Alan Sharp spots something from yesteryear when driving down Telephone Rd recently. There, in a road-side paddock, I saw something of our past, that was essential for converting our shallow peat land into good manageable pasture land, but rarely seen today. One hundred years ago it was a very onerous task.

Alan Sharp goes up north to visit former Gordonton farmers Luke and Helen Ballard and reports back on the effects of the drought. Fortunately as I write this, the autumn rains have finally arrived, and most farming regions have experienced a week (April 14 – 21) of good ground soaking rain. But that was not

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Gordonton’s Alan Sharp is on a mission. He’s trying to help Alex Glennie of Invercargill find information about his forebears. For a few years during World War I and shortly thereafter they farmed at Rototuna.  Unfortunately, the effects of the war and the demands of turning the Waikato’s timbered bogs into grass proved too much,

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All this talk of Calf Club Days from years gone by has caused Gordonton resident Alan Sharp to send in the above photo, taken in 1951.  He wants to know if anyone recognises the cup – probably from Gordonton School – and if it still exists.  He wonders who has the honour of being the

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Gordonton farmer Alan Sharp looks back at how cowsheds in New Zealand have developed over the last century. His father Ron developed what today is recognised as the first herringbone cowshed. Today our local dairy farmers are spoilt for choice, as nearly all of the world’s top dairy designs and machinery are being manufactured and

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