Primary Matters

When a snake’s found curled up in a container of imported washing machines, who are you going to call? Zoran Sinovcic is a trained Ministry for Primary Industries snake handler. He travels with snake-catching equipment and a snake-bite first-aid kit in his car. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 6: If the NRL doesn’t beckon, AJ Ulugia wants to work in horticulture. He’s one of 30 students taking part in the new Akongoue programme designed to inspire Pasifika school leavers to take up careers in the sector. The students are being snapped up by local businesses and AJ found a summer job packing vegetables. He’s looking to apply for a scholarship to study horticulture at un...

Episode 5: Eighteen-year-old Olive Williams can’t wait to learn how to operate huge, million-dollar, mechanical, tree felling machines. She left school early, not knowing what she wanted to do, but stumbled across the Generation programme that gives an introduction to the Forest and Wood industry. Olive’s currently a quality controller for a forest harvesting company. In this Primary Matters serie...

The glowing sunrises and working besides dolphins pods alone would be worth getting up for every day but oyster farmer Jacob Thompson also gets a work-out on the job – and he’s paid for it. In this Primary Matters series we’re meeting people who are pulling on a pair of boots to kick-start a career in the primary industries Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When he was a small child Mat Peart would stand in the paddock next to his house in the hope any tractor working there would stop and take him for a ride. Today it’s Mat behind the wheel. The young rural contractor can sometimes be found, long after the work day is done, surveying paddocks he planted weeks before. He says its hugely rewarding to be part of the food production cycle. Hosted on Acas...

Even on a miserable day, getting out of bed is no problem for shepherd Ella Eades. She loves the variety of work and spending her days outside but, without a doubt, the best part of the job is working with her sometimes overly enthusiastic trio of young dogs, Chip, May and Bess. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 1: Edward Roskam used to bike 15 kms home from school rather than take the bus, so he’d be able to get out onto the farm earlier. The top student shocked his teachers by leaving school early to pursue a career as a dairy farmer. In this Primary Matters series we’re meeting people who are pulling on a pair of boots to kick-start a career in the primary industries.   Hosted on...

Welcome to Primary Matters – a podcast that tells the stories that matter to New Zealand’s primary industries. Hear what’s being done to keep our food and fibre sectors growing and safe, and meet the people at the heart of them. This podcast is brought to you by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.