Country Life

Country Life

The Country Life team take you all over the motu to hear the extraordinary stories of every day rural New Zealand.

Episodes

November 28, 2025 50 mins

Country Life visits two farms embracing agritourism - a Bay of Plenty avocado grower and a Hawke's Bay hill country station offering farm walks. The team also steps into an enviro-friendly greenhouse growing year-round lettuces at scale.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

  • 0:00 - Rural News Wrap
  • 0:00 - Keeping salad greens on the shelves, 52 weeks of the year
  • 0:0...
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Set on the coast of Hawke's Bay, Te Aratipi Station offers walkers on the farm views across the bay, from the Māhia Peninsula right around to Mt Ruapehu on a clear day.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

You can find more about Te Aratipi Station, here.

With thanks to:

  • Ro, Ed, Selby and Harry Palmer

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November 28, 2025 17 mins

Tour groups gather under the huge avocado trees belonging to orchardists Tim Rosamond and Michele Ricou to learn about the fruit and how its grown. The IT pros are relatively new growers and see agritourism as an important part of the venture.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Tim Rosamond and Michele Ricou

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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Since officially opening last April, Leaderbrand's Future Farms facility has allowed them to grow salad greens all year round.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:


Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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November 28, 2025 6 mins

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

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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This week's Country Life is all about tech and science - from cutting edge ag drone, to collecting sheep poo samples to be processed in the lab as part of a national study, and the team helping breed the kiwifruit of tomorrow.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

  • 0:46 - Rural News Wrap
  • 5:52 - Farmers' ag drone venture takes flight
  • 13:56 - 'Poo hunter...
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It takes years to perfect cultivars and to keep New Zealand's kiwifruit industry ahead of the game. Country Life takes a tour of the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre in Te Puke and meets those helping create the fruit of the future.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Matt Glenn, Amardeep Nath, Megan Wood, and Thomas Paterson

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November 21, 2025 12 mins

Wairarapa sheep farmer Paul Crick is one of hundreds out collecting poo samples from his flock as part of a national study testing for the presence of spores which cause facial eczema in sheep.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

You can find more about the study, here.

With thanks to:

  • Paul Crick, Sarah Riddy and Cara Brosnahan

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more d...

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November 21, 2025 8 mins

Two King Country farmers have trained up as drone operators to offer on-farm drone spraying services, a side hustle alongside their traditional farming work.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Mitchel Hoare

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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November 21, 2025 5 mins

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

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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This week Country Life gets up close and personal with some of the animals at Massey University's teaching farm and heads to a high country station near Omarama where merino sheep run alongside shorthorn cattle.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

  • 0:32 - Jefferson Fellow Kate Green on the future of food security
  • 11:28 - Rural News Wrap
  • 17:03 - Massey University&#...
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November 14, 2025 22 mins

There's a romance attached to living in the Mackenzie High Country, but does it still exist? For Simon Williamson it is the only life he knows. He grew up through the harsh winters and hot summers and loves the challenge of it.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Simon and Kirst Williamson

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Set on 40-hectares near the university's Palmertston North campus, the Large Animal Teaching Unit, is home to a menagerie of animals for veterinary students to work with.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Mike Reilly, Professors Jon Huxley and Paul Kenyon


Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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November 14, 2025 5 mins

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

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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RNZ reporter Kate Green has recently returned from parts of Southeast Asia as part of a Jefferson Fellowship exploring food security issues across the region.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Kate Green

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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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.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

In this episode:

  • 0:30 - A kiwi's life in the world's largest dairy farms
  • 9:30 - Rural News Wrap
  • 15:23 - From the Archive: Sheep on the board
  • 35:31 - Saving seeds,...
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November 7, 2025 19 mins

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.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

Go to this episode ...

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November 7, 2025 14 mins

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.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Jemma Ostenfeld

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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November 7, 2025 5 mins

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

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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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.

You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpage, here.

With thanks to:

  • Berwick Settle


Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more ...

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