RNZ: Country Life

Country Life whizs around a Space Museum in a small Waikato town .. there are plenty of interactive displays as well as genuine space suits and other artefacts from space programmes. Also, Environment Southland's Focus Farm Activity Plan is being taken up by an increasing number of farmers.

Environment Southland's farm plan is being taken up by an increasing number of farmers. So far, more than 400 farmers have been offered free, farm-specific environmental management advice through the plan. They can also apply for up to $5,000 towards implementing some of the recommendations. Sheep farmer Nigel King was surprised at what he discovered about his farm when he was guided through the process by Environment Southland land sustainability officer, Anastazia Raymond.

Southland farmers are voicing concerns about a proposed Water and Land Plan to maintain water quality in the region. 

Brian Belluomini and Sarah Wright of Mela Juice think the secret to their juice just might be the sturdy, not overly efficient, 40-year-old juicer they inherited. Mela Juice produces single-variety apple juices and apple cider vinegar on a rural property not far from Greytown in Wairarapa. A local farmer picks up the waste from the juice making process, uses it as a natural fertiliser and adds the pulp to stock feed.

Paul 'Spud' Olsen grow potatoes in Opiki and keeps putting his hand up to be involved in farming and growing organisations.

Hawkes Bay farmers are looking forward to the predicted moisture arriving this weekend. Milk production on dairy farms is ahead of last year and cows have been cycling particularly well. Canterbury's dried out very quickly over the last week after several days of nor west winds. The first of the new seasons lambs are being drafted at very good prices.

Making Water the Winner, Mela Juice and Paul 'Spud' Olsen and the Regional Wrap.

The cornerstone of soil consultant Rob Flynn's philosophy is that agriculture is a biological system, not a chemical system. One of his clients is North Canterbury farmer Russell Rudd, who has been using biological nutrients to enhance crop yields and animal performance on his 600-hectare beef, sheep and deer farm for the past nine years.

Precision-bred trees will be central to our economy as wood-based products replace plastic and glass fibre in laptop cases, car interiors and even aeroplanes, a molecular geneticist says.

Chris Thorn turned his passion for hunting and curing wild meats into a business that produces venison salami from locally shot deer. He and his wife Sally's Gathered Game salami sells in in specialty food stores around New Zealand.

Docking has continued in King Country this week between the showers and despite muddy tracks and puddles in gateways. Wairarapa is looking lush, The planting of fodder beet and barley crops is underway in Canterbury.

The New Zealand Young Farmers organisation has been gifted a 74 hectare dairy farm (by the late Donald Pearson) on the outskirts of Auckland. The aim is to use the property as a demonstration farm for city kids. Plans are still being finalised but Young Farmers national chairman Jason Te Brake says they hope to showcase horticulture, sheep and beef, and dairy operations, as well as some of the primary industry roles needed beyond the farm gate.

Chris Thorn has combined his love of hunting and curing wild meats into a business that produces venison salami from locally shot deer; unpicking the DNA of pine trees with Scion and biological farming in Canterbury.

In the past five years, Retired Working Dogs Adoption has rehomed hundreds of huntaways, eye dogs and beardies that are too old to work, have been injured or are just not up to the job.

Farming couple Duncan Smith and Annabel Tapley-Smith took over the butcher's shop in the central Hawkes Bay town of Waipawa this July. They're selling beef and lamb from their farm just down the road and business is taking off.