Jeremy Clarkson 'unbelievably sad' as Diddly Squat Farm suffers devastating loss

10 April 2024, 16:29

By Alice Dear

Diddly Squat Farm had a 'catastrophically high level' of piglet deaths while filming the new series of Clarkson's Farm.

Jeremy Clarkson, 63, has revealed how a number of deaths at Diddly Squat Farm left him "unbelievably sad".

The star of the hit Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm, who will return for another series later this year, revealed how the farm suffered a "catastrophically high level of deaths" when it came to their litter of piglets.

Speaking to The Times, Jeremy revealed how on the farm, based in Chipping Norton, some of the piglets were accidentally crushed to death by their mothers while others simply died of natural causes in infancy.

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Jeremy told the publication: "A cow has one calf, whereas the last bout of births we had, one of our pigs had fourteen piglet...

"That's a lot of money. I reckoned the pigs would provide something that's sadly lacking in farming today: a bit of genuine happiness."

He added: "It was almost unbelievably sad, we had a catastrophically high level of deaths."

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The journey Jeremy and his workers take into pig farming will be explored in the third series of Clarkson's Farm, which will be released later this year.

Fan favourites Kaleb Cooper, Charlie and Gerald Cooper will return for a third time to the show as they help Jeremy navigate the logistics of running Diddly Squat Farm.

The former Top Gear star first bought Diddly Squat Farm in 2020 and allowed cameras from Prime to document his journey into becoming a fully-fledged farmer. The first series premiered on the streaming service in 2021.

Following a successful first and second series, the third will be released onto the streaming service on 3rd May 2024, with news of a fourth instalment being commissioned confirmed earlier this year.

A spokesperson for Clarkson's Farm previously said on the new series: "The crops are failing in the severe hot weather, inflation has driven prices of supplies sky high, dreams for the beloved restaurant are dashed and now the farm shop also faces closure.

“Jeremy urgently needs to come up with creative new ways of making ends meet, so hatches a plan to turn a profit from hundreds of acres of unfarmed land, thick woodland and hedgerows that make up half of Diddly Squat.

"This triggers an avalanche of Clarkson-crafted schemes, involving everything from goats and pigs to mushrooms, nettles and deer. Someone new arrives to Diddly Squat, which puts Kaleb's nose out of joint as well as the returning characters all working to help Jeremy’s farming ambitions come to fruition.”