Jeremy Clarkson details 'last roll of dice' in desperate profit-making farm scheme amid fears he'll sell Diddly Squat

From adverse weather wreaking havoc on his crops to red-tape battles with the local council, Clarkson has laid bare the challenges he and farmers across the nation have faced in recent years - including making just £144 following his first year in charge.

And it's even led to him contemplating the "heartbreaking" decision to sell Diddly Squat for good - although it won't be handed to righthand man Kaleb Cooper who addressed the idea in a recent interview.

Instead, Clarkson remains at the helm of Diddly Squat but writing in his newly-released book Pigs Might Fly [via Farmers Guide], he's once again shared the mental tug-of-war he's facing when it comes to keeping or selling the farm.

Discussing his attempts to try and eke profit from the farm, he penned in the book: "It would be easy for me to let the brambles and badgers take over my farmland and to sit back and watch the deer and squirrels eat all the trees in my woods.

"And yes, it would be simple to open this thorny place to hippies and witches... but I do feel some responsibility to put food on your table.

"It hurts my knees and my outgoings this year are truly terrifying, even for me with four other income streams. So I can’t hand it back to nature and I daren’t move forwards."

Explaining his latest scheme to try and reverse fortunes and add a profitable income stream, Clarkson shared: "Which is why this morning, I decided to plant my game covers with mustard. It’s my last roll of the dice.

"My last chance to make something – anything – work," he continued before he ominously added: "And if it doesn’t? I don’t even want to think about it."

The former Top Gear star also wrote about how he struggles to sleep at night due to the thought that if he were to use his farm merely to grow food, he'd "lose money".

While Clarkson may have the likes of Clarkson's Farm, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and The Grand Tour to top up his income, he's been applauded for shedding light on the struggles regular farmers currently find themselves in.

But it seems that the money from his other ventures isn't enough for him to see farming merely as a side project as he's toyed with the idea of selling the farm for good in order to see some sort of profit.

He wrote in his Sunday Times column earlier this month: "I've tried farming conventionally and it didn't work. I've tried diversifying and that hasn't really worked either. And I've tried with sheep and pigs and cows and that has been a bit of a disaster as well.

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"So I arrived at a crossroads and was not sure which way to turn. I could sell the farm, but I like having it and for very good reasons. There are no death duties on farmland, so my children like me having it too.

"This means I have to hang on to it, but what then? Do nothing? That would be heartbreaking."

Clarkson is tied into running Diddly Squat at least for another year thanks to the work of his land agent 'Cheerful' Charlie Ireland, he revealed.

And Amazon is reportedly poised to give Clarkson's Farm the green light for a fourth season after season three recently wrapped filming at the Chipping Norton farm.

Whether the demand to film more episodes will be enough for Clarkson to keep hold of the farm further down the line in such a hostile financial climate, however, remains to be seen.