Kaleb Cooper, the breakout star of Clarkson’s Farm, has expressed concern about his job security following a recent decision from Jeremy Clarkson.
The 26-year-old farmer, who worked on the Chipping Norton estate before Clarkson purchased it, has become worried he’ll be “out of a job” after his employer splashed out £300,000 in a driverless tractor for Diddly Squat farm.
“Kaleb hates it. He says it’ll put him out of a job,” Clarkson revealed recently.
The former Top Gear presenter’s latest addition to his Oxfordshire farm can operate without human intervention, handling the long hours of field work that traditionally require a driver.
Cooper’s concerns come as the Prime Video series continues to document the challenges of modern British farming.
Clarkson explained his rationale for the purchase, citing the significant time investment required for traditional farming methods.
Speaking to The Times, the former Top Gear star shared: “It normally takes 20 hours with a 3m cultivator to prepare the 200 acres we use every year for growing pasta and lager.
“And then it takes about 10 hours to plant the actual seeds. That’s 30 hours of me just sitting there, in a bouncy tractor, going up and down endlessly.”
The 65-year-old went on to admit his own limitations despite five years of practice on the farm.
“I miss bits. I cock up turns and corners. I hit gateposts and most years I bounce along for hours not realising that the hopper is empty and I’m busy planting nothing at all,” he confessed.
He argued that “an autonomous tractor would not make mistakes like this and it would not get bored. It doesn’t need to stop for a wee and it does not need to sleep.”
Despite Cooper’s initial resistance, Clarkson attempted to persuade him of the potential benefits.
“I’ve pointed out – he could turn up at someone’s farm, set it off, and then go to someone else’s farm with his normal tractor and get paid twice,” Clarkson explained.
The TV personality noted that Cooper “did agree I had a point” regarding the possibility of doubling his income by operating both autonomous and manual tractors across different farms.
The driverless tractor, powered by a 156-horsepower diesel engine, represents a significant technological shift for the traditional farming operation.
Clarkson has described the AgBot T2 as the “coolest machine in the world” despite previously dismissing driverless cars as “pointless.”
Cooper’s financial transformation since joining the show has been remarkable, having previously revealed he once earned just 50p per hour due to farming’s unpredictable profit margins.
“I worked it out the other day, do you know how much my hourly rate is, how much I pay myself? 50p an hour,” he said in 2022, describing his early attempts at running a calf-rearing business.
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The farmer’s fortunes changed dramatically after the Amazon programme launched in 2021, with Cooper capitalising on his newfound fame through book deals and touring.
His company Kaleb Cooper Productions Ltd’s 2024 annual filing showed £908,860 in cash and assets, an increase of £242,000 from the previous year.
Cooper, who shares two children with fiancée Taya and announced in February they’re expecting their third child in August, is now a millionaire.