The Country - Harvest edition

Today on The Country, Jamie Mackay spoke to Sank Macfarlane, who has started harvesting at New Zealand's largest commercial medical cannabis crop on his Winterborn farm on the coast of Kēkerengū.

On with the show:

Pita Alexander:

The Christchurch farm accountant went back in time to 1991 to compare the fortunes of sheep and beef farmers in the intervening 30 years. Plus, we looked at the relative returns from dairy, horticulture, forestry and sheep/beef.

Sank McFarlane:

We talked to one of the brothers (the other, Winston, was a Team NZ grinder in 2003 and 2007) about the harvest of New Zealand's biggest medical cannabis crop (10 hectares) in Kēkerengu, halfway between Kaikōura and Blenheim.

Kieran McAnulty/Penny Simmonds:

Today's political panel pit Labour against National, North against South and male against female as the MPs for Wairarapa and Invercargill squared off.

Nathan Penny:

Westpac's Rural Economist said the next 12 months for agriculture were looking particularly positive, as the vaccine rollout was starting to pay dividends in some of our key markets.

Listen below: