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Country Life headlines with summaries.
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Country Life for Friday May 3 2024
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…
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City couple's mushroom venture sprouts from pandemic
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…
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From the Archives - D-Day for Ducks
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…
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Duck shooting - a family tradition
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…
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A love for Clydesdales - 'They just become your mates'
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…
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Country Life for Friday 26 April 2024
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…
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Support on hand for RSE staff at Tasman orchard
26 Apr 2024Panadda 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…
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The last of the ballot blocks - farm sale reflects tough few years
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…
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Mt Taranaki ranger Tāne Houston - 'we let the forest talk for itself'
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…
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Country Life for Friday April 19 2024
This week Country Life is out with a mountain ranger foraging and checking traps on the slopes of Mt Taranaki and meets the farmer behind a champion milker. Also, a Massey University research project…
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The diverse experiences of farming
19 Apr 2024A lot of urban dwellers get their information about farming from supermarkets, new research suggests. A Massey University research project surveyed over 1300 urban and rural people about their views…
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'She's got everything you want in a cow'
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.
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Research showcased at food, farming and freshwater roadshow
12 Apr 2024Farmers and growers around the country have been getting together to hear about research which might help New Zealand agriculture adapt to future challenges.
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Country Life for Friday 12 April 2024
This week on Country Life, farmers and growers around the country have been getting together to hear about research which might help New Zealand agriculture adapt to future challenges. The team also…
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Eric Fa'anoi - a view from both sides of the fence
Eric Fa'anoi has gone from helping farmers protect the environment to being a farmer himself. A visit to his ancestral village in Samoa also helped this young man from Porirua unearth his interest in…
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Rural Riders spins farmers' wheels - 'I smile a lot here'
Rural Riders is a chance for farmers to get off the farm on a bike, spin some yarns and focus on the dips and the jumps rather than the weather and the milk price.
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Brothers turn rivals as they compete for top farmer title
5 Apr 2024Brothers Callum and Archie Woodhouse have been named the top two finalists in this year's East Coast Young Farmer of the Year competition. We catch up with the siblings as they prepare for the next…
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From techie to market gardener - 'Getting made redundant really pushed me'
Morgan Kane moved back home when she lost her job at a tech start up. It was the start of her move, with her husband, into market gardening. She and her parents welcome the advantages of…
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Country Life for Friday 5 April 2024
This week Country Life meets a young woman who lost her job in the tech industry and turned things around by getting her hands in the soil and starting up a market garden. The team also heads to Banks…
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Sheds and cupboards cleaned out for Banks Peninsula fundraiser
5 Apr 2024Every year on Easter Saturday, unwanted bric-a-brac goes under the hammer at a huge Paddy's Market and White Elephant in Akaroa. It's run by the Akaroa and Bays Lions Club, which raises thousands of…
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Country Life for 29 March 2024
Appleby Farms, Flock House centenary and Cyclone Chicks
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From cow to cone - a big scoop from Nelson
Milk from Murray King's farm on the lower Waimea River flats is crafted into award-winning ice cream. "We had to find a way of generating better income than we would by producing whole milk powder…
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Raising fowls for families impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle
29 Mar 2024A hen rescued from floodwaters in Cyclone Gabrielle is helping bring back life to farms one year on. Hawke's Bay farmer Sally Newall hatched the idea to gift chicks to families impacted by the cyclone…
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Finding the flock - searching for stories from Flock House
A search is underway for descendants of hundreds of British boys sent out for farming training in New Zealand a century ago. Flock House, a flagship agricultural school in New Zealand was set up 100…
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