Golf and Shire Horses makes Harvest Day 2026 one to remember.

On Friday 28th August, the Natural Shoots team completed this year’s wildflower seed harvest at Winter Hill Golf Club, together with two meadow areas managed by the National Trust Cliveden and a local nature preservation charity WildCookham.

But this wasn’t a conventional harvest. Instead of using heavy, diesel-powered machinery, I used magnificent Shire horses to pull a specially designed brush harvester.

Why horses? Because sometimes the old ways offer a better way forward.

Using horses significantly reduces emissions and disturbance while helping to protect the soil structure of the meadow. More importantly, it allows pollinators and invertebrates to remain undisturbed. The harvester’s unique brush mechanism is powered simply by the turning of its wheels as the horses pull it. It gently brushes ripe seed heads into the hopper while insects and other creatures can fly, crawl or walk away unharmed.

The unripe seed heads remain in the meadow to mature naturally, helping to maintain and enhance the habitat. It is a simple combination of traditional horsepower and modern engineering.

Harvest reveals life in the meadow

The results were remarkable. When the hopper was emptied, countless grasshoppers, shield bugs, spiders, earwigs, moths and ants were among the harvested seed. With conventional machine harvesting, many of these tiny inhabitants could be caught up in the powerful airflow and mechanical action of the machinery. The brush harvester gives them a chance to escape.

Circularity

And there is another important benefit: traceability. The seed collected from these individual meadows can be kept separate, allowing Natural Shoots to create fully traceable native wildflower seed products right down to precise what3words locations.

The harvested seed will eventually be presented in Natural Shoots’ distinctive upcycled shotgun cases, giving discarded paper and plastic cases a new purpose rather than sending them to landfill or incineration.

A harvest for everyone

The Shire horses proved to be as popular with people as they were gentle with the meadow.

Visitors travelled from across the region to watch the harvest, while families and children were able to get close to the horses and discover the extraordinary variety of insects living amongst the wildflowers. The afternoon’s activity centred around The White Oak pub, which hosted two popular “Meet the Shires” events between harvesting sessions. With plenty of refreshments enjoyed by residents and visitors, the day became as much a community event as a conservation project.