Country Life

Country Life visits Tokomaru Bay where locals have banded together to save their historic wharf. Cosmo pops in to Luisetti Seeds in Rangiora which is still going strong after Vincent Luisetti started it back in 1932 and he talks to Cam Booker whose vege boxes are bouncing out the door. Also, NZ's special agricultural trade envoy looks back on the year.

Work has finally started to restore an old wharf at Tokomaru Bay on the East Cape. A committed band of locals has been working for years to raise money for the rebuild which they hope will reinvigorate the town.

In January Tararua farmer Mel Poulton took over as New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy. She'd typically be advocating for New Zealand's farmers and products overseas - but she's had to do that job in front of a computer. She says NZ exporters are well set to cope with Brexit, whatever the announcement is on Sunday.

Stock need sun on their back with more than enough rain in the north, vines are spurting along in Marlborough and Hawkes Bay and farmers are fighting to maintain pasture quality in Southland.

Rangiora's Luisetti Seeds' warehouses, seed clearing facilities and silos are a constant reminder to locals of the town's long agricultural history. The family business was established by Vincent Luisetti in 1932 and while it may be 88 years old, the company is in expansion-mode and is investing in state-of-the art seed cleaning technology.

When Country Life visited North Canterbury vegetable grower Cam Booker two years ago he was getting into selling vege boxes. This year sales sky-rocketed over the Covid-19 lockdown and he says local Farmers' Market sales have bounced back nicely since then too. On Christmas Eve he's hosting a dig-your-own potato event at the Sefton market garden.

Country Life chats with North Otago students who are burying cotton undies for six weeks to see how much they degrade and we're in Gisborne measuring forests and making salads...

Kees Weytmans audits forests so that buyers and forestry companies can be sure of the volume and quality of trees coming off the hills.

At the height of the season Gisborne's Leaderbrand can churn out 90,000 packets of salad a day

Soiling your undies isn't normally encouraged, unless it's for the good of science! Students from six North Otago schools are undertaking a number of activities to assess soil health in their schools. One of the activities is burying cotton undies for six weeks to see how much they degrade. The more degraded the healthier the soil.

Bay of Plenty kiwfruit growers are being kept awake at night over the worker shortage and calves are being weaned, drenched and vaccinated in South Otago.

Regenerative agriculture is becoming a popular catch phrase in New Zealand. Soil scientist Doug Edmeades says it's an overseas designed concept suitable for dust bowls in North America and Australia, and that is not needed in New Zealand. Topics rural, farming Tags regenerative agriculture, Ra, organic matter, soil microbes.

Seven farms in Waikato converted to milking sheep this spring. Many didn't get to start the conversion until the cow dairy season ended on June 1st. It was all go because lambs were arriving only a month later. Fencing, milking sheds and troughs all needed changing.

A Manawatū dairy farming family is enjoying spending more time together after they installed robots in their dairy shed.

Country Life finds out how robotics are helping a dairy farm in Manawatu and meets some farmers who switched from milking cows to milking sheep this spring. Plus with all the talk around regenerative farming, are we re-inventing the wheel?