Kaleb Cooper dealt ‘frustrating’ blow to own farm plans as Clarkson’s Farm star admits ‘I don’t want to move’
Jeremy Clarkson’s righthand man and new farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, has opened up on his own desire to own a farm similar to The Grand Tour star.
Clarkson bought Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton in 2008 and decided to take over the running of it in 2019, as documented in Amazon’s Clarkson’s Farm.
Cooper helped tend to the farm in the years before Clarkson took over proceedings and throughout the two seasons of the show so far, he’s regularly had to come and save the day thanks to Clarkson’s antics.
A Chipping Norton resident and enthusiastic farmer since the age of 13, Cooper has aspirations of running a farm of his own.
He even faced questions of taking over Diddly Squat from Clarkson which he promptly dismissed after the former Top Gear star admitted he’d contemplated selling up.
And now, despite the success of Clarkson’s Farm and his business successes which include a bestselling book and sell-out nationwide tour, Cooper has admitted his dreams are still some way from coming to fruition.
In a new interview ahead of the first half of season three arriving next week, Cooper told the Telegraph he’s unable to buy his own farm at the moment due to soaring costs.
“Everything’s through the roof,” he said. “And I don’t want to move away from the place I love most.”
Cooper branded the fact he’d been priced out of buying in his hometown as “frustrating” but he’s not letting the blow deter him from sticking at it.
He went on: “That’s why I’m so busy doing everything possible to get to that dream [of buying a farm]… I’m going to do it one day.”
Cooper reiterated his dream when speaking to Amazon ahead of the new series, revealing he isn’t letting his newfound fame deter him from one day receiving the keys to his own farm.
“There’s always a lot of talk of, ‘Don’t change, Kaleb, don’t do this and don’t do that,’ but that really annoys me.
“I’m 25 years old, yes, but I started my business at 13 years old with some chickens and I then started my contracting business at 16, so I’ve been doing this a long time and with everything that I do, it’s got to revolve around my business.
“I’m not going to chuck away my main business, the thing that feeds me, just because I’m on TV. I work every day.”
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He went on: “Farming isn’t a job for me, it’s a way of life and I love that way of life. My dream is to buy my own farm and that is what I’m aiming towards.
“There’s something that’s stuck in my head continuously: dreams don’t work unless you do. Farming isn’t a job for me, it’s a way of life and I love that way of life.”
Sky-high costs will become a major factor in the third series of Clarkson’s Farm when it rolls around on May 3 as Clarkson pits himself against Cooper to see who can make the most money.
There are also plenty of emotional moments on the way, with Clarkson’s girlfriend Lisa Hogan breaking down in tears during a first look at the new series and Cooper being involved in a painful incident that left him needing medical assistance.