Farm - The Spirit of Rural New Zealand

Random House New Zealand, Auckland, 2006, 288 pages. Good secondhand condition.

A contemporary, lyrical, fresh and innovative look at where farming is now, this book features engaging text and utterly magnificent, almost epic, photo spreads by one of the country's leading photographers. On their journey through New Zealand, Vaughan Yarwood and Arno Gasteiger spent time with farming families who cover the range from Waikato dairying to Canterbury cropping to Southland sheep farming. Between them all they discuss all the issues that preoccupy New Zealand farmers today: innovation, productivity, export, conservation, succession, science, efficiency, rural land access and more. A fascinating group of people, their farming experiences range from Erewhon station, which still uses Clydesdales and drays to get to back country musters, to young farmers who are both keen conservationists but also driven by scientific rigour as they seek efficiencies. The book is threaded through with references to how far farming has come and the sweep of farming history, and talks to farmers as much as it does to townies. Our heartland has never looked more magnificent than it does in this book, which is full of glorious landscapes but also the portraits of the remarkable men and women who farm this land.