Country Life

The team brings you stories from the rodeo world, a Christmas tree farm turned maize-maze, and an old rural homestead which has been turned into a luxurious retreat.

The rodeo season is underway and Lylah and Riley Wood, two home-schooled teenagers, are in an arena in Waikato practising barrel racing and breakaway roping, rodeo sports which have taken them to the US with a national youth team this year.

Wallingford Homestead in Central Hawke's Bay was once a bustling base for the local farming community. These days it's helping bridge the urban-rural divide.

Thousands of perfectly shaped trees are harvested in the lead-up to the festive season at Andrew McAllister's Needle Fresh Christmas tree farm Swannanoa.

The final round-up of the week's agricultural news for 2024.

We meet a farming family in Golden Bay who sell farm-to-fork meats, see what foreign investment can do for Hawke's Bay horticulture and meet a motocross rider taking on the family farm.

Sustainability, animal welfare and forging a connection between producer and consumer is at the core of how things are done at Ellis Creek Farm in Golden Bay.

Trent Garton, a former champion freestyle motocross rider, and his wife Tiki have bought the family farm. It's been a difficult road but they take it one day at a time.

Shane Flynn from Craigmore Sustainables shows off a new orchard the investment agency is redeveloping in Hawke's Bay.

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

There are cheese and eggs on Country Life's menu this week with visits to poultry and goat farms. The team also takes a closer look at what's in the pipeline for farmers to help lower methane emissions.

Avian flu has been found on an Otago chicken farm for the first time. It's something the poultry industry has spent months preparing for and we take you inside a North Island chicken farm to understand what biosecurity measures are in place.

Thanks to goat's milk, Andrea Gauland son's eczema cleared up within two weeks. It was the excuse she needed to start farming dairy goats 25 years ago and she's still loving the whey of life.

A cow pill, vaccines, and specially treated grass-seed are among products it's hoped will be in farmers' methane-busting toolkits in the not-too-distant future.

This week Country Life's learning about the art of making garden trugs and growing heirloom tomatoes, also the benefits of biochar on a farm growing trees, sheep and beef in the Far North.