Country Calendar

A dairy farmer uses every inch of his 37 hectares branching into forestry, tourism and ducks. Off the farm he reinvents himself and finds love on the dance floor.

A co-op of farmers produce speciality lamb cuts for food-savvy urban consumers from the outskirts of Auckland, reducing the production footprint from paddock to plate

A Marlborough couple run two contrasting farms in spectacular locations, raising lambs on the coast near Cape Campbell and farming rare Saxon merinos in the inland high country.

A Far North family builds up a thriving export business harvesting manuka honey from remote locations all over the North Island and processing it in their own factory

Three generations of a family work closely together, on and off farm, to overcome the impact of a farm suicide. Their message is that for people suffering depression, help is available

Tunnel Vision: A couple buy an old avocado orchard in the Far North and replace the least productive trees with a new crop blueberries, which they grow in tunnel houses.

A dairy-farming family overcome new challenges when they move to a coastal farm north of Kaikoura, with weather extremes, unpredictable market prices and a massive earthquake

Catch of the Day: A couple who catch tuna and sell it to Wellington restaurants find the chefs want a wider range of ingredients, so they expand into hunting and supplying wild game.

A couple grows organic plums on their Marlborough orchard and sell direct to customers at the local farmers' market. They're experimenting with new varieties, including heritage plums.

Farming the historic Routeburn Station next to Mt Aspiring National Park is a balancing act between caring for the land and stock, and managing the many passing tourists and walkers.

A marine scientist farms fresh-water koura in forestry ponds across the south, giving a new lease of life to an ancient species and creating a new market for the restaurant delicacy.

A Northland couple growing gold kiwifruit for Zespri harvest their bumper crop for the export market. The family juggles kiwifruit with grapes and a new venture brewing beer.

After farming sheep for almost a hundred years, a family diversifies into wine. The Marlborough grape growers are also keen birders and members of the ornithological society.

Ata Rangi vineyard was one of the pioneers of an industry that has turned Martinborough from a sleepy town into a vibrant community with international links.

Gisborne beekeeper Bill Savage got his first beehive when he was a slightly allergic but fascinated 12-year-old and he has loved bees ever since. Now, 44 years later, he still finds his millions of workers intriguing. “There are 60,000 bees in a hive at the peak of the season and the queen is mother to every one of them – laying around fifteen hundred eggs – per day! That’s quite a feat when you think about it.” Bill’s a high-UMF manuka honey specialist. UMF, or Unique Manuka Factor, is an industry standard for measuring the anti-bacterial compounds found only in certain grades of New Zealand manuka honey. A kilo of one of his higher grades will retail for over $100 and Bill says the demand offshore is growing and growing. But it’s a fickle business. Yields fluctuate wildly from year to year. “In a good year you can make a lot of money, but in a bad year you can lose a lot of money” he says. The East Cape region abounds with wild manuka but Bill has big dreams of increasing quality and volume. He is converting his own 1200 hectare bush block into a mono-floral, high-UMF manuka forest, clearing kanuka and planting thousands of the high-grade trees there every year. “But you can’t spot a high-UMF tree by looking at it.” In summer, he painstakingly collects nectar from his own wild manuka and has a lab analyse it for DHA, the precursor to UMF. Then in winter, he collects seed from those trees identified as high in DHA and grows tens of thousands of new trees each year from that seed. He’s experimenting with planting systems to maximise nectar production. Kitt Higgins and Bill Savage harvesting honey at Ahititi But he’s more than happy to share his knowledge. “It’s for the good of the industry.” A tireless advocate for quality and integrity in the industry at large, and in his own practice, Bill says that the honey industry is enjoying ”a goldrush” at the moment as demand soars, evidence for UMF