Country Life

We meet a farming couple in Southland that are making health products from the hemp they grow, and we get some insights into the Chinese market for New Zealand wine.

A hemp crop flourishes beside wheat, barley and peas at Blair and Jody Drysdale's farm in northern Southland.

Fang Mei fell in love with wine after working in the banking industry in New Zealand and China. Now she has her own vineyard here and educates people in China about New Zealand wine.

We check back in with Hamish Best of Conscious Valley just outside Wellington. A keen ag student the last time he spoke to Country Life, he's now a finalist for the prestigious trans-Tasman Zanda McDonald Award.

A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.

Head inside a Hawke's Bay packhouse and orchard once covered in millions of litres of silt after Cyclone Gabrielle and meet a topdressing pilot who's still flying after nearly half a century on the job.

When Cyclone Gabrielle hit two years ago, 4th generation orchardist Cameron Taylor sprang into action rescuing people from rooftops in his Taylor Corporation helicopter. Since then it's been non-stop in restoring the family orchard and packhouse into working order.

Aerial topdresser John Bargh is preparing for another season up in the air. He's spent nearly five decades in the skies spreading fert on hill country farms.

Red seaweed grown in Bluff has been shown to significantly reduce methane emissions in beef and dairy cattle with no adverse effects to the animals, their products or the environment.

A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.

We head to a woolshed where hundreds of sheep are being shorn for charity and find out how the Tora Coastal Walk has helped a rugged sheep and beef farm weather tough times.

It's 30 years since the Elworthy family began the Tora Coastal Walk, one of the first multi-day hikes on farmland in NZ. It's been the key to this marginal farm's survival.

Dozens of shearers slipped on their moccasins for the Shear For Life charity shearing event at Hinds, raising $150,000 for local charitable groups.

The team at Waka Dairies near Dannevirke is turning waste from milking cows into fertiliser that can be worked back into the farm.

A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.