Country Life

On the rural outskirts of Taupō a young couple have started a mushroom venture far removed from their previous life in Auckland. Maggie Tweedie took a trip to a small block of land amid the green… Read more Audio

In 1973 Alan Wilkes was out with his Labrador Zara and comrades at the opening of the duck shooting season. This story from the Spectrum archives was recorded on Kohangatera, a network of lagoons… Read more Audio

West Otago farmer, Adrian McIntyre, says the late grain harvest down his way means there are plenty of ducks around for the opening of the duck shooting season. The first weekend is a bit like… Read more Audio

Many drought-declared areas have now had some rain, but farms still have very low pasture covers going into winter. There's been superb weather for the gold kiwifruit harvest in Bay of Plenty which… Read more Audio

This week Country Life meets a young couple who left their city life to set up a mushroom farm and heads to the maimai with a hunter at daybreak at the start of the duck shooting season half a century… Read more Audio

One of the last rehab soldier farms in Wairarapa has been sold for forestry, and the farm gear is going under the hammer. Gianina Schwanecke is at the on-farm sale and finds out why the owner is… Read more Audio

Steve Muggeridge's beloved Clydesdales have returned to Taranaki. Not far from the original family stud, at the base of the maunga, he chats about the changing use of the heavy horse and hitches a… Read more Video, Audio

A round-up of the week's agricultural news. Read more Audio

Panadda Chittock is the pastoral care co-ordinator at Thomas Brothers Orchards in Riwaka. She supports about 80 Recognised Seasonal Employer or RSE workers from Vanuatu and Samoa who work on the… Read more Audio

This week Country Life is behind a team of Clydesdale horses on a vintage wagon, finding out about the increasingly rare breed, and heads to a sale of farm gear in Wairarapa, where one of the last… Read more Audio

Country Life takes a walk with mountain ranger Tāne Houston through the forest on the slopes of Mt Taranaki. We head up the volcano along a trap line, resetting bait, foraging and chatting about the… Read more Video, Audio

A 40-litres-of-milk-a-day Friesian called Evie has been Supreme Champion Holstein at the New Zealand A&P Agricultural Show for two years in a row. Cosmo Kentish-Barnes meets the farmer behind the cow.