RNZ: Country Life

Cosmo Kentish-Barnes visits Beverley Forrester in North Canterbury and checks out a cob cottage that her husband's great great grandparents lived in during the 1890's.

A selection of primary industry stories from throughout the week.

Adrian Rigby from Watties talks about asparagus.

Frosts in the North Island have pinged potatotoes and asparagus crops, while in the South Island despite snow and rain earlier in the week, stock have fared okay.

The Hakatere Station in the foothills of the Alps in Mid-Canterbury is now part of the Hakatere Conservation Park and managed by the Department of Conservation. It was once considered to be good sheep country but when farming on the land ceased, the Station's buildings fell into disrepair. Now thanks to the Hakatere Heritage Committee the buildings, which include shearer's quarters and a historic cottage, are slowly being restored back to their former glory.

Diane Howe delivers the mail to 500 rural customers near Hokitika.

A selection of primary industry stories from throughout the week.

Anton "The Chicken Boy" Cooper from Central Otago.

The North Island has had a mixed bag of heavy showers, wind and sunshine and in the South Island lambing is in full swing.

When he's not sitting in the Speaker's chair, Dr Lockwood Smith is, if he can possibly make it, at home on his farm near Ruawai in Northland. He is one of just a few breeders of the impressive and meaty Belgian Blue in New Zealand and knows each of his cows by sight.

Warren Diedrichs has spent most of his life farming up the Kowhitirangi Valley near Hokitika.

Sun at last in the North Island and in the South, the ground is finally starting to dry out.

Dr Stephanie Palmer believes local residents could be marginalised if a sub-division gets the goes ahead in Kennedy Bay, on north eastern coast of Coromandel Peninsula.

The Westland Cooperative Dairy Company was formed 75 years ago and is 100 percent dairy farmer owned by about 330 shareholders from Karamea to Fox Glacier.

Colin Brown runs Lake Farm Beef from his picturesque property over looking Lake Karapiro. He breeds and raises angus and angus piedmontese cross cattle to sell directly to consumers, a farm to plate business. He says his beef hit three tennets of tender, tasty and healthy, and he aims to raise the best beef in the world and show case that process to other NZ farmers.