The clocks have changed, the nights are drawing in and there’s a definite chill in the air – winter is well and truly on its way at Stourton!
October has been another busy month across the estate. With all the wheat now safely sown, attention on the farm has turned to caring for the growing crops and getting the cattle ready to come indoors. Elsewhere, we’ve been tackling a few long-overdue jobs around the estate, making plans for 2027 and, dare we say it, starting to think about Christmas!
Here’s what’s been happening…
‘Twill shortly be the season to choose your Christmas tree!
Once again, we’ll have beautiful Nordmann Fir Christmas trees, ranging from approximately 5ft to 7ft, available to order for delivery during the first week of December – just in time to decorate for the festive season.
We’ll be sharing prices and ordering details very soon, so keep an eye on our website and social media pages if you’d like a Stourton Christmas tree taking pride of place in your home this year.
If you follow us on Instagram, you may already have spotted a rather unusual new arrival amongst the trees…
An original Airstream has temporarily taken up residence in Stourton Woods!
The very creative Noelle from Willow Light Studio is transforming it into a beautiful Christmas photoshoot setting, combining the fabulous Airstream with the natural backdrop of the woods.
Family photography sessions will be taking place on Saturday 14th November and Saturday 21st November. It’s a lovely opportunity to capture some special family moments – and perhaps create a few very personal Christmas presents at the same time.
Sessions can be booked directly through Willow Light Studio.
Remember our sunflower field this summer?
The sunflowers may have finished flowering, but their story hasn’t ended there.
We harvested the seeds from the field and Stourton-grown black sunflower seeds for wild birds are now available to buy.
It’s lovely to see something that provided so much colour – and plenty of photo opportunities – during the summer now being put to good use feeding garden birds through the colder months.
Our sunflower seeds can be ordered through the Stourton Estates website or by phone, for collection or delivery alongside our other products.
Our next home delivery of fresh Stourton venison is Friday 20th November, followed by our final pre-Christmas delivery on Friday 5th December.
If you’re planning to put venison on the menu over Christmas or New Year, we’d recommend getting your order in for one of these dates.
We’ve also started trialling some local venison collection hubs. Last month we visited Tealby, Woodhall and Lincoln, making it easier for customers further afield to collect their fresh venison.
If you think your town or village would make a good collection point, please get in touch. If there’s enough interest, we’ll see what we can arrange!
You’ll also find us at the Food & Gift Fayre at The Walled Garden Baumber on Sunday 22nd November, where you can come along, choose your cuts and browse the other fabulous stallholders too.
There are always jobs to be done on an estate, and sometimes it’s the less glamorous ones that make the biggest difference!
If you visited us this year, you may have walked through our historic stable yard without really noticing it was there. Over the years it had gradually become a rather convenient storage area for spare soil, gravel and other materials.
After a concerted effort from Ed – including several days spent loading and relocating soil – it is finally looking much more presentable.
It might still take a little imagination to picture it as the stableyard it once was, but it’s certainly a big improvement. We’re determined to keep it looking that way too!
We’ve also finally got stuck into the overgrown banks around the lakes and have started reinstating the circular path around the big lake.
Before he left for Oz, Jamie began by using the digger to remove some of the larger willow, before we brought in a flail to clear the vegetation along the banks.
The aim is to get the banks back to a point where they can be regularly mown, opening up views across the water and making the lake much more accessible to enjoy.
At the moment, you may need a little imagination to see the finished result – so you’ll just have to believe us! By next spring, however, we hope the transformation will be much more obvious.
Another reason to come back and visit us in 2027…
October has been another busy month for the farm team. With all the wheat now sown, we’re turning our attention to caring for the growing crops, getting the cattle settled for winter and putting the finishing touches to improvements around the yard.
Our Aberdeen Angus herd now numbers 50, following the arrival of two more cattle from Louth Livestock Market.
We’ll be caring for and feeding the herd throughout the winter and into spring – and, looking further ahead, we hope to have our first Aberdeen Angus beef boxes available in May 2027.
We’ll share more details nearer the time.
Ed and Hamish have also been busy preparing the cattle shed ready for the herd to come indoors.
As the weather becomes cooler and wetter, grass growth slows and provides less nutrition, so the cattle will soon move onto the silage we made during the sunny summer months.
All of this year’s wheat has now been sown and the soil rolled to help the seed settle in. Good seedbed conditions have given the crop a strong start, and we’re really pleased with how it’s looking so far.
An initial weed treatment has also been applied, with some additional treatment in a couple of fields to tackle black-grass and broadleaf weeds.
The oilseed rape is looking good too. The rain helped it recover and grow strongly following some earlier pest damage, and we’ll now be keeping an eye out for signs of disease. Once soil temperatures have fallen sufficiently, we’ll also apply a herbicide to help control black-grass.
Our cover crops are establishing well, and we’re planning to bring sheep in to graze them over winter. As well as providing some additional income, grazing helps return nutrients to the soil ahead of the next crop being planted in spring.
Back in the farmyard, the concreting work is finally finished!
It needs a couple of weeks without vehicles driving over it while everything sets properly, but this long-awaited improvement is already making the yard much easier to work in and keep tidy.
And we have to say – it looks pretty smart too!
Finally, we’re heading to Harper Adams University on Tuesday 10th November for the Careers Fair.
We’ll be talking to students about our 2026–2027 placement opportunity and hopefully meeting some bright, practical and enthusiastic candidates who fancy getting stuck into life at Stourton.
There’s certainly never a dull day here, so we’re looking forward to meeting potential applicants ahead of our recruitment process beginning in early December.
There’s plenty happening in the deer parks too, with the rut now in full swing.
Winston is busy looking after his hinds and keeping everyone in check!
As the grass begins to lose its nutritional value, we’ve started providing the deer with additional winter silage and will continue moving the herds onto fresh grazing around the parks.
With Christmas approaching and another year beginning to draw to a close, there’s still plenty happening at Stourton.
From Christmas trees and festive photo shoots to fresh venison, winter farming and improvements around the estate, the next few weeks promise to be busy ones.
At the same time, we’re already looking ahead to 2027, with some exciting plans for Stourton Woods, the estate and our events programme taking shape.
We’ll be sharing much more soon – so keep an eye on our website and social media pages for the latest news from Stourton.
Reared here on the farm, professionally butchered & packaged for us by local butchers and labelled here, we deliver direct to your door in our veni-van across Lincolnshire, freshly frozen venison is also available for delivery nationwide!
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