Country Life

Christmas is the season of traditions and for many people one of those is to collect a Christmas tree to decorate their home over the festive season. It may be a branch of pohutukawa, a pine tree in the flush of growth or spruces and cypresses trimmed to perfection. At a Christmas tree farm on the outskirts of Greytown, 14 varieties have been grown from North American spruce to a special Korean variety.

Transforming an old limestone quarry into a vineyard has been a labour of love for Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen. Their viticultural journey at the site near Waikairi in North Canterbury began in 1997 and now, several blocks of grapevines grow with little intervention on the surrounding slopes.

On Country Life, a couple of wine-mad viticulturists have transformed a limestone quarry into an organic vineyard that pays homage to the grape-growing traditions of the Burgundy region in France, and Christmas trees galore at a Wairarapa Christmas tree farm.

Manawatu and Rangitikei farmers will spend much of summer cleaning up the mess after this week's flooding, and in the south, boysenberry crops have suffered in the wet.

Teemu Kinnari is the 14th generation to toil on the family farm. It has been in the family since 1667.

A bird highway is taking shape across the south of the North Island. Farmers and landowners are getting in behind the Tonganui Corridor - a project to link up pockets of old forest with new plantings so that birds and other endemic creatures can travel from the Remutaka range across to the Aorangi forest in the east.

Clearing out decades of sheep manure under woolsheds is a specialist job; and farmers at the southern tip of the North Island are creating a forest highway to lure endemic wildlife into the valley.

Scotty Newman and his team clean out woolsheds - not inside - but underneath. They dig out decades worth of compacted sheep manure.

Three farming systems geared towards sustainable dairy farming practices are being tested at Lincoln University's demonstration dairy farm. Farm manager Peter Hancox is trialing a variable milking programme, the inclusion of plantain in the forage base and a reduction in the herd replacement rate.

Shearers are running behind in King Country because they haven't been able to get dry sheep and Marlborough winegrowers are keeping a close eye out for black spot and powdery mildew.

Fresh off the hills the merino wethers are being shorn at Lake Heron Station in Canterbury. The low micron wool is contracted to the Icebreker brand. The mountainous 19,600 hectare property is also used for adventure heliskiing in winter.

New Zealand's beautiful rivers and lakes are likely to get an influx of anglers over the summer months so it's a good time to catch up with Fish and Game ranger Richie Cosgrove.

Travis Wasko often has to tend his beef herd in minus 20 or even minus 30 degree temperatures. When it's that cold the first job of the day is to ensure the animals have access to water.

Fine wool fills the shearing shed, Covid lockdown sparks fishing fever, Canadian beef rancher battles poor prices and the Regional Wrap

Unvaccinated shearers are a vexing issue for East Coast sheep stations, the feed situation's come right in Manawatu and between showers, everyone's making baleage in Canterbury.