Country Life
Kanalinformation
Country Life
The Country Life team take you all over the motu to hear the extraordinary stories of every day rural New Zealand.
Seneste episoder
395 episoder
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 19 December 2025
Country Life heads to an arboretum where dozens of different types of trees are grown, including a few for Christmas. We travel up the Whanganui River...
Life's a strawberry patch with the Roys of Piopio
The Roy family all pitch in getting berries from orchard to Christmas plate over the festive season. They have been growing berries in Piopio for more...
RD6: Life along the Whanganui River
Rural postie Tracy Marshall takes visitors along her mail delivery route which winds along the Whanganui River.
You can find photos and r...
How planting exotic trees can enable native trees to grow
"You can come here and see nearly every type of forestry system that can be applied," Blair Jamieson says of Tāmata Hauhā's demonstration farm near Pa...
Rural News Wrap for 19 December 2025
A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 12 December 2025
Country Life this week visits Cornwall Park Farm, the farm within New Zealand's largest city, and heads to the Bay of Plenty to meet animal trainer Be...
The trainer turning animal tricks into teen confidence
Chickens play football and sheep wave their hooves at Bex Tasker's place. She used to be a dog handler with customs and now uses her expertise in anim...
Cornwall Park: The farm within the heart of a city
Cornwall Park farm is something of a hidden gem in the heart of Auckland City. But being a farm in the city comes with specific challenges.
Rural News Wrap for 12 December 2025
A wrap of the week's news from the primary sector
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
BONUS: The Detail - Calls for urgent action over deer control
There's a lot of hand-wringing but few answers when it comes to culling New Zealand's rapidly expanding deer population. Our friends over at The Detai...
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 5 December 2025
This week Country Life is at the Wayleggo Cup, a trans Tasman sheep dog trial, meets a record-breaking Angus bull-breeder and opens the door on an unu...
The Wayleggo Cup - a Trans-Tasman sheepdog test
How do sheepdogs and handling techniques vary between New Zealand and Australia? The best teams battle it out at a Trans-Tasman dog trial contest.
Cash cow: Tangihau Angus' record-breaking bulls
Tangihau Angus near Gisborne has a habit of breaking records. Last year it set the top price for New Zealand bulls at $135,000. This year it's done it...
Risqué and Rural
How an unusual business selling adult toys has found opportunity on the main street of Eketāhuna
You can find photos and read more about...
On the Farm for 5 December 2025
A round up of conditions on farms and orchards around the country
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 28 November 2025
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 t...
Hawke's Bay farm's agritourism 'terroir'
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 Ruape...
Spreading the word about avocados
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. Th...
Keeping salad greens on the shelves, 52 weeks of the year
Since officially opening last April, Leaderbrand's Future Farms facility has allowed them to grow salad greens all year round.
You can find phot...
Rural News Wrap for 28 November 2025
A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 21 November 2025
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 par...
Inside New Zealand's Kiwifruit Breeding Centre
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 Breedin...
'Poo hunter': In the name of science
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...
Farmers' ag drone venture takes flight
Two King Country farmers have trained up as drone operators to offer on-farm drone spraying services, a side hustle alongside their traditional farmin...
Rural News Wrap for 21 November 2025
A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 14 November 2025
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 ne...
Living the High Country Life
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 gr...
Massey University's 'outdoor farm classroom' celebrates 30 years
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 s...
Rural News Wrap for 14 November 2025
A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
Jefferson Fellow Kate Green on the future of food security
RNZ reporter Kate Green has recently returned from parts of Southeast Asia as part of a Jefferson Fellowship exploring food security issues across the...
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 7 November 2025
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...
From the Archive: Sheep on the board
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...
Saving seeds, saving stories
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...
Rural News Wrap for 7 November 2025
A round-up of the week's news from the primary sector.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
A kiwi's life in the world's largest dairy farms
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 fa...
FULL SHOW: Country Life for 31 October 2025
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 genet...
Eketāhuna Museum - keeper of the community's stories
Volunteers at the Eketāhuna Museum are getting ready to reopen. This treasure chest of curiosities shines a light on the small town's Scandinavian her...
Breeding the 'wagyu of lamb' for an every-changing farm environment
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 eat...
A 'numbers game': LIC's quest to breed low methane emitting bulls
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 b...
On the Farm for 31 October 2025
A wrap of conditions on farms and orchards around the country.
You can find photos and read more about the stories in this episode on our webpag...