Jeremy Clarkson has done more for British farming in one TV series than the BBC’s Countryfile has managed in 30 years of broadcasting, according to the Cumbrian sheep farmer James Rebanks.
I know exactly what he is referring to.
Because you might have seen me alongside the former Grand Tour and Top Gear presenter in episodes of Clarkson’s Farm.
Kaleb Cooper requests assurances from politicians that farmers like himself are needed and that it is still possible to make a living by growing and rearing high-quality food to high standards.
Finally, the British public can see a TV show that tells the truth on farming.
It makes it clear that it is hard work. It’s stressful. It’s on the edge.
British Farming Awards honoured Kaleb Clarkson and Jeremy Clarkson for raising the profile British farming
I hope viewers, too, see the amount of enthusiasm that’s involved.
Farming to me – like so many others – is not a job, it’s a way of life.
My 13th birthday was the day my mom bought me three hens. I worked out that I could make £6-a-week profit from selling the eggs. Six months later, I had 450 eggs and a delivery round.
I went to school so that I could provide eggs for the teachers.
I love it – but you have to. Because farming is physically and mentally draining.
I’m now in my early 20s and I’ve set myself up as contractor – hiring myself out for specific jobs.
I can do everything tractor- or loader-related, including topping, mowing and hay turning, baling and moving dirt, as well as moving muck.
I usually start work at 6 a.m. and finish at 1 a.m.
People ask what time I finish and I just say, ‘When the work’s done.’
There’s so much to go wrong, as the viewers see week after week, the main one being the weather.
We’re completely dependent on something we can’t control, and that’s hard.
Like farmers across Britain, we didn’t get enough sun in the Cotswolds this year, so the crops in the ground weren’t drying properly.
Should we have let them rot and lose their yield? Or should we have spent a lot of money heating equipment to dry our crops in the barn How do you calculate this?
Cooper hopes that consumers will be motivated to buy British products if they learn more about the hard work that goes into farming.
There are no monthly wages in farming and it all tends to come at once when a job is finished or all the crops have been sold, leading to cashflow problems
If you’re losing £200 an acre, that could be the difference between green and red, profit and loss, staying afloat or going under.
One mistake can cost you 25% off your yield. It’s not like running the hens when I was at school. Today, I have four tractors that cost me £150,000. That’s a lot of money. What happens if they aren’t as good as they claim? What happens if they do not pay?
In farming, we don’t get a monthly wage. It all tends to come at once when you’ve finished a job or sold the crops. There are also cashflow problems.
Then there’s the shortage of truckers – so spare parts might not arrive for weeks.
All this is on top of the fact that steel prices are rising. If I want a new tractor, it’s going to cost me around 20 per cent more.
As for the idea of buying a farm, it’s completely impossible for someone like me. The cost of land has risen to an all-time high.
There’s always something going wrong, whether it’s machinery that won’t work or sheep that keep on escaping no matter what we do.
And financially, it’s getting more complicated every day.
Everything’s up in the air. The Government wants us to plant clover and flowers to encourage wild birds.
Is that a farmer’s job? I went to college in order to learn how to grow wheat for the British people.
One of the great things about Clarkson’s Farm is that it’s really, really showing people how hard it is – including Jeremy himself.
When he decided to give farming a go, he thought that he’d scatter some seeds on the ground and sit back while they grew into crops.
Farming relies on many external variables, whether it’s machinery that won’t work or sheep that keep on escaping
I can tell you, he’s been a bit shell-shocked by how hard he’s had to work.
I also hope viewers will be able to see the effort and time that goes into making something as simple as a loaf.
Shoppers can purchase one for as low as 50p and not think about the effort that went into making it.
Hopefully, people will be more aware of this information now and buy British products.
The average farmer in this country today is just 61 years old. I’m not surprised.
Young people will be asking themselves, ‘What’s in there for me?’ And ‘How much money will there be at the end of the year?’ It’s not easy to find the answers.
More than anything else, we need reassurance from politicians that farmers like us are wanted, that it will still be possible to make a living from growing and rearing good food to high standards – and that there’s a future for people like me.
British Farming Awards recently honored Jeremy Clarkson, Kaleb Cooper, and Jeremy Clarkson for their contributions to raising awareness about British farming.
Clarkson’s Farm is on Amazon Prime Video.