Country diary: The changing face of stubble fields, those shortcuts of my youth | Nicola Chester

The Guardian reports the following. ENC is republishing it as an attributed briefing, not as independently confirmed fact. If this item is false or incomplete, the responsibility sits with The Guardian, which released it. Linkenholt, Hampshire and Wexcombe, Wiltshire: Even to the untrained eye, traditional ones and modern, regenerative ones look very different Stubble fields, those post-harvest acres of short straws, seem to be lasting longer into the season, as farmers respond to changing practices. I have a wistful attachment to stubble fields: for so long a kind of temporary commons where, for a few redundant weeks before autumn or winter ploughing, you could shortcut across them, the dew-filled straws flicking water up the inside of your legs. But today, stubble fields aren’t all equal. Below Cleve Hill Down, a tractor is drilling winter wheat directly into bare seedbed between the stubble. Regularly sprayed with herbicide, it is free of weeds or any green – a pale-gold spread of machine-knitted tweed.… Original link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/08/country-diary-the-changing-face-of-stubble-fields-those-shortcuts-of-my-youth