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Featured Country Life stories
The benefits of wrapping yourself in a woollen blanket this winter
Taranaki weaver Alison Ross is trying to bring back woollen blankets made from locally-grown wool to highlight the fibre's benefits.
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'In the winter, the roads can be a bit scary': The life of a rural midwife
17 May 2025Fording rivers and driving dangerous, winding roads is all in a day's work for Coromandel midwife Sheryl Wright.
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Rustic sheds reveal immigrants' farming legacy
12 May 2025The story of a pioneering family of Dalmatian immigrants has been kept alive through a cluster of old sheds on the Devcich farm near Thames.
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Harvesting time is nuts at busy walnut orchard
9 May 2025The walnut harvest is underway at Lightfoot Orchard in Canterbury.
Country Life headlines with summaries.
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Passing down traditions in the tītī 'pluck house'
9 May 2025Dan Tarrant's ancestors have been harvesting muttonbirds or tītī for 500 years. The autumn harvest is a family affair and a chance to pass down skills and traditions.
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Conditions on farms and orchards around the motu
Wet weather caused flooding and disrupted the kiwifruit harvest. But for many drought-afflicted farmers it's been welcomed.
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Life is gourd for pumpkin seed growers at Summer Hill Seeds
4 May 2025Whanganui farming couple Clare and Grant Adkins are growing plant proteins alongside their animal proteins.
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'Farms are one of the last places I'd ever wanted to be'
Raymond Sagapolutele was not sure what to expect when he arrived at Castle Hill Station for a Creative NZ residency.
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Agritourism business lets farming family see their home anew
Meet the Robinsons - fifth generation sheep and beef farmers who've added a diverse range of income streams to the family farm.
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Stud owner brings new meaning to 'a bull in a china shop'
Collecting fine china is an unusual hobby for a bull breeder, but Tony Thompson is a man of many passions including breeding top quality cattle, pioneering embryo work and mentoring the next…
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Wairarapa farmer's DIY lake brings 'peace of mind'
Len French wanted a lake to help with water security on his eastern Wairarapa farm. What he's built, Lake Braemore, is now a community asset that can be enjoyed by all.
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Weathering the 'worst drought in 50 years' as an organic dairy farmer
Moving to once-a-day milking has helped Janet Fleming through Taranaki's recent drought.
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Clevedon - where the water buffalo roam
Clevedon couple Richard and Helen Dorresteyn were the first to farm water buffalo in New Zealand.
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'We've become a $10 million business and it doesn't feel like we're overrun'
13 Apr 2025Phil Moeke is the manager of Te Kōhaka o Tāne (The Nest of Tānemahuta), a commercial nursery in Invercargill that has grown over 800,000 native trees and plants since it opened in 2022.
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Country Life: Conditions on the farm
Dry conditions persist among much of the North Island but relief could be in sight. Grapes, apples and kiwifruit are being picked across Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay.
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SheepMaster: Hawke's Bay farm's foray into shedding sheep
Dean Martin has carried on the legacy set by his dad and is not afraid to try new things - from shedding sheep to regenerative agriculture practices.
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'Milk from an almond, then why not a sheep': Fernglen Farm's sheep dairy addition
4 Apr 2025Fernglen Farm is a family affair helping people learn more about the benefits of sheep milk, while also ensuring strong welfare standards for their animals and finding new ways to balance the…
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On-farm learning a success - "I've been enjoying it. I like being with the cows and being in the shed"
A training initiative in Southland is giving young adults with high-functioning disabilities the skills required to work on a dairy farm.
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The kūmara connection
It's nearly time for the kūmara harvest at Kai Rotorua and this year, old meets new.
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Deep dive: See the potential that is seaweed
As part of Aotearoa's first seaweed festival, Pacific Harvest hosted a seaweed tasting event where people could sample various red, green and brown dried seaweeds.
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Sheep to chic with cosy crossbred wool
Sometimes it takes an outsider to come in and give a dyed-in-the-wool farmer a wee nudge. This is where Southland entrepreneur Laura Todd comes in.
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Good times, tough times and everything in between
Farming in the wake of the Mount Tarawera eruption has tested the Ford family for nearly a century.
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'They get an honest answer, whether it's the good, the bad or the ugly'
Farmer Bradley Riggs has more than just the sheep to think about. He has high profile guests and celebrities staying at the farm's luxury lodge and enjoys showing them the kiwi farming life and…
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'From red tape to red carpet': The new market possibilities in India
Geoff Allott, a former Black Cap and co-founder of exporting company Quality NZ, has been in the Indian market for 12 years.
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Southland show at 'the hole in the bush' still going strong after 85 years
Tuatapere's picturesque domain is transformed into a sensory celebration of rural life during the annual Waiau A&P Show.
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'Back to the land': Commune still going strong after 50 years
Rainbow Valley is located on regenerating whenua at the end of a gravel road near Tākaka. Several families share the land and help run a small farm for the benefit of the whole community.
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How about them apples? The team behind New Zealand's future apples and pears
We find out what it takes to produce some of New Zealand's tastiest apples by heading inside Plant & Food Research where they help Prevar create new apple and pear varieties.
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Grape picking starts soon at organic Waipara Valley vineyard
A pre-harvest update from Greystone Wines, host recently to the inaugural Underground soil, food and farming festival, with viticulturalist and farming advisor, Nick Gill.
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