Country-Wide is New Zealand’s only dedicated pastoral and arable farming magazine. It is a trusted farm management publication, delivering content on red meat, wool and arable farming topics.
Each issue gives independent, credible and often exclusive information to help them run your farm businesses better.
Episode 51 – Shutting the paddock gate to cut costs
Deferred grazing could be a great option for your farm, to reduce costs, and improve soil health, with environmental benefits too, and could be as simple as shutting the paddock gate. In this episode, hear from Waikato farmer Bill Garland, who has implemented this practice on his farm, and AgResearch’s Dr Katherine Tozer, the scientist behind the research into deferred grazing. We also hear from Property Brokers General Manager Rural, Conrad Wilkshire, about what changing land use regulations could mean for the rural property market going into 2025.
Predator Free 2050 – fantasy or reality?
Predator Free 2050 is an ambitious goal for New Zealand to achieve in just 25 years. As part of the Lincoln University Excellence Series, Professor James Ross shared his insights on predator free by 2050 – is it merely a fantasy or could this become our reality? Words Rebecca Greaves.
Farming for the future
With an eye to the future, North Canterbury farmers Jock and Pip Foster see NZ Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) Plus accreditation as an opportunity to access markets and generate a premium for what they produce. Words SandRa Taylor, Photos Kelly Shakespeare.
Enhancing the environment with dung beetles
Are dung beetles your new farm worker? Working round the clock, and paid in dung, dung beetles could be a valuable addition to the toolbox when it comes to improving soil health and water quality on our farms. Words Rebecca Greaves
A wild weed
The rural community are great at stepping up, helping out beyond their farm gate. These five legends are tackling arguably New Zealand’s biggest weed problem – wilding conifers. While some of us throw our hands in the air and call defeat, these farmers, foresters and fighters have taken on the problem and made it their own. As Ket Bradshaw puts it, together we can make a first step on something that is daunting. Words Jo Grigg.
Burps & Bluster
Are farmers doing enough on methane? Methane from Kiwi farms accounts for more than a third of the country’s greenhouse emissions. But exactly how this gas contributes to global warming and to what extent it should reduce is complex. As our methane targets look set to be overhauled, George Driver investigates how the gas heats the planet and how low our emissions should go. Words George Driver.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand Award Winners 2024
The winners in the 2024 Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) Awards were announced at a gala dinner at Claudelands Event Centre in Hamilton on 10 October.
During the evening, which celebrated the depth of the talent within this country’s red meat industry, the winners of the eight Award categories and B+LNZ Regional Leadership Award were announced.
On the lookout for Listeria
Listeria can present in a number of different ways and one common source of listeria infection in sheep is from feeding silage that hasn’t been well preserved. Vet Sara Sutherland outlines the different symptoms and treatments for listeria, and the importance of involving your vet early.
Collaboration key in sheep industry
Wellington sheep and beef farmer Hamish Best represented New Zealand in the 2024 Global Sheep Forum Next Generation programme earlier this year. Collaboration between countries was a major theme of the forum. Words Hamish Best.
Turning around triple drench resistance
When testing revealed triple drench resistance, station manager Charles Yule knew he had to consider changes to the property’s management strategy.
Words Tony Leggett, Photos John Cowpland, Alphapix Photography.
Reflections of a travelling Kiwi
Roger Barton, Carterton, Wairarapa, with his wife Barbie, farms a glorified lifestyle block (480ha total) amongst the rocks at Woodside, west of Greytown. They have four adult children, two of which are farming on their own blocks.
In search of unlikely heroes
Gavin Tait is a cattle fertility vet who also runs a beef and sheep farm in the Eastern Scottish Borders, United Kingdom, with his wife Julia and sons Archie, 7, and Rory, 6.
The battle scars of farming
Charlotte Rietveld manages Middle Rock, the family’s intergenerational sheep farm in mid-Canterbury’s Rakaia Gorge, where she lives with husband Vince and their three young children
The park project
Jarrod and Danielle Hawkins farm east of Otorohanga, running sheep, beef and dairy grazers on 350 hectares (total farm area is 450ha, with 100ha in bush). Jarrod does most of the useful farming; Danielle works part-time as a vet, organises children, writes novels and helps out from time to time.
“Greenie” at heart
Sandra Matthews, Rere, Gisborne, sheep and beef farmer, and winner of the FMG Rural Champion award at the 2022 B+LNZ Awards.
Capturing deforestation data
The deadline for the European Union deforestation law has been delayed by 12 months, but New Zealand will still need to prove that a number of commodities, including beef, have not been produced on land deforested after 2020. One Kiwi company may have a tech solution to help us map our progress. Words Rebecca Greaves.
Investing off-farm seeking advice
Words Angus Marks & Andrew Austin, Wealth Management, Jarden Wealth.
Rural insurance market insights
An online survey of 518 people was conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 with those who work or live on farms to understand their insurance needs, perceptions and behaviours.
Insurance premiums surge as global risk rises and inflation bites
No farm business would have missed the significant increase in the cost of insurance in the past year. Tony Leggett investigates what’s behind the increase and the options for reducing the cost in the future.
When the going gets tough
Sheep and beef farmers are weathering a difficult season so we spoke to industry professionals about their advice for getting through tough times. Words Sandra Taylor.
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Woolsheds
An extract from a new book by Dr. Annette O'Sullivan, from Massey University School of Design and renowned New Zealand photographer Jane Ussher that records the impact of the 180-year-old wool industry from iconic historic shearing sheds of Aotearoa New Zealand. Words Annette O’Sullivan, Photos Jane Ussher.
Two new sub-clover varieties
Farmers who love annual clovers can try out two more varieties from autumn 2026 tested on the Canterbury Plains as well as in Perth and eastern Australia. Words Joanna Grigg.
Lice infestation no longer at Awapiri
At their wits' end after years of failed pour-on treatments and plunge dipping, the innovation of MSD Animal Health’s Flexolt is being praised as a game-changer by Marlborough farmers, Eric and Sally Smith, as they use the first ever oral lice treatment for sheep. Words Sarah Perriam-Lampp.
Farmer-led focus group tackling drench resistance
Drench resistance has been a ticking time bomb for a while. North Canterbury veterinarian Erin Riley first saw the signs of it in the UK before she moved to New Zealand, but was confident that the evolution f combination drenches would buy enough time - she was wrong. Words Sarah Perriam-Lampp.
Proud as punch of the TotoPunch
The breakthrough of low-cost DNA parentage data across commercial flocks is here thanks to some Kiwi No. 8 wire innovation, based on modified fencing pliers and designed by a geneticist who grew up with Merino. Words Sarah Perriam-Lampp, Photo Sharron Bennett.
