farming

blogposts

Tailing, Okuku Pass. New Zealand

November 2009 - After a year in the delightful Emerald Isle, aka Ireland, it was still a true pleasure to get back to the mountains of New Zealand. A week tailing up in the Okuku Pass in North Canterbury was perfect training terrain for my three-year-old mare Zula,...

Pregnancy testing, Prairie, Queensland. AUSTRALIA

August 2016 - "Why don't you go and lie on a beach like a normal person for your two week annual leave holiday?!" Mothers are so honest aren't they?! Well, it was my ideal idea of a two week holiday - taking off to inland Queensland to learn all about pregnancy...

published articles

IKEA Shifting Into Carbon Forestry? New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, May 2022The company behind multi-national furniture and home accessories brand IKEA claims its purchase of a large Southland farm is for production forestry, not carbon farming, Annabelle Latz reports. An international company which recently...

Constantly making it better, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, August 2022A focus on bull beef following years of drought has worked for a North Canterbury couple. Story and photos by Annabelle Latz. Drought recovery brought a change in direction for North Canterbury farmers Nic and Andy Fairbain. Farmers...

Disappointingly unconvincing, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, April 2022He Waka roadshow feedback, Balcairn, North Canterbury. By Annabelle Latz. Winton Dalley, a sheep farmer from Hawarden, read the executive summary and attended the public meeting in February. Dalley said the presentation of the two He...

The tree planting gamble, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, August 2022Planting 10% of a farm in trees has extra benefits with little loss of production. Annabelle Latz reports. Retiring livestock farming on a small portion of a North Canterbury hill farm and putting it into trees would result in very...

Carbon Mining Exposed, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, March 2022.A Southland farmer has stripped off in protest at policies encouraging carbon farming, Annabelle Latz writes. Photos by Chris Sullivan. Once you plant an entire farm in trees as a carbon farm, that’s the farmland gone, forever. The...

Beating the footrot curse, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, March 2022.Apparently, a few decades ago you’d need your temperature taken if you were thinking of farming Merinos in the North Canterbury high country. With an annual rainfall of 1100mm and clay-based soil, out the back of Culverden...

Debt repayment focus pays off, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, March 2022. A family succession plan has seen a young couple establish their own farming operation in North Canterbury. Farm succession can be a great thing if it’s talked about openly and honestly. This approach has seen Jim Burrows and Kim...

Running for their future, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, February 2022. Long-distance running for charity has been a big boost for two young North Canterbury men, Annabelle Latz writes. The love for the rural sector will always be there for Ben O’Carroll and George Black. These two youngsters know its...

Success down to Kiwi attitude, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, July 2021. Coming from a farming background, TB testing seemed a logical career move for Mel Brooker. It was back in 2014 and Mel had recently moved to Oxford, North Canterbury, from Hawarden. A change in personal circumstances meant she had to...

Pet mob turn to Pied Piper mode, New Zealand

The Merino Review, December 2021. ANNABELLE LATZ IT WAS FRIDAY JULY 16 WHEN Hayley Pitts of Mount Gladstone up the Awatere Valley in Marlborough was at the Howl of a Protest in Blenheim. She knew the weather was turning so as the afternoon rolled on, she decided to...

Sustainable half century, New Zealand

The Merino Review, December 2021. ANNABELLE LATZ IT’S OCTOBER 2021 AT MULLER Station up the Awatere Valley where shearing has just finished, they’re into their first week of lambing, and the grass has just started to grow. Back in April up the Acheron Valley, Muller...

Pushing for what he believed in, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, June 2021. ANNABELLE LATZ Farmers used to lose entire herds to TB in New Zealand. This is one recollection Rob Corboy has of his 47 year career in the TB game. He has recently hung up his syringe, and has plenty of stories to tell. From his...

Station beefs up on Science, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, June 2021. A river running through Mt Algidus Station is just one of the challenges faced by station managers Peter and Christine Angland. Story and photos by Annabelle Latz. It is unruly and has no manners at all. Life at Mt Algidus Station is...

Appreciating it all, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, August 2021. Words and pictures by Annabelle Latz The Satterthwaites of Marlborough recently mustered their Merino flock together for the first time as a family. This year’s autumn muster was one for the history books for the Satterthwaite...

Becoming a practical Kiwi, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, November 2021. Alternating artificial insemination with veterinary nursing keeps Scottish migrant Kim Armstrong busy. Words and photos by Annabelle Latz. IT’S A LITTLE BIT OF THE SURVIVAL of the fittest in New Zealand when it comes to breeding...

Keeping the working dogs naturally cosy, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, April 2021.BY ANNABELLE LATZ It was mid June 2020, sleet was falling, and Billy Dowle looked out the window from his cottage in Scargill, North Canterbury to see his mainstay Huntaway, Earl, sleeping in his dugout next to his kennel, rather than...

One Step At A Time, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, April 2021. Andrew and Penny Zuppicich took on a run down sheep and beef farm called Kilmarnock in Hurunui, North Canterbury last year. Annabelle Latz spoke with the couple to find out how they bought Kilmarnock and their plans to bring the farm...

Vet Farmer and Athlete, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, April 2021. Taihape vet, farmer and family man Anthony Oswald finds adventure racing takes his mind off the everyday as well as being good fun. Annabelle Latz tracked him down to find out more. Multi day adventure racing means entirely removing...

Time to celebrate the role our primary industries play, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, February 2021. By Annabelle Latz Let’s sing the praises of the skills and value of our primary industries, as we do for our New Zealand sports teams. This is the vision of farm environment consultant Rebecca Hyde, who operates under her own...

Social Media Highlights Rural Life, New Zealand.

Country Wide Magazine, January 2021. By Annabelle Latz Social media is loved and loathed, often simultaneously. While Instagram is chock-a-block full of everything from stunning landscapes, gym selfies and downward dog yoga poses, fabulous animal photos and warm...

Hooked on Dog Trialing. New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, January 2021. A North Canterbury dog trialist is the latest in three generations in the sport. Annabelle Latz reports. Nicky Thompson uses her grandad Lou’s dog trialing stick, it’s a curly tea tree stick which once had a vine growing up it....

Screaming out for strong marketing, New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, November 2020. Marketing, targets and research is what the New Zealand strong wool industry needs for it to become the fibre of choice, rather than synthetics. Rick Orr of Red Oak Stud says this has been the industry’s downfall. “The biggest...

Strong wool, tide may be turning. New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, November 2020. North Canterbury farmer Chris Earle is among those seeking a better future for strong wool. Annabelle Latz reports. Thumbing through the old wool prices on the family farm in North Canterbury, Chris Earl sees that in the...

A hiss, not a roar. New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, August 2020.The Covid-19 lockdown has kept international hunters at home and meant a very lean season for their NZ guides, as Annabelle Latz reports. The stags were roaring, yet not a hunter was to be seen. Owing to Covid-19 lockdown rules there...

M Bovis – Seeking accountability, not sympathy. New Zealand

Country Wide Magazine, August 2020.North Canterbury beef farmers Stu Loe and Andy Gardner are not seeking sympathy, but they do want to highlight the inadequacies around the Mycoplasma bovis testing systems. Stu farms beef and dairy beef heifers and steers, Andy...