Farm update - spring 2026

The crops at Brackenborough are generally looking well. After a relatively kind autumn our wheat, barley and oilseed rape crops came through a very wet winter in good condition. So far it has been a very dry spring which has meant the spring planted crops have struggled a little for moisture, especially the spring barley that is a little patchy.

The spring is flying past and the oilseed rape has gone from green to yellow and now back to green in the last few months and its pods and seeds are now forming. Harvest will not be very far away! The combine is ready to go and we just need to clear the last of our grain sheds and we will be ready too.

Once the parkland had dried up enough the cattle were let out to the grass, one of the best days of the year on the farm when the cows skip for joy and the calves cautiously explore the outside for the first time. They will be outside until it gets too wet in the autumn/winter. Calving went well this year as all of our in-calf cows calved unassisted, although not as many were in calf as we would have liked. It seems the very hot dry conditions last year were not very conducive to conception.

The spring is always a fantastic time for wildlife on the farm, we regularly see a woodpecker on the birdfeeder right by the house and see deer and muntjac most days. I saw a barn owl investigating our yard and hedgerows at our Deighton Close farm the other day and a particular highlight just this weekend was watching a fox and its three cubs playing in the grass and learning to hunt.