Jeremy Clarkson has claimed that he’ll work between 15 and 20 hours a day on Diddly Squat in the summer – and yet, he doesn’t “actually get paid” for what he harvests.
The Clarkson’s Farm star, who originally bought his Cotswolds farm in 2008, began running it himself in 2019 and has since been vocal about the difficulties of making a profit as a farmer. Last month, he revealed that it’s become “impossible” to make money from growing food on the farm.
In his latest newspaper column, Clarkson shed more light on farm life, revealing that he’ll “work non-stop” on Diddly Squat in the summer and yet it’s still “cheaper to go on an expensive holiday”.
Writing in The Sun, he said that farmers are not able to book a summer holiday as it’s “impossible” to know when the harvest will be. “This means the farmer is forced to stay at home for the summer, looking at Instagram pictures of all his non-farming friends as they frolic on boats and in bars in the sun-drenched Mediterranean.
“Sounds terrible, yes? Well it isn’t. Some jobs on the farm are unpleasant. Sexing rabbits is annoyingly difficult, and disposing of dead piglets is heartbreaking. But I’ve been harvesting all week, and this job is an absolute joy.”
He added that he wakes up at 4am to “work non-stop for 15 to 20 hours at a stretch” and while it’s “hot and dirty out there”, he can’t get enough of it.
“Finally, you turn off the engines and in the golden-hour silence that results, you crack open an ice cold bottle of beer and gulp at it as the sun goes down. I’ve drunk beers in many exotic and beautiful locations over the years, but none of them match the beer you treat yourself to after a hard day’s harvesting,” he said.
“The only slight fly in the ointment is that thanks to the hot summer and this Government’s strange hatred of farmers, you don’t actually get paid for the wheat and the barley you’ve harvested. In fact, I worked out this morning that it’d be cheaper to go on an expensive holiday.”
The Independent has contacted the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for comment.
Last month, Clarkson called for action from the government on farming matters, revealing that he’s left 200 acres of his farm bare as it would be “impossible” to make money from it. “We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss,” he said.
Since taking up farming, Clarkson has become actively engaged with agricultural policy; in May 2024, he challenged government planning reforms, advocating for farmers to convert agricultural buildings into homes and shops.
Meanwhile, in the last series of Clarkson’s Farm, viewers watched as the presenter protested against the government’s proposals to increase inheritance tax by 20 per cent on agricultural assets worth more than £1m. After the protests, the government increased the threshold from £1m to £2.5m.
The recent series also saw Clarkson reveal that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He shared on the show that his cancer was aggressive but had been caught at a “really early” stage, and later said that a post-treatment test two months ago found no indication of cancer.
