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Country Life headlines with summaries.
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Forging through tough times
Blacksmith Jamie Hughes has a niche business crafting knives and hand-forged metalwork for chefs, farmers and tourists from his smithy in Norsewood. Tough economic times means he's feeling it from all…
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Country Life for Friday 24 May 2024
This week Country Life meets a traditional Māori healer helping shearers around the motu and things heat up in a blacksmith's forge in Norsewood. Later we explore a native forest that grew from rough…
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"Nature's itching to put the bush back"
From a block of gorse-infected scrubland on Banks Peninsula, renowned botanist Hugh Wilson has spent half a lifetime growing Hinewai Reserve into a 1600-hectare paradise of regenerated native forest…
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Sowing the seed for Māori to grow food
17 May 2024Country Life visits a food garden in Taranaki, where whānau are getting their hands in the soil and finding out how to sustain themselves from their own backyards.
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Fernhill - From DOC to dairy on the family farm
Fifth generation dairy farmer Jason Christensen took a break from the family farm to try life as a DOC ranger. His experience in the world of conservation, evident on the Mt Bruce farm in the…
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Country Life for 17 May 2024
17 May 2024This week on Country Life we hear about a country vet's daring horseback escape from Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. We meet Pounamu Skelton who is on a mission to help Maori…
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Vet's extraordinary escape after 9-11
17 May 2024Neil and Sandra Chesterton and their two sons escaped Afghanistan over the mountains on horseback after 9/11. The Inglewood vet was working for a charity there. He and Sandra chat to Country Life…
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The not-so-lame story of a country vet
Who knows what goes on in a herd of cows as they walk to the milking shed? Plenty, according to Inglewood vet Neil Chesterton, who has made this his life's work and become a world-renowned expert on…
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Feeding time at the zoo
Have you ever wondered where all the food for Wellington Zoo's 500 animals come from? The answer might surprise you... Gianina Schwanecke meets with the zoo's animal science manager to find out more…
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Country Life for 10 May 2024
This week Country Life is at the last day of the kumara harvest in Northland, joins a quartet of otters at Wellington Zoo for dinner to learn more about where the animals' food comes from and speaks…
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The last day of the kumara harvest with Doug Nilsson
It's the last day of the kumara harvest at Dunsmore Gardens, a farm on the outskirts of Dargaville. It's also time to celebrate after the grower lost 99 percent of his crop last season.
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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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