Country Life

Country Life for 18 August 2023

August 18, 2023 07:06 - 50 minutes - 92 MB

A Year on the Farm with Alistair and Genna Bird, farmer efforts to restore the Waihi estuary and a visit to a small country music museum in Hector on the West Coast.

Maramataka another layer of diversity to a Bay of Plenty farm

August 12, 2023 22:23 - 11 minutes - 21.4 MB

Mohi Beckham is helping to turn a tired and depleted land into a fertile and productive farm. But the benefits extend to more than just the land.

Gin distillery fizzes with plans for home-grown juniper

August 11, 2023 07:33 - 19 minutes - 35.5 MB

Kapiti distillers harvest kawakawa from their historic Wairarapa farm to make award-winning gin. They're also trialling growing juniper berries and planting more natives. Novel pest traps, a bottle recycling scheme and bespoke gins for fundraisers are all part of the The Bond Store's plan for sustainability and community involvement

Supreme bacon brings home supreme prize for Hawke's Bay butcher

August 11, 2023 07:19 - 5 minutes - 10.3 MB

Wild Game owners Jordan and Varnnah Hamilton-Bicknell were named Supreme Winner in both the bacon and the ham categories of the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards.

Rural news wrap

August 11, 2023 07:12 - 6 minutes - 11.8 MB

RNZ's rural news reporter, Sally Murphy, takes a look at the week's rural news.

Country Life for 11 August 2023

August 11, 2023 07:07 - 50 minutes - 92.2 MB

This week Country Life is in the bush picking kawakawa destined for artisan gin, a Bay of Plenty farmer recounts his story improving the land and his own mental health and - with the lambing season underway - there's plenty of bleating at a farm on the outskirts of Christchurch.

Lambing's taking off on end of runway farm

August 09, 2023 21:07 - 5 minutes - 10.2 MB

The paddocks on James Thompson's city limits sheep farm are starting to look like the arrivals lounge at Christchurch Airport during the school holidays.

A conversation in the cookhouse

August 05, 2023 22:17 - 7 minutes - 12.9 MB

Country Life talks to Jen Chrisp who cooks for the shepherds at Puketoro Station. She's carrying on the cookhouse tradition of New Zealand's extensive and remote back country farms.

How one woman's 'childhood dream' led her to a Kiwi dairy farm

August 05, 2023 05:23 - 10 minutes - 18.5 MB

Chihiro Hanyuda moved to New Zealand seven years ago...now she is an award winning dairy farmer.

Half price natives - and planted for free

August 04, 2023 07:33 - 20 minutes - 37.9 MB

Landowners in Karamea aren't beating around the bush when it comes to riparian planting. They're making the most of a local not-for-profit nursery and planting service that grows and eco-sources trees.

A tree for every woman

August 04, 2023 07:15 - 1 minute - 3.45 MB

Kauri Forno runs a tree nursery in Gisborne which has been donating trees around Te Tai Rāwhiti for the past three decades. The Women's Native Tree Project Trust started with the aim of planting a tree for every woman in the region.

Country Life for Friday August 4 2023

August 04, 2023 07:07 - 49 minutes - 90.6 MB

Kauri Forno, Jen Chrisp, Clean Stream Nursery, Japanese farmer and conditions wrap.

On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms around the Country

August 04, 2023 07:07 - 7 minutes - 14.6 MB

A lot of lambs hit the ground during the recent cold snap and losses are a growing concern in Te Tai Tarawhiti while in Otago there's more feed sitting around than usual so farmers are set up pretty well for the incoming spring.

Crafting honey and art from bees

July 28, 2023 07:30 - 19 minutes - 35.2 MB

Cate and Mike King of Pauariki Honey lost a quarter of their hives after Cyclone Gabrielle hit Tairāwhiti in February. They also faced a poor season of manuka flowering. But the raw beauty of the region and its people keep them going and provide inspiration for Cate's batik-style art which in turn is helped along by the bees.

"Bring the cash in a suitcase and the farm's yours!"

July 28, 2023 07:22 - 12 minutes - 22.8 MB

Karamea dairy farmer Peter Langford says he and his wife Debbie are ready to hang up their gumboots. With none of their four children keen on taking over the farm, it's now up for sale - lock, stock and barrel.

Wild goats in hunters' sights in crack down on destructive population

July 28, 2023 07:18 - 4 minutes - 8.95 MB

Two organisations have teamed up to encourage hunters to cull high-density goat populations across the country with prizes up for grabs.

Pig hunting escapades of a woman in pink

July 28, 2023 07:15 - 4 minutes - 7.7 MB

Kim Swan, joins Country Life this week for a chat about her latest book and what it takes to be a woman on tough terrain.

Country Life for 28 July 2023

July 28, 2023 07:06 - 50 minutes - 92.2 MB

This week Country Life meets a couple who are still inspired by the rugged beauty of Tairāwhiti to produce honey and art from their bees despite having lost many of their hives to Cyclone Gabrielle, and they also chat to a pair of Karamea dairy farmers who are putting their remote and beautiful farm up for sale lock, stock and barrel.

The Whanganui forest which never stopped growing opportunity

July 22, 2023 23:22 - 15 minutes - 27.9 MB

Richard Thompson planted Papaiti forest with alternative species 30 years ago. He never dreamt at the time he would become a timber merchant with a joinery workshop and retail shed.

Hard work makes dreams come true

July 21, 2023 07:30 - 21 minutes - 39.2 MB

Christopher and Siobhan O'Malley stand in a paddock with smiles that could melt one of the nearby West Coast glaciers. The couple have finally achieved their long-term goal of farm ownership and now have their own slice of paradise.

Agricademy - reinventing agricultural training in NZ

July 21, 2023 07:15 - 5 minutes - 9.91 MB

Agricademy doesn't have classrooms or a campus, instead students can dip in and out of on-line videos, filmed with experts in the dairy or wool shed.

Country Life for 21 July 2023

July 21, 2023 07:06 - 49 minutes - 91.5 MB

This week Country Life meets the O'Malleys who have realised their dream of farm ownership after saving for ten years. Also, ag training without a classroom and a forester making the most of his 30 year old exotic plantation.

Farming and surfing a good balance for young Ag leader

July 15, 2023 07:22 - 13 minutes - 24 MB

As well as managing 4 farms and 35 staff, Jack Raharuhi is a passionate surfer who finds his mindfulness on the water. Country Life visits him at Pāmu's Cape Foulwind farming complex near Westport.

'A dream from growing up' - Bay of Plenty oyster farm owner

July 14, 2023 21:15 - 6 minutes - 12.5 MB

Under new ownership Tio Ōhiwa, or Ōhiwa Oyster Farm as it was formally known, is bringing fresh oysters and opportunity to locals' plates.

Ngā kura huna - on a path to hidden treasure at Opepe

July 13, 2023 07:35 - 19 minutes - 36.4 MB

Push your way through a tangle of bush only kilometres from the Napier-Taupō highway and you are on an ancient pa site. Tangata whenua sheltered here hundreds of years ago but this site is known to only a few. Country Life joins a group documenting the region's cultural sites on a walk to discover a hidden treasure.

Country Life for 14 July 2023

July 13, 2023 07:07 - 49 minutes - 90.8 MB

Oyster farm, Jack Raharuhi, Opepe and the Ag news roundup

Bulls for sale after Gabrielle - celebrating the wins

July 07, 2023 07:35 - 14 minutes - 26.8 MB

Kokopuru Station in northern Hawke's Bay had slips and sinkholes a-plenty but the Hallmark Angus cattle stud managed to rebuild the farm ahead of their annual bull sale.

Three generations on the same rural route

July 07, 2023 07:23 - 14 minutes - 27.2 MB

Lee Pryor has been delivering post along the Whakatāne coastline for 25 years, but he is not the first in his whānau and now his wife has even joined the ranks.

A quarter-acre food paradise in Gisborne

July 07, 2023 07:15 - 11 minutes - 21.9 MB

Adrian Sutherland has more than a hundred fruit trees on his slice of suburban Gisborne and plenty of veges besides.

Country Life for 7 July 2023

July 07, 2023 07:07 - 50 minutes - 93.2 MB

This week Country Life heads to a bull sale in northern Hawkes Bay where slips and sinkholes from this year's cyclones have not held back the stud owners from their traditional celebrations and showing off the best of their progeny. Rural postie Lee Pryor tells his story as he delivers the mail along the Whakatane coastline, something he's been doing for many years ...as have his mother and grandfather before him. Also - a vegetable gardener recounts his method of growing fruit and veget...

A green fingered grower with tunnel vision

July 01, 2023 05:15 - 13 minutes - 25.1 MB

Adrian Merhten's hydroponic journey began 20 years ago after being inspired by a local vegetable grower. He was a baker then, but now he's known in Hokitika as "The Lettuce Man".

Hunting for Tai Rāwhiti - "I don't see deer, I see a food bag"

June 30, 2023 07:35 - 20 minutes - 37.3 MB

A team of hunters heads out every five weeks to a hill country farm to harvest deer meat for Tai Rawhiti's food banks which have been under pressure after devastating weather hit the region this year. The deer are a pest, grazing paddocks meant for sheep and beef and their meat makes nutritious meals for hundreds of people in need.

Finding joy in retirement: Knocking toys into shape

June 30, 2023 07:23 - 8 minutes - 15.6 MB

Knocker Harris started making wooden toys for his grandchilden - 12 years later he can't stop.

Country Life for Friday June 30 2023

June 30, 2023 07:07 - 50 minutes - 92.2 MB

Lettuce man, Knocker the toy man, deer hunting, monthly wrap of conditions on farm.

On the Farm - a wrap of conditions around the country

June 30, 2023 07:07 - 6 minutes - 11.2 MB

Wet conditions across much of the North Island are causing headaches and heartbreak for some, while the South Island is recording boomer seasons in parts, thanks to the wet. Kiwifruit harvest has been bleak, while the shortest day has marked the slowing down of grass growth.

Chef swaps cooking good food for The Good Farm

June 24, 2023 23:35 - 14 minutes - 26.7 MB

The Good Farm – a raw milk producer and market garden in the Bay of Plenty – is a real family affair. Former chef Loren Gibbs tells us about trading in the heat of the kitchen for digging in the dirt and dawn milking.

New direction for traditional farm

June 23, 2023 07:20 - 20 minutes - 38.4 MB

With fields of crops, shimmering solar panels and several hundred Wagyu beef cattle, young farmer Ryan Cockburn is changing the landscape on his grandparents' coastal property.

Treat youself like you would a broken tractor, says Rural Support Trust

June 23, 2023 07:14 - 5 minutes - 9.92 MB

Taranaki branch chair Mike Green says we've not weathered the storm yet, but with support, we can.

Country Life for 23 June 2023

June 23, 2023 07:07 - 50 minutes - 93.1 MB

A new direction for a traditional farm, a chef swaps the heat of the kitchen for chilly mornings milking, and a chat with the Rural Support Trust on farmer wellbeing.

Voices from Tai Rāwhiti

June 16, 2023 07:17 - 40 minutes - 74.1 MB

From the back country to the coast, and the flats and rolling hills in between, you won't find many places or people untouched by the claws of cyclones Hale and Gabrielle which ravaged Tairāwhiti at the start of the year.

Country Life for 16 June 2023

June 16, 2023 07:05 - 50 minutes - 92.9 MB

Country life this week heads to Tairawhiti to hear stories from the hill country to the coast..finding out how people are dealing with the desctruction from massive weather events this year

Cow shed has the essence for coffee roasters

June 09, 2023 07:34 - 17 minutes - 32.9 MB

Essenza is home to the best-smelling cow shed in the North Island. Where cattle once sheltered, Mike Jobling now roasts coffee beans.

A quacking good win for Willow the Duck

June 09, 2023 07:14 - 20 minutes - 37.7 MB

This year, for the first time in the National Poultry and Pigeon Show's long history, a duck is the Champion of Champions. Willow, a rare Silver Appleyard duck who hales from the South Island town of Darfield, seemed unperturbed to be the 'duck horse' of 2023.

Country Life for Friday June 9 2023

June 09, 2023 07:07 - 50 minutes - 92.3 MB

Cow shed has the essence for coffee roasters, A quacking good win for Willow and the Rural News Wrap.

In love with yuzu

June 03, 2023 04:35 - 18 minutes - 33.4 MB

It's ancient, niche, sour and prickly - but what's not to love about yuzu? Country Life talks to Neville Chun about his passion for the fruit and follows it from the harvest to the brewery where yuzu zest is crafted into a Garage Project beer with the wow factor.

Tom the Young Farmer on his NZ farming experience

June 02, 2023 21:15 - 8 minutes - 15.3 MB

"It's going to be painful to go back to milking in a herringbone parlour after the speed that we're able to milk out in the rotary here," says Tom Everall, aka Tom the Young Farmer. The Shropshire native is working on a Canterbury farm for a few months before returning home to the UK.

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