Country Life

It's Conservation Week! We meet a North Canterbury farmer rewilding his land and we check back in with the school children helping restore part of a South Wairarapa river.

"I've been farming on my own account for 52 years and cut down a fair share of trees, so now is my time to leave this place better than we found it," Chris Bolderston told Country Life.

In Part 2 of a three part series, schoolchildren head to Waihinga Farm to plant saplings among ancient podocarps on the edge of the Ruamāhanga River.

How do you stop birds colliding with New York's skyscrapers and how can New Zealand farmers benefit from birds and other wildlife? These are just some of the questions Sara Kross has been trying to answer from her lab at Canterbury University.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.

This week the Country Life team heads to a small-scale salt farm in Northland and meets a conservationist collecting endangered wildflowers.

James Moore is up to his knees in the waves at Cable Bay in Northland, a bucket in each hand. He's a small-scale salt farmer, with a plan to help others into salt farming.

Graeme Atkins has collected the "Noah's Ark" of endangered wild cuttings, including the beautiful ngutukākā or kakabeak flower.

South Otago's biggest organic dairy farm might go conventional after news the dairy company which picks up the milk is reviewing the premiums for organic milk.

It's been a kind winter for most North Island farmers now busy with lambing and calving. Meanwhile sheep farmers in the South Island hope to see prices rise again.

This week the Country Life team introduces us to New Zealand's agricultural trade envoy, Hamish Marr on his family's arable farm near Methven and demand for tropical fruit trees like longan, jackfruit and bananas is keeping a Northland horticulture teacher busy.

Down to earth Methven farmer Hamish Marr is proud to showcase farmers and growers' innovation to overseas governments "and anyone else who is buying our products."

Aaron McCloy nurtures plants which produce luscious and exotic fruit like longan, jackfruit and bananas from a hillside overlooking Doubtless Bay.

Wayne Hall, general manager of Wi Pere Trust's horticulture team in Gisborne, shares his love of persimmons and a recipe for how to best enjoy the fruit.

A round-up of the week's agricultural news.