REX

Ollie Batelier-Belton founded Carbon Forest Services in 2013…  The vision of the business, based in Wellington, is to be the leading advocate of forests as a force for good, and a fit-for-purpose emissions trading scheme.  Ollie’s certainly been very busy over the years advising farmers, iwi groups and not-for-profit groups, on carbon forestry. 

Gray and Robyn Pannett are Polled Hereford breeders at Limehills, a 4000-hectare property in Roxburgh, Central Otago.  It runs up to 900 metres, so a fairly tough environment to farm.  Gray is also the President of NZ Herefords and, in this role, travelled to Europe last year to judge and attend the European Hereford conference.

Ben Todhunter has quite a few pots on the boil - he and his wife Donna farm 1,900 hectares on the south side of the Rakaia River, including running a Cleardale SX Fine Wool stud and an Angus stud.  Ben is a director of the NZ Merino Company and StockX Ltd…  He’s been on a trip to the US recently, visiting Angus studs and cattle ranches, on the hunt for genetics suitable for use back in NZ.

Richard Dawkins is a farmer who is perhaps best known for developing an indoor-lambing system, at his home farm The Pyramid.  When he’s not being a mid-wife to 100s of lambs going through the lambing shed, he grows out and leases Jersey bulls.  He and his wife Jess, together with his parents Chris and Julia, won the Marlborough Sheep & Beef Farmer of the Year, back in 2021. He’s currently vice...

On the show today: Dr Tim Chambers: Department of Public Health, University of Otago Shane Bird: Former Farmer turned Lifecoach And Hamish McKay on the weekend of sport ahead.  

David Burge, DairyNZ's Sustainable Dairy GM & Anna Fisher from Silverstream Farm are on REX Today with Dom George.

WeatherWatchNZ's Phil Duncan and Owner of Canterbury Woodchips Brad Coleman make up today's edition of REX Today.

On todays show: Craig Wiggy Wiggins and Dairy Women's Network CEO Jules Benton 

Continuing with our Best Of from REX so far this year, and of course, there was some heavy lifting to be done in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle…  Somebody who had the machinery to undertake that heavy lifting is Mark Law, who operates Whakatane-based Kahu helicopters, and flies the country's only Blackhawk helicopter…  He was at the coalface in the wake of the devastation, and we cau...

For another Best Of segment on our Easter Sunday special, and one of the country’s most prominent artists has joined a battle to protect Central Otago from pine trees…  Sir Grahame Sydney is one of 37 people or organisations who submitted against the proposal to plant 66 hectares of pine trees for carbon on Lammermoor Station…  He joined us on REX to talk about his involvement back in early Februa...

For another Best Of segment on our Easter Sunday special, and one of the country’s most prominent artists has joined a battle to protect Central Otago from pine trees…  Sir Grahame Sydney is one of 37 people or organisations who submitted against the proposal to plant 66 hectares of pine trees for carbon on Lammermoor Station…  He joined us on REX to talk about his involvement back in early Februa...

Our final ‘Best Of’ interview for our Easter Sunday Special is Harriet Bremner; author, speaker, Southland farmer and advocate for health, safety and wellbeing in agriculture…  She added to that list last month, winning the 2023 Zanda McDonald Award