Stories by Alexa Cook

A Silver Fern Farms shareholder says sheep farmers need more support and better prices otherwise plants will keep closing as farmers turn to more profitable land uses.

Zespri's sales to Japan have grown by 30 percent in the past two seasons, with the Japanese kiwifruit market worth about $500 million last season.

QEII National Trust covenanting landowners are together spending an estimated $25 million every year to protect native species, forests, and wetlands, a study has found.

New Zealand's sole commercial tea grower has won gold at the Global Tea Championships in the US.

A fall in sheep numbers is unsurprising and reflects the challenges farmers have faced in the last two years, Beef and Lamb New Zealand says.

A group of farmers near Whakatāne are working with the regional council to try and improve water quality by changing the way they farm.

A decision by UK supermarkets to ban fresh New Zealand lamb is bad news for the industry and could turn consumers away from the meat, farmers say.

The New Zealand wool market is being hit by a change in Chinese fashion to finer-fibre wools, New Zealand Wool Services International says.

A Waikato dairy-goat farmer spent the weekend trying to save his 800 goats after floodwater surged over his land, washing out his only access road.

The Prime Minister's chief scientist has failed to address the real problems in his new water quality report, says an agribusiness consultant.

A family who have had most of their farm destroyed by flooding in the small Bay of Plenty town of Waimana are now bracing for more heavy rain. Video, Audio

Fonterra is encouraging farmers who want to invest in their farming systems to milk cows through winter for the cooperative.

A farmer on the banks of the bursting Rangitāiki River says the flood has ruined at least half of his farm, with water still flowing over his land.

A farm stretching along the banks of the bursting Whakatane River is under water, a herd of 400 cows is stranded and a farm worker is cut off by floodwaters.

A couple whose farm near was badly damaged in the 2004 and 2015 Whanganui floods says better preparation means they've got off lightly this time around.

Police are investigating a possible breach of Zespri's intellectual property rights after kiwifruit varieties were transferred and planted in China illegally.

Hundreds of Taranaki dairy farmers won't comply with the new bobby calf laws by 1 August, because they have not had enough information on the changes, says Federated Farmers.

A shearing business in Waiau is struggling to find accommodation for staff, and says it feels like the rural sector is not getting enough help.

Infected dairy cows pose a risk to humans, a new study of Leptospirosis has found. Audio

A New Zealand company has produced a new breed of dairy cow which can keep producing decent amounts of milk in hot and humid conditions.

The government's reduction of commercial catch limits accounts for illegal fishing and is cheating the industry, the New Zealand Rock Lobster Industry says.

Phill Hunt spends about $15,000 a year controlling rabbits on his Queenstown farm. He is angry paper-pushing delayed a much-anticipated rabbit virus by a year.

Universities are at loggerheads over how to address the rural doctor shortage.

A red tape tangle has delayed the release of a much-anticipated new strain of rabbit virus by at least a year.

Cases of the potentially deadly infection leptospirosis jumped by nearly half last year, compared to 2015.