Kaleb Cooper makes concerning farm admission months after sharing damning warning: 'Thought last year was bad!'

Kaleb Cooper

Kaleb Cooper has admitted he's been feeling "mentally drained" over this year's harvest season

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Alex Davies

By Alex Davies


Published: 19/09/2024

- 14:14

The young farmer candidly opened up on the affect this year's farming has had on his mental health

Kaleb Cooper has taken to Instagram to share with his 2.7 million followers the toll this year's harvest season has had on him.

The Clarkson's Farm star has been hard at work all year long alongside Jeremy Clarkson at Diddly Squat in Oxfordshire and in the past few weeks, it's been time for harvest.


However, as Clarkson's Farm fans know all too well thanks to the Amazon series, harvesting and farming as a whole rely on factors out of Cooper, Clarkson, or anyone's control.

Adverse weather often emerges as a common complaint among farmers due to the impact it can have on a yield and 2024 has been no different.

Over the past few months, Cooper and Clarkson have been sharing candid updates from Diddly Squat about how things have been going - and it's been far from plain sailing.

On Thursday, Clarkson's Farm star Cooper summed it up with an update from inside his tractor, where he bared all.

Kaleb Cooper

Kaleb Cooper shot to fame on Amazon Prime Video's Clarkson's Farm

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"I must admit 2024 season has mentally drained me," Cooper bravely shared with his social media following.

"As a contractor I thought last year was bad... this yeah has been a f***er." (sic)

His latest update comes just a few months after the 25-year-old took to the same social media site to warn fellow farmers that he was fearing the worst.

He penned in mid-July: "I can sense this being an interesting and difficult season!

Kaleb Cooper

Kaleb Cooper took to Instagram on Thursday with his candid admission

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"We really don't need this rain in July after the winter we had," he shared, alongside a face-palm emoji.

The impact weather has had on Diddly Squat and harvest season as a whole also prompted Clarkson to summarise in an expletive-heavy X post how he was feeling.

On August 31, Clarkson put to his eight million X followers: "F***ing c***ing w***ing f***ing s****ing rain."

But it's not just rain and unexpected weather conditions that have made this a "mentally draining" season for Cooper as he's also been plagued with machinery issues.

Earlier this month, Cooper issued a plea to local residents after he "broke down in the middle of the road outside a lovely pub and a church".

He asked his followers: "Anybody know anything about case tractors? Looking like I will have to leave it in the middle of the road tonight so this is an apology for any inconvenience."

The unpredictability farming has on farmers' mental health led both Clarkson and Cooper to take action earlier this year when the former's beer brand Hawkstone teamed up with charity Shout to offer support to farmers who needed an outlet.

Farmers were encouraged to text "HAWKSTONE" to 85258 where they'd be offered 24/7 support if they suffered from declining mental health or needed support.

Kaleb Cooper said of the decision to launch the campaign: "Farming is an incredibly hard job and there are statistics out there to show that mental health challenges in farming have risen in recent years.

"Some people don’t like talking about their problems face-to-face or find it difficult to open up to someone they know, so we have teamed up with Shout to allow farmers to send a simple text and get the support they need."

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