Rural

On a busy day Jamie Sleep and his fish processing team at High Country Salmon near Twizel can fillet up to 200 salmon. Business operations manager Tracey Gunn says the farm employs 30 staff, produces… Audio

Towards the end of the week organic vege growers, artisan butchers, bread and cheese makers get busy preparing for farmers' markets around the country. There are 30 or so farmers' markets in New… Audio

In Waikato a dairy consultant says it's been the best winter he can remember. A good week of weather in Canterbury has allowed cropping farmers to get on with planting spring barley. Audio

Serving up Salmon, The Healing Power of Sheep, A New Chair for the Farmers' Markets Association and the Regional Wrap. Audio

The Ministry for Primary Industries is closing down its biosecurity response to a potato virus after survey work revealed it's widespread here. Audio

Horticulture New Zealand is welcoming moves by the government to stop productive land falling victim to urban sprawl. Audio

News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

A Pukekohe farmer says he's waited for 15 years for the announcement that farms in the southern edge of Auckland will be protected from housing developments. The government has released a document for… Video, Audio

Pitting potatoes against property - that's how the government's proposal to protect highly productive farm land from being subdivided or used for urban expansion has been described.

The Environment… Video, Audio

DairyNZ says a grass roots system of rewarding farmers who lower their greenhouse gas emissions and penalising those who raise them is the best pathway for environmental improvement. Audio

News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

The country's biggest rural services company, PGG Wrightson, thinks the cattle disease, Mycoplasma bovis is still some way off being eradicated from New Zealand. Audio

Agricultural economist Peter Fraser, who warned Fonterra was heading for collapse, is asking whether it's "brought out all its dead" or if there's more to come.

Fonterra is forecasting a loss of up… Audio

Dairy farmers are shaken by the latest news from Fonterra and say the loss of any dividend this year will hinder growth and paying down debt. The co-operative, which is New Zealand's largest company… Audio

News from the rural and farming sector. Audio

Farmers say Fonterra's gloomy forecast will knock the confidence of its 10,000 farmer shareholders. They're missing out on a payment from the dairy co-op which will not be paying a dividend this… Audio