THE widest combine harvester in Britain has been busy helping turn sunflowers in a field near Corsham into a new all-British bird seed mix.

On Sunday and Monday curious passers-by stopped to take photographs of the 30ft wide machine in operation opposite the Wadswick Country Store.

The 75-acre field, which is the largest sunflower field in the south west, is having its crop harvested so the store can use the sunflower seeds in the British bird seed mix that it will package and distribute from its Corsham site.

Martin Smart, who was operating the machine on behalf of P&J Awdry and Son at Steeple Ashton, where he works as the arable manager, said: "A lot of people were stopping to watch the combine harvester when I was working because it is not often you see one that size.

"It weighs in excess of 25 tons, is the widest combine harvester in the UK on tracks and it uses satellites and a global positioning system to fix its position in a field.

"It also has lasers and an infra-red beam to guide it along, and costs in excess of £200,000, possibly even as much as £230,000."

As well as the sunflower seeds, Mr Smart has also been harvesting millet in the giant machine for use in the bird seed, which will be a mixture of a number of seeds, the vast majority of which are grown by the Wadswick store.

Tim Barton, owner of Wadswick Country Store, said: "The idea behind this is that we want to produce an all-British bird food.

"In the past we have bought in sunflowers and maize from France, but the red millet is the only seed not sourced in Britain now, and that only makes up a tiny percentage of the bird feed anyway."

Once it has been packaged the new seed will be distributed to pet shops, sold from the Corsham site and eventually put up for sale online.

"We are hoping the seed will be ready in about a month and we are aiming to market it locally," said Mr Barton.

Wadswick Country Store stocks a range of products such as riding wear, herbal and veterinary products and pet food.