Rewriting the convention on what yield at harvest time means.

On Friday 28th August, I 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 a Shire and a Clydesdale to pull a specially designed brush harvester. Using horses significantly reduces emissions and disturbance while helping to protect the soil structure of the meadow. More importantly the harvester’s unique brush mechanism is powered simply by the turning of its wheels as the horses pull it. It gently caresses the ripe seed heads into the hopper while insects and other creatures 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 which rewrites the rule books about what constitutes a good yield. Traditionally, yield is calculated on weight and cost. calculate yield based on weight, the number of flower species, and the volume and variety of insect life I observe in the hopper.

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 heads. With conventional machine harvesting, these tiny inhabitants would be caught up in the powerful airflow and mechanical action of the machinery. They would be killed. The brush harvester gives them a chance to escape.

Traceability

And there is another important benefit to this method: traceability. The seeds collected from these individual meadows will be kept separate, allowing Natural Shoots to create fully traceable native wildflower seed products right down to precise what3words location of each site. A percentage of the seed will be used for habitat recovery and biodiversity expansion work in Berkshire and the majority of it 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 and Clydesdale horses proved to be as popular with people as they were gentle with the meadow. Visitors travelled from across the UK 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 as conservation.