwifruit orchard that looks like it will need more than 100 seasonal workers this year. It's also been a centre for Māori language revival thanks to people like Liz Hunkin.

Santanu Deb-Choudhury and his team at AgResearch have found that proteins from sheep wool fibre can help improve the digestive health of cats. The proteins, extracted from cross-bred wool are then added in powder to cat food. Dr Deb-Choudry says exciting possibilities are opening up for wool to improve digestive health for a broader range of animals, and potentially human beings.

AgMatch is a web-based initiative that gives farmers, who pay an annual membership fee, access to lower priced farming supplies and hopefully increased returns by using their combined numbers as a bargaining tool. It's the brainchild of Otago businessman Ken Algie. His latest project is a wind-proof jersey. The crossbred wool for the jersey and the funding for the knitware venture are supplied by several South Island sheep farmers and AgMatch members. Their next goal is to produce socks and a line of carpet.

North Island grape growers have had ideal weather for their harvest so far and, in the South Island, Canterbury has had its first frost of the season. Read our guide to what's happening on NZ farms and orchards.

The Regional Wrap and AgMatch's wind-proof jersey.  Santanu Deb-Choudhury and his team at AgResearch have found that proteins from sheep wool fibre can help improve the digestive health of cats and Nuhaka - an East Coast town.

Reza-Abdul Jabbar believes he is the only Muslim dairy farm owner in New Zealand. He is also the Imam at the Southland Mosque – the most southern in the world. Reza came to New Zealand from West Borneo 27 years ago and, after years of working for others, he and his accountant wife Sylvia now own a 349-hectare farm near Invercargill.

Chefs at Waimauku's The Hunting Lodge can be found digging, weeding and harvesting in the huge permaculture garden just across the driveway from the kitchen. The Hunting Lodge now grows about 60 percent of all the vegetables it uses in its restaurants and conference centre.

Hawkes Bay is looking for rain to freshen things up and get autumn growth moving. There is plenty of feed on farms but it is not good quality. Calf sales have got underway in South Otago and prices are back a bit on last year.

Westland Dairy Products farmer shareholders are mulling over whether they should sell their co-op to privately-owned company, Yili.