Arable

Growing high quality crops
Around 700 acres of the estate are managed in an arable rotation, with our main cropping focused on producing milling wheat, followed by a break crop of either maize or grass. Now that we no longer have a dairy herd, we will be selling our maize to other herds, and making hay or haylage with our new and old grass leys.

Our arable field operations are carried out for us on a 'stubble to stubble' basis by D&S Thompson Contractors LTD and our grain is stored in a purpose built grain store at Bridge Farm, which was erected in 2008, before being sold through Openfield, a cooperative run for and by its farmer shareholders.

Despite this part of Berkshire being marginal land for arable production, we work hard to produce great quality crops and we are proud that we have secured a contract for milling wheat with leading bakers, Warburtons, for the 2013 harvest.
To ensure that our grain is of the highest marketable quality, we are accredited under the Assured Scheme for Combinable Crops (ACCS) – otherwise known as Red Tractor.  This entails a stringent audit each year in which Health and Safety, hygiene and quality are all assessed.