Farming

This week the Country Life team spends a night out tracking kiwi in the capital, meets a family living off-grid on their ancestral land in the Far North and visits a South Otago dairy farm where…

The government's proposed law change to keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme has passed its first reading.

With bridges to their properties destroyed, the farmers - many of the elderly - feel like their lives are at risk.

"We've been planting, everything is fenced, so I'm not sure where to head to from here," a dairy farmer says.

The coalition government is keen to restart the trade with 'gold standard' rules to protect animal welfare.

The insect can survive all year round, especially in warmer winter temperatures like in Northland, and the problem is expected to only grow.

Terawhiti Station, a 4800-ha farm off Wellington's west coast, is the cornerstone of a project that has seen kiwi return to the capital.