Country Life

Country Life meets Berwick Settle who's worked on huge dairy farms in Russia and China, joins a shearing gang for a day and finds out about the world of heritage seed saving.

In this story for the long-running programme Spectrum, first broadcast in 1972, Jack Perkins joins a Wairarapa shearing gang, on a farm near Masterton. It starts at the beginning of a day's shearing, with sounds of sheep in the yards, dogs barking and shepherd's whistling.

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

There's a story to many of the heritage seedlings which Jemma Ostenfeld grows on a patch of borrowed land in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

Twenty years ago Berwick Settle was a Southland sharemilker. Since then he's worked in some of the biggest dairy farms in the world, helping set up farms in China and Russia where cows live year round in huge barns, a far cry from New Zealand's pastoral system.

This week Country Life learns more about LIC's project to breed bulls which emit less methane, while a Waikato sheep farmer does the same, using genetics to reduce emissions. Also, from the future to the past, step back in time with the volunteers at Eketāhuna Museum.

Volunteers at the Eketāhuna Museum are getting ready to reopen. This treasure chest of curiosities shines a light on the small town's Scandinavian heritage and the challenges of running a country museum.

Alastair Reeves has followed in his father's footsteps, using genetics to help farmers solve problems on farm by breeding sheep that make for good eating, are tolerant of facial eczema and emit lower amounts of methane.

The team of scientists at LIC, the Livestock Improvement Corporation, hope to know by late next year if they can offer farmers more methane-friendly bulls.

A wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around the country.

This week Country Life meets some characterful Clydesdale horses, finds out about the Waimate Trail, explores rural life through objects via a new book and heads to threatened Thornton Lagoon in Bay of Plenty.

They used to be a regular sight on New Zealand's roads and paddocks - the plodding but magnificent Clydesdales. The horses with the hobbit hooves are becoming rare and their personality, dignity and legacy have inspired Susie Izard and her daughter Cate Smith to help save the breed.

Ben Banks is trying to protect the fragile dunes, wildlife and vegetation at a coastal lagoon near Whakatāne. Volunteering his time, he and his family trap for predators and pests but there's another threat to the area - the four-wheeled kind.

Husband and wife duo Te Radar and Ruth Spencer have recently partnered together on a new book 'Kiwi Country: Rural New Zealand in 100 Objects'.

Volunteers are nearing completion of the first leg of a new trail for walkers, runners and cyclists in South Canterbury, the 67km Waimate Trail which will pass through native forest, limestone rock formations, tussock tops, river flats and valleys.