Jeremy Clarkson and his farming team have been battling against natural forces as the current weather sees the “wettest summer yet” drown out the hard work put on his fields.
The Amazon Prime hit has been one of the UK’s most popular farming shows in recent years, with three successful seasons already being made and a fourth in the early stages of filming.
Clarkson runs his farm with the help of manager Kaleb Cooper, girlfriend Lisa Hogan, land agent Charlie Ireland and many more who oversee how the farm runs daily.
Throughout the three series, Clarkson has always been vocal about the issues of being a farmer in the current climate of the ever-changing government, and also having to battle with natural forces.
This is something that he recently opened up about on the Diddly Squat official Instagram page after being let down and disheartened due to the torrential rain over the weekend.
Posing an image of fields from high above, the caption read: “It’s going to be a rough year. All that seed sowed, drowned with the constant rain.”
Fans of Clarkson and the show were quick to comment on issues as one concerned user said: “Another year of nonprofit farming. This is probably the biggest thing that Diddly Squat has communicated to the public over the seasons, farming doesn’t make money.”
Another theorised: “I agree with your thinking, but while ever there is cloud seeding and weather manipulation going on, farmers are going to lose.”
“It just seems too wrong to ‘like’ this post. My deepest sympathies,” someone else said before a fourth noted: “S**t, sorry – the ‘like’ is for sympathy.”
A supportive viewer added: “Absolutely love this show raised awareness to what it’s really like to be a farmer and on the back of that I have started buying my produce from farm shops so I believe this is all for the greater good.” (sic)
Clarkson recently opened up on another “dilemma” that he was having and claimed it is near-impossible for farmers to continue feeding the country if the government continues towards Net Zero targets.
Ahead of July’s General Election, most of the political parties are polishing their plans to try and stop the amount of greenhouse gasses which are produced by human activity.
Labour’s pledge includes their plan to have clean power by 2030 – something critics have claimed is an uphill battle – while the Tories are aiming for 2035.
After reading the plans, Clarkson suggested that “strong economic growth and net zero” are mutually exclusive and that they cannot work side by side.
In his latest column, he explained: “It’s very important that we have the ability to feed ourselves, but we simply cannot do that when the main mission is to achieve Net Zero.”
One act he’s undertaken to try and appease both arguments is to ditch chemical weedkillers and use a plough, but its counter-productive nature soon became evident.
“This old-fashioned system means the soil is turned over, so the weeds are buried and, owing to a lack of sunshine, die. That sounds rustic and bucolic and lovely, but I did some maths the other day.
“And worked out that when it was pulling an eight-farrow plough, my tractor was using a gallon of diesel to cover 100 yards. You read that right.
“A gallon for 100 yards. That’s a lot of carbon. Plus, the soil is a huge carbon sink and when I turn it over some of that carbon escapes.”
