All commercial users of water should face a charge, writes Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons. This would acknowledge public ownership of the rivers and create funds to invest in repairing them.

"Somehow he got flattened." The wife of a Tihoi farmer who suffered "bumps and bruises" after being sat on by a cow is still unsure how the accident happened.

A farmer who was seriously injured when a cow kicked him and sat on him near Taupo is now in a stable condition.

A farmer has been seriously injured by a cow near Taupo.

Three banks facing potential legal action from the competition watchdog over their sale of interest rate swap contracts to farmers say they will continue to co-operate with the commission.

A private member's bill put forward by Labour MP Phil Goff would require foreign buyers of farmland to demonstrate their investment would benefit the economy more than a NZ buyer.

Many city-dwellers may still peg rural women as domestic types, but modern farming women are on the land or in the office, running big businesses and driving the exports that are the backbone of NZ's economy.

Italy's Barilla family, founders of the world's largest pasta company, have paid $25m to buy a South Island dairy farm from Federated Farmers chairman Willy Leferink and his wife.

Australia's largest dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn (MG) looks set to follow Fonterra in adopting a specialised financial instrument to expand its capital base while retaining exclusive farmer ownership and control.

For a split second, Catlins farmer Brian Lemm felt his life hanging in the balance. Standing in the middle of a paddock, he froze as a spotlight stopped on him.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the company is "eight to 10 years" behind other dairy players overseas when it comes to sustainability.

People who farm unusual breeds tell Dionne Christian why they find it so appealing.

Sam Judd writes that perhaps the biggest environmental problem we currently face is the contamination of our waterways by nutrients.

A mild winter and a favourable spring have boosted confidence in the New Zealand beef industry after last summer's challenging drought, says Rabobank.

South Island iwi Ngai Tahu almost doubled bottom-line profit from $68.9 million to $121.7 million after a sharemarket surge and farm revaluations.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials have approved an incursion programme in mid-Canterbury following a spillage of one of Europe's most invasive arable weeds - black grass - found in a consignment of imported fescue seed.

Spreading effluent on dairy farms is set to become a lot more high-tech thanks to smartphone-based technology now available for New Zealand farmers.

North American investors are understood to have paid around $30 million for one of New Zealand's biggest farms.

'I've got bruises like tyre marks up my leg," says Guy Speedy, vibrant and laughing just two days after being run over by his own tractor.