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As the UK prepares for its fifth heatwave of the summer, Jeremy Clarkson has shed light on an issue the hot weather is causing farmers all over the country: damage to their harvest.
On Sunday (9 August), the TV personality posted a screenshot of the BBC weather website recording a high of 29C in Chipping Norton, where he runs the 1,000-acre Oxfordshire holding at the centre of Clarkson’s Farm.
“Harvest already f*****,” he wrote, adding: “May as well just enjoy it now.”
Jeremy Clarkson says hot weather has ruined farm harvest (Prime Video)
This week, temperatures could reach 36C or higher, with the Met Office considering issuing a rare amber or red extreme heat warning as the country continues to bake in an extended period of dry, hot weather.
The forecast is the latest challenge faced by the TV personality, who bought Diddly Squat in 2008 and has been running it since 2019.
Clarkson’s concerns over the hot weather will likely be featured in the sixth season of Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm, which is shooting now.
Just last week, Clarkson claimed that he doesn’t “actually get paid” for what he harvests despite working between 15 and 20 hours a day in the summer.
He said it has become “impossible” to make any money from growing food on the farm, and that he decided to leave 200 acres of it bare. “We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss,” he commented.
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.
Jeremy Clarkson has become farm industry spokesperson since running Diddly Squat in 2019 (Prime Video)
Meanwhile, in the last series of Clarkson’s Farm, 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.
At the end of the latest season, which aired in June, Clarkson revealed a secret cancer diagnosis. He told viewers that his cancer was aggressive but had been caught at a “really early” stage, and said in a follow-up video that a post-treatment test two months ago found no indication of the disease.
The host is set to make a cameo appearance in the new series of The Grand Tour, which is being rebooted with a trio of new hosts after Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May quit the series. Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland will take the driver’s seat when the series returns on 5 September.