Country Life

Stories plucked from the 2023 archives: Cosmo's with chooks on a cliff edge, Sally's picking apples and Leah meets a dairy farmer who hails from Japan.

Watermelons are growing well in Pukekohe and potato crops are producing good yields at harvest. In Canterbury, baleage is being made and jersey bulls are being taken out of the dairy herd.

The Grinch is surfing through paddocks and cows are driving tractors on the rural roadside of Taranaki...but who won the festive farm art competition?

Colyton Clocks' Bill Williams reckons he has the largest clock collection in the world. A converted church in the village of Colyton is home to his ticking, chiming, talking timepieces dating from the 1700s.

"My pop owned a milk run" says farmer who bottles his own milk, All the time in the world, Festive farm art in Taranaki and On the Farm - a wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around the country.

A rural entrepreneur is pasteurising and bottling A2 milk from his families farm and delivering it to people's doors, just like his grandfather did.

This week Country Life heads to a chicken trailer in the middle of a paddock which is producing eggs and helping the soil and goes on the trail of the elusive whio at Blue Duck Station.

Country Life goes on the trail of the elusive whio at Blue Duck Station while learning about the efforts to conserve the history and preserve biodiversity.

The soggy ground has put East Coast arable farmers behind schedule. Only about half this season's maize crop has been planted. Also, the Big Feed Rural Telethon has raised more than 639-thousand mince and milk meals for food banks round the country.

Country Life meets former dairy farmer Lance Gillespie, who's launching a kiwi style chicken trailer. Pasture-raised egg production fits with his interest in regenerative farming practices and, alongside the trailer business, he runs workshops to help other farmers improve their soil heath.

Cam Booker is hoping a good crowd will turn up on Christmas eve to dig their own spuds and pick peas at his market garden in Sefton.

When Geoff Crawford started trapping for pests on his farms, he was catching 70 possums a week. Now he's lucky if he gets seven...and the community have jumped on board too.

This week on Country Life; A dairy programme in Sri Lanka is lifting rural communities out of poverty. Selina Prem Kumar and charity Tearfund set the programme up in 2009 and with help from Kiwi farmers, it's grown from helping eight farmers to five-thousand. Selina's been travelling around Aotearoa thanking the farmers for thier support.

A dairy programme in Sri Lanka is lifting rural communities out of poverty. Selina Prem Kumar and charity Tearfund set the programme up in 2009 and with support from Kiwi farmers, it's grown from helping eight farmers to five-thousand.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news with RNZ rural news reporter Sally Murphy.