Sarah Maxwell switches from inseminating cows in the morning to shifting cows and sheep in the afternoon, working at the local sale yards and more besides.

"Fresh ideas, younger muscles" - taking on the family farm

Country Life takes you down country roads to meet ordinary people achieving their dreams. 


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On the rural outskirts of Taupō a young couple have started a mushroom venture far removed from their previous life in Auckland. Maggie Tweedie took a trip to a small block of land amid the green hills of Wairakei to meet Benson Thomas and Hattie MacLennan.

City couple's mushroom venture sprouts from pandemic

In 1973 Alan Wilkes was out with his Labrador Zara and comrades at the opening of the duck shooting season. This story from the Spectrum archives was recorded on Kohangatera, a network of lagoons along the Palliser Bay coast.

From the Archives - D-Day for Ducks

West Otago farmer, Adrian McIntyre, says the late grain harvest down his way means there are plenty of ducks around for the opening of the duck shooting season. The first weekend is a bit like Christmas, he says

Duck shooting - a family tradition

Many drought-declared areas have now had some rain, but farms still have very low pasture covers going into winter. There's been superb weather for the gold kiwifruit harvest in Bay of Plenty which only has a couple of weeks to go and the Hayward variety is underway. Lamb prices remain depressed making some question the future of the sector.

On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country

This week Country Life meets a young couple who left their city life to set up a mushroom farm and heads to the maimai with a hunter at daybreak at the start of the duck shooting season half a century ago.

"Fresh ideas, younger muscles" - taking on the family farm

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