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Featured Country Life stories
Creamy, sustainable and high in fibre - barley eyes up the dairy aisle
A new barley, bred for high fibre and low waste, is being turned into milk and yoghurt - a sustainable alternative with benefits for farmers and big potential in the global dairy-free market.
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From gumboots to storybooks: Farming with a twist of magic
7:06 am todayEmma Nowell transforms life on the land into art, children's stories and games, while keeping the farm and family at the heart of it all.
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Wholly Cow: Cambridge butcher's childhood dream come true
6:39 am todayThe Andrews family has gone from selling farm-raised meats at a farmers' market to running their own butchery.
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Miley the Huntaway's a 'main dog' now
16 Aug 2025For the past year, Country Life has been watching Wairarapa dog triallist Chris Shaw train up his latest working dog, Miley - a young Huntaway that's got that…
Country Life headlines with summaries.
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Mud and Blood - Westland rugby teams battle it out
Every winter, the Woodham Shield brings together remote South Westland communities for a fiercely contested grassroots rugby battle steeped in pride and tradition.
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'Farmluencer' creates online community for female farmers
Anthea Rolfe started the Females in Farming social media page a year ago and said it just exploded.
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Cover crops and critters - a dirty love affair
9 Aug 2025Stephen Newman has gone from IT to conventional farming to becoming a devotee of the regenerative farming movement.
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How to weather the great grass shutdown in the south
9 Aug 2025The gloom and wet of winter is especially challenging for Southland's farms where pasture can go for nearly a third of the year without growth.
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Should we be farming weka?
5 Aug 2025That's the focus of a recent research paper that looked at how commercialising native species might help with conservation.
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Sales boom for Kāpiti Coast roadside raw milk red shed
2 Aug 2025It's a busy time of year for Stacey Faith, calving 300-plus cows, rearing their calves and keeping the Faith Farm's roadside milk dispensing outlet going, providing locals with milk fresh from the…
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Outsmarting a million dollar pest
Are some grapevines better at defending themselves from pests? Trials are being conducted to find out.
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Country Life: On the Farm
The latest regional wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around New Zealand.
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National wild goat hunting competition kicks off
1 Aug 2025Hunters are targeting thousands of wild goats in a nationwide competition in efforts to protect farmland and the environment.
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Dairy farmers explore beefier genetics with US cattle rancher
With insatiable American demand for burgers driving booming global beef markets, dairy farmers are jumping on the bandwagon.
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'Learning along the way' unlocks higher profit on farm
26 Jul 2025Dual 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…
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'Timing's everything': From bush to boutique
Country 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.
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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.
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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.
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Double Blow: Tasman's rural resilience tested by back-to-back storms
As 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.
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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 stopbank-bursting river.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Invest in nature, no gumboots required
Country Life: What are biodiversity credits and how can they work for NZ?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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