More and more young Brits are keen on becoming farmers with Jeremy Clarkson’s hit Amazon Prime TV show credited for the surge of interest
Jeremy Clarkson’s farming show has sparked a huge surge in the number of youngsters applying to be future farmers.
Agricultural colleges have seen a significant rise in applications for land management courses.
Teenagers who grew up watching Clarkson’s Farm and are beginning to make their career decisions have decided they want to be like “Cheerful” Charlie Ireland, Clarkson’s adviser.
The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said interest in their rural land management courses has “really gone up” in the past year.
Applications for its rural land management have shot up 11% compared with last year.
And applications for the same course with an added farm placement have risen 18% over the same period.
Interest in their two-year rural land management foundation degree also rose by 14%.
The university’s Daniella Miles said: “It’s looking like programmes like Clarkson’s Farm are having an effect.
“It seems to be spreading much further than ‘I can do farming’, as it’s an interest in all the other courses and roles involved in farming that is increasing as well.
“People look at what Cheerful Charlie does and become interested.”
Rupert Jones, 20, from Bournemouth, Dorset, is starting his second year studying for a BSc in agriculture at RAU.
He said: “For a lot of non-farming people, Clarkson’s Farm did present it in a way that perhaps people hadn’t considered.
“And with it coming from Clarkson himself, it had an impact on not just myself but other people.
“It definitely made me excited about going into the industry and I saw the challenges it faced.
“When you are not from a farming background it can seem daunting and you kind of feel like you know nothing about it.”
Andrew Black is a lecturer at Harper Adams University, which has its own 550-hectare working farm.
He said: “The impact of Charlie’s role in Clarkson’s Farm is far more wide-reaching.
“We are starting to see a ripple effect in the number of students enrolling on our open days as a result.”
Clarkson’s Farm star Harriet Cowan has herself stepped away from nursing now that her career has taken off.
The 24-year-old shot to fame on the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm, when Jeremy Clarkson brought her in to help run Diddly Squat. She temporarily replaced Kaleb Cooper on the show before he returned to the Cotswolds farm.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
