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Story: Farm families

Angry farmers

Video file

These Manawatū farmers are protesting the forced auction of a farm in the Rangitīkei in February 1987. They were frustrated at low returns and high costs, and the end of government subsidies after 1984, which forced some farmers to sell up their land.

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TVNZ Television New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, Farm families – A new world, 1970 onwards, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/19841/angry-farmers (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, published 1 March 2009.