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Country Life headlines with summaries.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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'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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
