Going with the grain: how restoring biodiversity led one farmer back to heritage wheat

Henry Astor looked back to his grandfather’s time for the inspiration to find older varieties that could help nature on his Cotswold farm It is the earliest harvest Henry Astor can remember.

But walking through the scorched wheatfields of his Cotswolds farm, signs of life are everywhere – swarms of insects, kaleidoscopic wildflower meadows, bushy hedgerows several metres wide.

A yellowhammer perches on a nearby tree.

There are 18 other red-listed birds on the farm, says Astor, who this year ringed 23 barn owls, three kestrels, two little owls as well as goshawk chicks.

“Last winter we had clouds of goldfinch, chaffinch and greenfinch,” he says.

Britain has lost 73 million birds since 1970 ; but at Bruern Farms, a small but welcome reversal is taking shape.

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