‘Ashamed’ Jeremy Clarkson admits biggest farming mistake that had Kaleb close to tears

| Deputy TV editor Published September 12, 2026 10:12am Updated September 12, 2026 10:12am JeremyClarkson felt ashamed of the mistake (Picture: Ellis OBrien/Getty Images Europe/ Kym Illman) If you’ve watched Clarkson’s Farm, you know that Jeremy Clarkson isn’t the type of person who likes to admit when he makes a mistake. But for all his bluster, the 66-year-old motoring journalist-turned-farmer does clearly care about Diddly Squat Farm and those who work there. So when one of his mistakes left farm manager Kaleb Cooper close to tears, the former Grand Tour host admitted he felt ‘ashamed’. But what had Clarkson done that left Cooper so upset? Well, he messed up the seed drilling. According to the Oxford Mail, Clarkson confessed his mistake last Friday at the Hawkstone Harvest Festival held at The Farmer’s Dog pub. During the event, Clarkson appeared on stage with presenter George Lamb, who asked him what the biggest mistake he’s ever made while farming was. Kaleb wasn’t pleased with Jeremy (Picture: Amazon) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video ‘It might be this year when we had Cereals, a huge farming exhibition, I guess is the right word, at Diddly Squat,’ Clarkson said. ‘30,000 farmers came, and I decided to go and drill the barley in the field that they’d all have to drive by. ‘Every single farmer in the country would drive past it, and I did the drilling, and I didn’t level the drill.’ Even the usual cheerful Clarkson felt bad (Picture: Ellis O’Brien) Clarkson told the story during the Hawkstone Festival at his pub (Picture: Emma Trimble / SWNS) It gets worse though: Clarkson forgot to turn the fan on and didn’t drill in a straight line either. Basically, it was a shambles, and apparently, this upset Kaleb, who was worried about what other farmers would think of the shoddy work. ‘You’ll see this in season six, but Kaleb did a speech when he was almost in tears, saying: “I’m not from a farming background; lots of farmers don’t think that I’m a proper farmer; you’ve completely messed this up; they’re all going to think that I can’t farm”. ‘I felt so ashamed,’ Clarkson admitted. ‘So genuinely ashamed, [that] I had to go home and have 42 pints of Hawkstone to make myself feel better, but I think that was probably my worst mistake, genuinely.’ Metro has contacted Jeremy Clarkson for comment. Deals of the Day Topman’s new-season collection has arrived and prices start at just £10 An Instagram mattress left me with back pain – this one completely changed my mind Book Val d'Isère, Val Thorens and Tignes for less in Club Med's ski sale Save 25% on red light therapy masks, sauna blankets and sleep gadgets in Bon Charge sale The viral LED face mask with over 350 lights that's currently discounted by £100 Clarkson’s Farm is available to watch now on Amazon Prime. TV Newsletter Sign up and tell us which TV shows you love to watch to get personalised updates every morning.