RNZ: Country Life

Gold kiwifruit growers are making very  good money but grower David Jensen says a shortage of labour to harvest fruit won't be solved by simply increasing pay rates.

Stray bus visits Murupara in Tuhoe country, Snowberries with Plant and Food, and Southern Girl in Kingston Central Otago, Kiwifruit grower David Jensen.

Converting to organics has been a rewarding challenge for filmmaker and farmer Gaylene Barnes and her brother Andrew. They grow vegetables commercially on the family farm at Highbank in Canterbury. Growing food is part of a long term rehabilitation plan for Andrew after suffering a traumatic brain injury three years ago. Gaylene's latest documentary "Seven Rivers Walking" premiered at last year's Christchurch International Film Festival.

Susan Murray checks in with an apple harvesting gang and an apple orchardist who says proposed wage increases will cost him an extra $75,000 dollars a year.

Marlborough Sounds sheep farmer Noel Moleta is turning his hand to growing hops after purchasing a 122-hectare property near Tapawera. So far he has planted 14 hectares and another 15 are going in now. At the last count 2,500 poles had been erected and 44,000 plants put in the ground. Noel says sheep and hops go well together. He sent 700 lambs to the hop farm for the summer to graze under the five metre high canopy.

Many North Island areas received good volumes of welcome rain last weekend, some dairy herds are being dried off and the South Island feijoas, apples and kiwifruit are filling Tasman's cool stores.

Farmers and software design boffins are getting together this weekend to find solutions to farming problems.

A Farmer and a Filmmaker, High Hope for Hops, An Apple Gang and Grower, Ag-Tech Hackathon and the Regional Wrap.

A massive shortage of seasonal labour that affected this year's apple harvest is now flowing on to kiwifruit. As that crop hits its peak harvesting time, they're short of over a thousand workers for both picking and packing. 

Niki Guy-Junker lives nine kilometres from her letterbox in Central Otago. She grows most of the produce she needs to make ready-to-eat meals in her home kitchen for elderly people in Roxburgh, Clyde and Alexandra.

The rigours of shearing need to be better understood by health professionals so they can help shearers overcome injuries, says a movement mechanics coach.

A listener recalls rabbits running riot in the Lindis Pass area.

Many North Island areas are looking forward to forecast rain this weekend. Northern Southland's having a magnificent autumn.

The rigours of shearing, Niki Guy Junker and her meal service and the labour shortage in our apple and Kiwfruit industries.

Rabbit numbers have exploded in Otago in the past year and Shaun Moloney is contracted to help farmers and grape growers get rid of them.