CHRISTCHURCH COUNTRY FEEDBACK
Raised in a sixth-generation farming family, Sarah Perriam worked for years in traditional rural broadcasting. But in the first Covid lockdown, she struck out on her own with a podcast called Sarah’s Country. She now produces short seasons of daily podcasts and a weekly show in which she chats to experts about some of farming’s most controversial issues. I spoke to her about her efforts to push for progressive thinking around modern farming problems, like climate change and freshwater quality, and whether farmers are up for the challenge.
How did Sarah’s Country come about?
I grew up on a high-country sheep farm near Cromwell, and our extended family farmed Bendigo Station, where Shrek the Sheep was found. I’ve been self-employed in rural production since I was 24, and for part of that I was a co-host. Farmers are hungry for knowledge, because they need to know so many things on the farm. Imagine that you’re working with a living biological system — soil, plants, animals, plus weather and markets — none of which are predictable. You need a huge amount of scientific knowledge just to understand what’s going on. Farmers love podcasts because they spend a lot of time in trucks and tractors and can listen when they have the time, often to niche content that you wouldn’t get on the radio.
