A harvest from the garden. What began as a small project has become a steady source of food and flowers. There is something quietly powerful about turning a patch of lawn into something that feeds you. Not in a grand, self-sufficient, off-grid kind of way. Just a few raised beds. A handful of herbs. A couple of rows of vegetables. Enough to change how you cook, how you shop, and how you think about food. That is exactly what Holly van Dam has done. Through her growing online

Marty (left) and Ollie Ashby, balancing experience with new approaches as the farm transitions through succession. Marty and Jo Ashby have been farming at Alkington, just out of Fernside, long enough to see the industry change more than once. What sits there now, a 172-hectare milking platform running around 600 cows, didn’t start out that way. Like much of North Canterbury, the turning point came with water. “When irrigation came in through Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd, that w

For Luke and Nicole Kane, entering the Ballance Farm Environment Awards was as much about taking stock of their business as it was about recognition. “Coming off the back of doing the Rabobank Executive Development Programme, we kind of thought we might have our ducks in a row better than we thought,” Luke Kane said. “So, we thought, let’s give it a go.” For Kane, who is also Otago provincial president of Federated Farmers, the process was a chance to step back and take a clo

Ignacio Perez, herd manager at Mount Rivers, with his partner Yanina Ferro. With cattle moving taken care of, they get to see a lot more of each other at home. From Ashburton New Zealand, all the way to Osorno Chile: herding cows via satellite from 12,000 km away. In Valetta, near Mayfield, Mount Rivers is the latest in a growing community of Kiwi farms to adopt an innovative approach to farming, connecting family and technology, and stretching all the way from rural New Zeal

Scott and Stacey Mackereth were named the 2026 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year at the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards in Rotorua. Supplied. Southland couple Scott and Stacey Mackereth say people, relationships and creating opportunities for others have been central to their success after being named the 2026 New Zealand Share Farmers of the Year. The couple took out the national title at the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards in Rotorua on May 9, alongside three merit

Hinehou Timutimu was named the 2026 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year at the Dairy Women’s Network conference gala dinner in Christchurch. The Bay of Plenty leader says she hopes the award helps create pathways for other women in the sector. Photo Supplied. Bay of Plenty leader Hinehou Timutimu says if her win as the 2026 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year inspires even one other woman to step forward, it will have been worth it. “If I can just inspire one person, that would be

A Mid Canterbury dairy farmer has been named a finalist in a national award recognising grassroots leadership across the sector. Ashleigh Gordon, of Valetta, is one of two finalists in the 2026 Regional Leader of the Year Award, presented by Dairy Women’s Network (DWN). The winner will be announced at the gala dinner during the organisation’s annual conference on May 5 in Christchurch. DWN chief executive Jules Benton said the finalists reflected the importance of leadership

“We’re just getting back into equilibrium,” says dairy farmer Mark Cressey. Kiwi dairy farmers have received one of the largest cash injections in the history of the industry, but for Cressey, the payout is more about restoration than gain. Fonterra’s recent sale of its consumer brands, to French dairy giant Lactalis, has returned $3.2 billion to New Zealand farms. Cressy, a Methven local, told the Guardian that the payout is “better described as a return of capital than a fi