Category: Rural

Source: Radio New Zealand

Near where the muddy green of the Tuapeka meets the turquoise blue of the Clutha River there once stood a “bustling settlement”.

Back in the early days of Otago’s gold rush, Tuapeka Mouth – about 30 kilometres north-west of Balclutha – had houses on either side and at least two, maybe even three pubs, according to Tom Jones.

With no bridge, those looking to cross from one side of the river to the other had only one option – the Tuapeka Mouth Ferry.

“There used to be a lot of these crossings back in the day, gold mining days, early days of discovery.

“Between the sea and Roxburgh, there was 15 of them, so before bridges you’d float your way across,” Jones told Country Life.

“This is the last one in the southern hemisphere.”

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Jones has operated the ferry crossing for the past six years, taking people – and cars – from one side of the river to the other.

Though this is not the 1896 original, not much has changed in terms of how it functions, he explained.

“We’ve got two boats with wooden platform on the top.

“It harnesses the energy in the river in the same way that a yacht harnesses the wind in a sail, so you’ve got to turn on an angle to get any push forward or sideways as in the case of this.

“There’s a main cable upstream to stop it from being pushed downstream, and, as I say, it turns on an angle and the energy hits one side of the bow and pushes it, shimmies basically sideways.”

The vessel requires conditions to be just right to operate though. Too much wind, the river being too high or too low means it can’t run.

When Country Life paid a visit the Clutha River was high and flowing fast – too fast to safely operate the punt – after a few days of rain.

New Zealand’s largest river in terms of volume, it normally operates with a flow of about 500 cubic metres per second but that day the flow had more than doubled.

The ferry is still used by locals but has also increasingly become popular with tourists in the post-Covid era, capturing a unique part of New Zealand’s history.

“There’s very little else here in Tuapeka Mouth itself.

“It’s in the middle of nowhere, but it’s something really worth discovering,” Jones said.

He estimates he does about 60 to 70 crossings each week in optimum conditions.

As a “public utility”, the ferry ride is free and it operates from 10am until 2pm most days – except for Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac morning.

Learn more:

• Find out more about the Tuapeka Mouth Ferry here

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The boss of a health organisation believes a rural equivalent of Tinder targeted at health professionals could be the key to solving the doctor shortages in rural communities.

A Royal College of GP workforce survey in 2024 found 35 percent of rural GPs and 21 percent of rural hospital doctors intended on retiring in within five years.

There’s a shortfall of at least 130 rural GPs nationwide.

Federated Farmers, Rural Women and the Rural Health Network are backing the Golden Key, a project to attract health professionals to rural areas.

Its secret weapon is a well-organised welcoming committee and match-making could be the next step, according to Mark Eager, who is CEO of Mobile Health Group and on the board of Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network.

Eager told Checkpoint there was one commonality that keeps people in rural areas.

“You can recruit as much as you want, you can do a whole lot of things, but there’s got to be a connection with the town,” he said.

“Love and sex seem to go hand in hand, and it keeps people grounded in rural areas.”

Eager wants an app, similar to Tinder, to help doctors find their perfect match in rural towns.

“I’ve been speaking with Health New Zealand about it, but for some reason, they’re not keen. But I am sure we could get reasonably entrepreneurial about this and make that work because it would help.”

Eager said rural communities tend to get locum doctors that come in temporarily for six weeks or so, and it would be beneficial to get people to stay long term.

“We joke about the whole love thing, but just having an interest in a rural town and connecting to it. So, ultimately, we would love for someone to fall in love with someone and stay in a rural town long term, but it’s more than that. It’s about welcoming people to rural areas.”

He said the welcoming committee, which includes organised local support and hospitality, was important to make people stay and develop routes to the area.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A Wellington marae is putting its hāngī made up of mostly koha kai underground on Friday, in preparation for the city’s Waitangi Day celebrations tomorrow.

Thousands are expected to gather at Waitangi Park in Te Whanganui a Tara on Friday for large community event Te Rā o Waitangi that honoured the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.

Ngā Hau e Whā o Paparārangi marae in Newlands helped feed those celebrating Waitangi Day in the city for many years.

Marae assistant chairman and renowned Māori chef Joe Mcleod had previously led hāngī operations to feed thousands at Te Tii Waitangi Marae.

This year, he was helping his marae create around 500 ready-to-eat hāngī packs for the event in Wellington, featuring local kai like meat and huawhenua (vegetables).

“Pork, lamb chicken in our packs. Potato, pumpkin, kumara, cabbage and stuffing. That’s the standard pack, and then we have a vegetarian pack,” he said.

“They go real quick.”

Mcleod said much of the kai was donated by the community and local supermarkets, and he was amazed by the support.

“We have a very strong local network.”

He said helping feed the crowds there was a lovely experience, that recognised the important moment in the history of Aotearoa.

“We’re there to celebrate and be there to provide a service for our people,” he said.

“It’s a fun thing. We’re giving back to celebrate with our country, and it’s a special event to celebrate a special moment.”

Mcleod was classically trained in French cuisine and dozens more culinary styles throughout his long career.

These days, he was more focussed on sharing matauranga Māori kai with other marae to pass on his knowledge.

“Letting them know that our food culture is still alive.

“The resources our ancestors used are still here, most of them, and our primary resources are still accessible through various connections that marae networks have.”

Live music, kapa haka and local kai are some of the highlights expected in Wellington from midday tomorrow, ahead of Saturday’s Wellington Pasifika Festival also at Waitangi Park from midday.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Beekeepers blocked from getting to their hives mid-harvest due to roads closed by recent storms, are expecting a lighter and later honey harvest this year.

Storms across the upper North Island in mid-January caused widespread slips that shut roads and state highways, particularly in Bay of Plenty and the East Coast.

Barry Foster, an industry stalwart and semi-retired beekeeper of Tai Rāwhiti, said harvest was one of the busiest times of the year, but it was interrupted by the storms.

“The result is that numbers of beekeepers around the district have hives that they can’t access at the moment because of the lack of roads,” he said.

Foster said one beekeeper’s hives, truck and loader were still stuck in the Waioweka Gorge, that remained closed following slips.

“He needs this gear and he needs to access his hives to treat them for varroa mite, and other things.

“Thankfully, he’d taken his honey off then, but he can’t access important vehicles to do the rest of his 2000-odd boxes of honey he’s got to take off.”

Foster said the geology of the East Coast was fragile and the area had suffered a lot of slips, particularly north of Tolaga Bay.

“Te Araroa has been badly affected, it’s been cut off at the top of the East Cape. Roads are blocked from slips, so it’s having a multiplying effect.”

He said access was compromised for some affected beekeepers whose hives were found near wild mānuka crops in remote backcountry.

“It’s not just us that are affected, it’s farmers and beekeepers who can’t access their hives and do the things that they need to do in a timely manner, like harvest honey and control of bee mite, the varroa mite.”

He said moisture was a challenge in the hive.

“Bees need sun and warmth, and plants need the same to produce nectar and moisture too, but not too much moisture.

“Those are the combinations, so if you get a deluge, it’s affecting the whole linked ecosystem.”

Bad weather hits national honey harvest

Karin Koss, chief executive of industry group Apiculture New Zealand, said national honey production was down this year.

“Harvest started well, but the recent bad weather has seen the harvest fall short of early expectations,” she said.

Honey extraction business Gielen Family Farm of Motukarara in Banks Peninsula had a late harvest last year and this year too.

Co-owner Stacey Gielen said weather delayed harvest into late December.

“Our first job was just after Christmas. My customer in Ashburton; she always has really strong, really healthy hives,” she said.

“It’s been really great to see how much honey she brought in, because we certainly don’t see any sort of volume like that at home at the moment.”

Gielen said it was hard to say how the remainder of the season would go.

“If the weather’s going to carry on like that, I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of honey to go about for just local honey producers.”

Foster said many in the honey industry were cash-strapped after a few tough years of low honey sales.

But he said higher demand for pollination services from the booming horticulture sector was helping offset this.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The final touches are being put on a new gadget promising to speed-up vaccinating or giving pain relief to livestock.

Around 20 New Zealand deer farmers were trialling a locally-designed holster for their livestock vaccination gun that sterilised the needles in an attached reservoir between jabs.

Founder Jade Luxton made the original Sterineedle holster with a 3D printer through high school some years back to address an agricultural challenge.

Since then, the Waikato-born graduate in product design said she had created around 100 iterations of her Sterineedle ahead of its commercialisation.

“When I looked further into this problem, I found that needles could actually be sterilized, and that’s kind of how we started with the holster idea,” she said.

“We wanted that ability to give farmers kind of like a third hand to put the vaccination gun in between animals as well.”

Luxton said it was originally created for farmers during velvetting, because every needle on each stag needs to be sterilised to meet food grade requirements.

She said deer farmers needed a solution for constantly changing needles, but the device could also benefit sheep and beef farmers.

“We currently have 20 models out trialling at the moment. But I’ve also been speaking at NZ Deer Association events, just kind of spreading awareness about the product and getting more farmers keen on the idea and keen to try it as well.”

Luxton hoped the final design would to bring it to market in time for the next velvet season.

“We’re currently testing the final design and looking for manufacturers so we can get a few models out by the start of velvetting season this year.”

She said she was inspired by her grandparents who were involved with farming.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Farms at the top end of the East Coast have been “smashed” by recent storms, with stock isolated and extensive damage to land and infrastructure.

A clearer picture of the level of damage is starting to emerge after huge downpours hit the region last month.

Representatives from Beef and Lamb and Tai Rāwhiti Whenua Collective have been going farm to farm doing damage assessments.

Beef and Lamb’s Pania King said the damage is isolated to Hicks Bay down to Te Araroa and slightly inland.

“We’ve seen everything from erosion and landslides through to debris and silt throughout paddocks, water systems and culverts are gone and a huge amount of fencing is down – so it’s quite extensive the amount of damage that has happened on those farms and on that whenua.”

King said farms were cut off, and even within farms, farmers could not access their stock.

“This is step hill country farming – farmers will jump on their horse and get out there if they really have to, but stock should have feed and water.”

She said farmers and contractors were waiting for the land to dry out before getting heavy machinery in to start the cleanup.

“It’s still raining here on Monday, so we are hoping by Wednesday we will be able to get machines in to start reinstating access to farms – that’s step one.”

King, alongside others involved in the recovery, also took to the air to assess the damage.

“It was quite emotional actually because I did the farm assessments in Gabrielle and it was going through the back of my head how many gains we have made, how much work has gone into rebuilding the infrastructure on their farms and how much capital has gone in – and now its all back to square one.

“I was feeling disheartened for our farmers, because for many this is the second or third time they’ve been hit hard in recent years.”

She said five farms had been listed as a priority.

“They’ve been really smashed – the destruction on those farms is actually quite unreal.”

King said the morale on farms was something everyone was keeping a close eye on.

“As you can imagine, it’s only natural to be feeling pretty down in the dumps when you’ve done this two or three times – this is not their first rodeo.”

She said the damage assessment should be with the Ministry for Primary Industries by end of Tuesday, so she was hoping a package of support would be organised to help farmers recover.

“We need to recover pastures and get some crops growing ahead of winter for feed otherwise that will bring a whole other issue for our farmers.

She says the farms hit were 95 percent whenua Māori, so the farmers would rebuild and stay on their land.

“This is a close-knit community, and everyone is looking out for each other and helping where they can.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A new report has alerted that geopolitical risks, like further escalation of tensions in Iran, could affect prices for key items used on New Zealand farms like fertiliser.

Prices for key commodities and farm inputs were often vulnerable during times of volatility, like the sharp increase in grain prices at the start of the war in key producing nation Ukraine, in 2022.

Widespread [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/583713/why-are-iranians-protesting-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-regime anti-government protests were held across Iran throughout January, in response to economic and social crises.

It came as the key producer of urea and ammonia fertilisers also faced a sharp increase in tensions with the United States.

In a new annual report titled Keeping One Move Ahead, Rabobank senior animal proteins analyst Jen Corkran said the outlook for New Zealand’s agribusiness sector this year was mostly positive from a farming point of view.

She said stable supply of our key exports coupled with good international demand should keep farmgate prices high this year, especially for dairy, red meat and horticulture.

“The mood out there in the agri-food and fibre spaces is quite buoyant and I guess positive, and this is driven largely by above average farmgate pricing across the board really.”

However, Corkran said geopolitical risks could push farm inputs prices even higher this year, like further escalation in tensions involving key fertiliser producer Iran.

“Perhaps some softening in the later part of this year in terms of some of those farm input costs,” she said.

“But of course, some of these inputs are affected by some of the geopolitical situations globally, such as in the Middle East, in terms of the costs of some of the stuff we’re bringing into New Zealand.”

Iran was a major global exporter of urea in particular.

Corkran said urea and phosphate prices were already elevated for farmers – with urea highly volatile throughout last year, and possible further increases in the near-term.

“Certainly at times challenging around fertiliser prices, and we are expecting to see a bit of volatility continuing. It will be something we keep an eye on.”

She said fertiliser prices increased 8 percent for urea last year compared to the year prior, up 14 percent for phosphates and 22 percent for potash.

However she said with farmgate pricing for commodities well above five-year averages, this will help off-set rising costs.

Report co-author Emma Higgins said the “global chessboard” shifted again in 2025, with a steady tightening of trade blocs, industries policies and geopolitical manoeuvring.

“As we enter 2026, the pieces are still moving, and the pace hasn’t slowed,” Higgins said.

“Major economies are making assertive ‘opening moves’ on trade, technology and security, turning commerce into a tool of leverage more than cooperation.

“For New Zealand, this isn’t distant noise. It is the environment in which our farmers, processors and exporters must operate – in addition to usual supply and demand fundamentals.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The live animal export industry is still hopeful the practice will resume – despite not getting any material updates from the government since the middle of last year.

New Zealand used to export live cattle to China via sea to help it build its own dairy herd – but Labour banned the practice in 2023 due to animal welfare concerns.

ACT campaigned during the last election to reinstate live exports by sea and Cabinet has been working on the legislation ever since.

But Livestock Exports NZ chief executive Glen Neal said things have gone quiet.

“The uncertainty is not helpful for farmers in terms of planning, they’ve got to make decisions on a regular basis about the future of their farming operations.

“The non appearance of legislation to restore the trade is something that presents fewer options for farmers.”

The government has said it would only resume live exports by sea with a new gold standard for animal welfare but Labour has doubled down and said if it was elected it would enforce the ban.

With uncertainty, would the industry invest in gold standard ships for export? Neal thinks so.

“We think there is sufficient demand for protein in South East Asia – demand is growing all the time, we send really high value animals which are highly prized there.

“We’ve had a very successful trade with China for 20 years, we’ve sent hundreds of thousands of animals up there at a time when dairy demand was growing.

“So now we are looking at countries like Indonesia and others that want to have their own dairy production boosted by some great New Zealand bovine genetics.”

Neal said even if legislation is passed to reinstate exports, the industry needs a good six to 12 months to prepare – as decisions need to made at breeding time.

It’s clear the industry is frustrated by the lack of progress and there’s a lot of money at stake – in 2024 it spent $1 million on a lobbying campaign to persuade the government to restart the trade.

Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard acknowledged the development of the legislation had taken longer than planned.

“The government has always been clear that when the trade returned, it would be with the highest animal welfare standards, and we are still discussing what that looks like as a government.

“I know the livestock sector will be looking for certainty and as soon as I have something to announce, I’ll let them know.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Converting farmland to forestry in the sensitive Catlins area of the South Island has been an opportunity to set good standards, says the forest management company tasked with the project, Southern Forests.

The river which flows through parts of Wisp Hill Station forms the headwaters of the Catlins’ estuary.

The 5500 hectare property – once a sheep and beef farm – also borders the Catlins Forest Park which straddles Otago and Southland.

Ingka Investments purchased the property in 2021 and set about converting about 3300ha into commercial forestry, retiring the remainder of the land and leaving native vegetation to regenerate.

“It’s quite sensitive land, it’s got high biodiversity values, high conservation value,” explained Josh Cairns of Southern Forests from the peak of the property.

“It’s quite unique here on this Wisp Hill range where we’ve got alpine species that are commonly found in the Southern Alps that are at much higher altitudes, but they seem to do quite well down here.

“It’s also too high altitude to grow a production forest on, so it just made sense to retire it and look after it.”

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Planting started on a 330ha block of the most unproductive part of the farm in the very back corner while the transition was underway, with Ingka contracting Southern Forests crews to work their way towards the middle of the property.

Four years on, the first trees are now between 4.5 and 6 metres tall and will be ready for pruning early next year.

About 2975ha have been planted in Pinus Radiata, another 140ha in Pinus Attenuata hybrids, 95ha has gone into redwoods, 100ha mānuka and 70ha is in mixed natives. Another 2130ha have been retired or planted in natives along the riparian margins.

With all eyes on Ingka, converting farmland to forestry was an opportunity for the firm to set the standard, Cairns said.

“We pride ourselves in doing a high quality job and doing it properly, and you know we had those discussions with Ingka in the very early stages and said ‘no shortcuts’. Everyone’s going to be looking at us, seeing what we’re doing here.

“We’re in an area where it does have quite a lot of biodiversity value and conservation value, a lot of waterways that need managed, so we want to be seen to be doing the right thing.

“And from day one, they were 100 percent on board with that. [They] provided a lot of leadership, a lot of education, advice coming from Europe, where some of the environmental regulations are a lot more stringent than ours here.”

Ingka and Southern Forests have prioritised riparian and waterway management, with a secondary focus on looking after the native species which grow in those corridors.

“In this particular catchment, there’s about 40 hectares of natives planted on the riparian margins, with pine tree setbacks ranging from probably 40 metres to 150 metres off of the waterway.

“In the future, it makes life a lot easier. We’ll never really have to stress about how we get those trees out when we harvest it, because we don’t have to worry about what’s happening in the waterway.”

Another key focus – and part of the Overseas Investment Office requirements that allowed Ingka to purchase the property – has been ensuring public access.

Cairns said Ingka was keen to provide recreation opportunities for the local communities.

“We’ve got a really nice river here for fishing, good hunting opportunities.”

Access for hunters in particular helps with the local pest population, in particular the deer and pigs which live on bordering conservation land, which Cairns described as a “massive issue”.

“There’s one particular block we had to replant twice, 30 to 40ha, just through deer damage. It was just simply red deer coming out in that particular area and eating the trees.

“And at a cost of $2000-2500 a hectare to replant, well that buys you a lot of pest control.”

Since 2021, they have culled almost 8000 hares, rabbits and possums, over 1800 red deer and close to 570 pigs.

As the forestry block is Forest Stewardship Council-certified they do not use poisons.

Two full-time pest control contractors help keep pressure on the population, while still allowing for recreational hunting opportunities which have helped to bring the local community on board.

Other major challenges Cairns faced were the heated debate surrounding the afforestation of farmland and concerns it would be shut up for carbon sequestration.

“The biggest challenge here was trying to, and it still is, getting the point across that this is a timber production forest first and foremost. And, we back that up by our pruning, planting and the genetics we’ve planted and that sort of thing.

“It was one of those properties that’s iconic down here and [there was] a lot of emotion attached to it.”

Cairns, who is also a farmer himself, understood the tension.

He said the property is different from other more productive, large-scale properties that have been converted recently, although it did not have high staffing levels – just a farm manager, stock manager, shepherd and tractor driver, with the owners based elsewhere.

The conversion to forestry has created new jobs for not only his team, but also forestry contractors, a local agricultural contractor and agricultural pilot.

Ingka ‘here for the long term’

Ingka’s forestland country manager Kelvin Meredith said New Zealand was identified as a key area for the company to develop a forestry portfolio early on, about the same time plans were developed for its first store in the country which opened in December last year.

“We all thought that IKEA was going to get here before forestry, but as it turned out, forestry was first sort of cab off the ranks.”

Meredith told Country Life timber was essential to IKEA – not only was it used in its supply chain, but it was also a great investment.

“It’s got nice, stable, steady returns, and you know, you can actually get some good environmental improvement by purchasing forests.”

At the time of the Wisp Hill purchase, Ingka’s first in New Zealand, a number of farms were being bought up by other companies for carbon sinks.

Meredith said it would have been easier for Ingka without the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which drove up prices for such properties as demand for carbon credits increased.

About 8000ha of the 41,000ha Ingka owns in the country have been registered with the ETS to “preserve the value of the land”, including some forestry blocks which had been registered prior to purchase.

He hoped to see all the land that had been planted eventually registered.

“We have no intention of being carbon traders. We don’t want the cash for the business.

“Long term, we might look at selling some credits for biodiversity projects, but there’s been no decision made yet.”

Meredith told Country Life converting farmland to forestry had allowed Ingka to set the forests up in alignment with its values – larger set asides, big riparian margins, experimentation with different species, including natives for long-term restoration projects.

“It’s been quite beneficial to do that, although it has raised a few eyebrows because we have bought quite a bit of farmland, but not all of it is high-quality farmland. A fair chunk of that, we’ve subdivided off and sold to the neighbour. Wisp was a classic example – 300ha there sold to a neighbouring farm.”

Eventually he hoped to see some of the timber processed here in New Zealand, although he acknowledged there were a number of challenges facing the industry.

“We’re here for the long term.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

When Lew Pickens was 18, he had calluses on his hands like a 50-year-old and he was proud of them.

Now 83, he looks back happily on his days clearing bush and planting paddocks by hand north of Whangārei, hunting and driving bullocks in his spare time.

“I think of myself as much as a bushman or a hunter, as I do a farmer, really. Those bush skills allowed me to catch eels, catch goats.

“I can suss nature out pretty good.”

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Pickens sits on a chair by the camp oven in the corner of the woolshed showing how bushmen cooked in the old days.

The walking stick he holds, made of supple and strong tanekaha, is twisted at the top.

He knotted it while it was still a sapling in the bush.

“I can remember Dad tying one and saying to me, if you do that and pick that stick up when you’re an old man, you’ll have a walking stick.”

Around him on the walls, tables and shelves are old tools, photos, hunting paraphernalia and other reminders of life in the bush.

“This is mainly bush gear, old farm gear, my grandfather’s old forge here, horse collars, nine-foot kauri drag up there, and old chainsaws.”

The woolshed on the Waimiha property run by his cattle farmer son Craig no longer rings to the sound of shearing blades.

It’s mainly a place for Pickens and his family to enjoy old traditions and pass them on.

“It’s stuff that I’ve been around my whole life,” Craig said.

“I’ve kicked my toes on it in the shed. I’ve shifted it. Don’t know how many times I’ve played with stuff, and now you see it all out.

“It’s been a part of my life.”

The elder Pickens lights a fire on the camp oven to show how bush tucker was cooked up in the old days when gangs of men would haul out native timber using bullock teams and send them on rafts down to Auckland.

“Until probably about 1900 most, a lot of people just had camp ovens. What’s here is a typical old bush camp chimney. It would have been wider in the bush camp.”

With his stick, he points out bullock horns on the wall, polished and mounted.

“Up to 1900 there would have been hundreds of teams around about, especially up north with the kauri. And that’s a set of horns, a good set of horns, off one of Dad’s bullocks.”

Pickens has plenty of stories to tell. The family would like them recorded as they are aware the old ways might be forgotten, like the trick of putting a bell around a bullock when it was put out to feed at night, with animal fat placed in its ear.

“A cunning old bullock, he’d know, and he’d rest his bell in the punga, and so didn’t make any sound but the old bullockie was a bit cunning. He put a bit of animal fat in one ear, and with the daylight coming, the flies started floating around. He’d start shaking his head.”

The bell would tinkle and the bullockies would hitch up the cattle beasts for another day’s work in the bush.

Pickens would make good money as a younger man hunting eels and goats, and he was less of a farmer than a developer of the land, he said. Much of the work was done by hand.

“I love developing country, putting fences up, putting them into grass, cutting bush, and yeah, that was my strength.”

“Those days, you sowed your seed by hand. You made a sowing bag, around your stomach, and carried your bags up the hill.”

Pickens is less mobile these days, struck by diabetes, but he treats it like any other challenge he’s faced in the bush.

“I’ve been able to put up with that no sweat, really.”

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