The Country - Tornado edition

Today The Country looks into the wild weather battering New Zealand and catch up with a farmer who has had his farm devastated by a tornado!

On with the show:

Craig Hammersley:

We catch up with a Coastal Taranaki dairy farmer who reports his farm has been battered by a tornado!

Sir Brian Lochore:

We catch up with our Roving North Island Farming Ambassador in Nelson where he reflects, 50 years on, on the Wahine storm and the passing of his 1968 All Blacks mate Fergie McCormick.

Damien O'Connor:

The Minister for Agriculture updates the infected M. bovis farm count and defends the Labour coalition government's stance on large scale irrigation schemes.

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth:

The former chief scientist for the Environmental Protection Authority takes issue with Greenpeace for wanting to halve dairy and beef consumption by 2050 and at the government for no longer funding large-scale irrigation schemes.

Jane Smith and Chelsea Millar:

Today's panel features a former winner of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and social media expert who's taken time out of a Young Farmers' board meeting to talk to us.

Listen below: