Navigation for News Categories
Featured Country Life stories
'Learning along the way' unlocks higher profit on farm
Dual land use, with pigs and cattle grazing under solar panels, has unlocked new opportunities for Waitangi Farm in Waiuku. Mostly importantly say Nigel and Merrin Upchurch, it aligns with their values.
-
'Timing's everything': From bush to boutique
26 Jul 2025Country Life: A honey shed on a hill is buzzing with the sound of honey flowing into jars as the bees take a hard-earned rest from honey-making.
-
Double Blow: Tasman's rural resilience tested by back-to-back storms
19 Jul 2025As a second weather bomb lashed the Tasman region, Cosmo Kentish-Barnes was on the ground with rural residents staring down the barrel of another deluge.
-
Flood-hit farm 'more like a riverbed than a farm'
10 Jul 2025Work to bolster flood resilience along the Motueka River came too late for one flood-hit Tasman farmer who lost dozens of hectares of farmland to the…
Country Life headlines with summaries.
-
Pāmu forecasts record profit in major turnaround
The country's largest pastoral farmer is forecasting a record profit for the last financial year, as high prices for dairy and red meat help offset adverse weather events.
-
Dropping livestock numbers dominate red meat sector event
Carbon farming on productive land under the Emissions Trading Scheme was driving the significant reduction in livestock numbers.
-
Conditions on farms and orchards around the motu
Wet and wild weather has lashed much of the country from Taranaki to the top of the South, where many farmers and orchardists are still busy with the cleanup.
-
Thefts fail to wilt trust-based veggie project
4 Jul 2025Crooked Vege's pay-what-you-can model may have been a radical idea two years ago but its vege box plan is working.
-
Rural recycling on the rise
4 Jul 2025Agrecovery has seen huge growth in the 20 years it's been operating, with those in the primary sector looking for new ways to recycle on-farm plastic.
-
Snorts and snuggles at a second chance sanctuary
5 Jul 2025Sharlene Wilson has turned her rural property in North Canterbury into a haven for rescued farm animals who find healing, freedom and a place to truly belong.
-
Invest in nature, no gumboots required
Country Life: What are biodiversity credits and how can they work for NZ?
-
Bokashi by the tonne - chocolate brown and teeming with worms
27 Jun 2025Two North Canterbury farmers have been bitten by the bokashi bug. As well as being a soil superfood, it's also cost effective.
-
Roebuck Farm - where the garden beds are rich 'like chocolate cake'
28 Jun 2025Over the past 20 years, Jodi Roebuck and his wife Tanya have turned a bare paddock into a thriving market garden with an emphasis on microgreens.
-
Jobs at stake for meat workers
28 Jun 2025Meat plants across Aotearoa are struggling to match low volumes of livestock coming through with staffing levels.
-
Massive transfer of wealth: Family farmers, growers spurred to start succession planning
24 Jun 2025The agriculture and horticulture sector will see the largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, with farm assets estimated to be worth $150b.
-
Digging deep into indigenous know-how
20 Jun 2025Nick Rahiri Roskruge's work in agriculture and soil science have taken him far afield, looking at crops sustaining indigenous communities.
-
Stars, soil and whakapapa - 'We're just caretakers, really'
20 Jun 2025This Matariki, the stars align for Mark and Susannah Guscott - an award-winning couple bringing together whakapapa and astronomy on their sixth-generation Wairarapa farm.
-
'We can grow anything here': Taranaki family's growing experiment
20 Jun 2025On their family whenua in north Taranaki, the McClutchies grow different crops and aspire to growing Māori medicinal plants.
-
The quail kid - cracking the egg market aged 12
16 Jun 2025Hamish Sturgeon has been rearing quails for their eggs since the age of 11.
-
From generation to generation - a century at Daisybank
14 Jun 2025Strong family support, innovation and a dash of good luck have seen the Harvey family of Wairarapa clock up 100 years on Daisybank Farm near Martinborough.
-
Bob's berry farm - thorny, thrifty and thriving
9 Jun 2025Bob Teal's resourcefulness has allowed him to keep growing a niche range of berries into his 80s.
-
The benefits of wrapping yourself in a woollen blanket this winter
17 May 2025Taranaki weaver Alison Ross is trying to bring back woollen blankets made from locally-grown wool to highlight the fibre's benefits.
-
'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.
-
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.
-
Harvesting time is nuts at busy walnut orchard
9 May 2025The walnut harvest is underway at Lightfoot Orchard in Canterbury.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Top News stories
- Live: Tsunami activity expected in NZ after 8.8 quake near Russia
- Labour MP Willie Jackson accuses government of rigging next election
- Mechanics report spike in cases of rats chewing through electronics of cars
- Kamchatka earthquake is among top 10 strongest ever recorded. Here’s what they have in common
- Dunedin City Council warned of 'slumlords' exploiting students
Subscribe
Get the top 8 headlines each day at 8am with our daily email newsletter.
