RNZ: Country Life

Much of the North Island seems to have turned brown overnight… but in Southland animals are thriving with the abundance of feed.

Jeff Atkinson grows sugar cane in Queensland. His farm is under 5 metres of water.

Dr Shrikant Jagtap is the Provincial Reconstruction Team advisor with the Department of State. He talks to Marianne Elliott about the importance of branding potatoes.

Marianne Elliott is a human rights lawyer who worked for the United Nations in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 and has written a book, Zen Under Fire, about her experiences there. Last year she returned and visited a New Zealand Aid funded Agricultural Support Programme which is introducing mechanization to farmers in Bamyan province. She talks to Angus Davidson from Prime Consulting who is implementing the programme and visits a collective farm.

Nick Van der Sande runs a Clydsdale horse team in the small Waikato town of Pirongia. He has also started practising the Bowen technique which involves healing horses through gentle, hands on therapy.

A selection of rural stories from the week. For more in depth rural stories go to Radio New Zealand news.

North Canterbury Federated Farmers President.

Many North Island regions are drying out quickly with high temperatures and wind, although a few lucky ones, especially in the lower part of the Island received rain last week. In the South Island most places have had a reasonable drop of rain this month. In between the moisture farmers are making baleage and hay.

Lynda Chanwai-Earle explores our most extreme and dynamic underwater vocations when she meets our Operational Navy Dive Team. Disarming live explosives underwater, body recovery, international deployments… Lynda finds out what drives this elite team of scuba divers.

It's the day before the150th Canterbury A&P Show opens and with more than 3,000 animals and 7,000 competitive entries, there is a lot of organising to do to insure preparations are complete before the gates of New Zealand's biggest A&P Show open to the public.

There used to be 36 sawmills in Akatarawa Valley, now only one remains. Akatarawa Sawmills has diversified and now supplies logs to Wellington Zoo and film sets and sells firewood to keep the business going.

Most North Island pastoral farmers desperately want the forecast rain to arrive because it's as dry as mid-January in many areas, while in the South Island farmers are making hay while the sun shines.

Nick Webster lives in Oamaru and grows jersey benne potatoes. He reckons they're the king of spuds for Christmas and the region, with its volcanic soils, is famous for them.

Forty years ago John Simister set up a nature reserve near Wellington. It was something he'd wanted to do since childhood and ever since, he's been encouraging people to get up close and personal with nature.

The Blackball Museum of Working Class History with Paul Maunder.