Jeremy Clarkson ‘not enjoying farming this week’ after bovine TB found on farm

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has said he is “not enjoying farming” at the moment, amid a week that has seen bovine tuberculosis found on his Diddly Squat Farm.

The TV star, 65, said he is also dealing with “a very sickly calf”, and discovered that one of his puppies had died on Friday morning.

On Thursday, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that a pregnant cow had contracted the disease on his farm near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

Speaking to Times Radio Breakfast, he said: “It’s awful, it is awful. You have a test every six months on the cows and then you sort of become blase, it’s a hypothetical threat.

“And then the vet looks up, as he did yesterday lunchtime, and said ‘I’m really sorry this one’s failed’.

“So that means we’re now locked down and it’s just dreadful, absolutely dreadful.”

Cattle which fail a TB test, or animals that have inconclusive results for two consecutive tests, are classed as “reactors”, and must be isolated and slaughtered.

Clarkson added: “It’s only been not even 24 hours since I found out and it occupies my mind. Well it was occupying my mind but I got up this morning and found one of my puppies has died.

“And we’ve got a very sickly calf. Honestly, farming? I’m not enjoying it this week.”

Asked in the comments of his X post about the prize bull called Endgame, which Clarkson bought recently for £5,500, he said: “His test was ‘inconclusive’. I couldn’t bear it if we lost him.”

In a follow-up post, he said: “The farm is NOT shut. We just can’t buy or sell any cows.”

Bovine TB is recognised as a problem which devastates farm businesses and is mainly spread through close contact when cattle breathe in droplets of mucus containing Mycobacterium bovis bacteria exhaled from an infectious animal.

Badgers can carry the disease and culling has long been a part of the Government response to the crisis, despite criticism from wildlife and animal welfare campaigners, such as Queen guitarist Sir Brian May.

The Government said in June it will not be extending the badger cull and retains its commitment to end the practice before the next election.

Oxfordshire is an “edge area” for bovine TB, meaning it is a buffer zone between high risk and low risk areas – so most herds are subject to six monthly TB tests by default.

There have been several cases in the area of Oxfordshire near to Diddly Squat Farm in recent weeks, according to ibTB, a mapping platform for the disease in England and Wales.

The every-day running of Clarkson’s farm is documented in a Prime Video series, which first aired in 2021, and brings to light common problems faced by British farmers.

Clarkson has become a vocal supporter of farmers and attended a protest in London against the Government’s move to introduce inheritance tax on farmland in November 2024.