Clarkson's Farm

Andrew_McP said:
This may have been posted already in the thread, but I watched it earlier and I shall be using my free Prime trial soon just to watch this. Never bothered with their Top-Gear-a-like, but this seems to have struck a chord even with a lot of the farming folk I follow on Twitter (I'm not a farmer, but I have a border collie if that counts?)

Clarkson has the advantage of deep pockets to subsidise his hobby and mistakes, but seems to have somehow managed to be educational at the same time as producing an entertaining TV show. That's quite a neat trick!
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2 episodes in. Learning a lot about farming. Thought he looked genuinely sad about the sheep
 
Jono8 said:
This is just silly.

You know that is not what i am expecting. I just would have appreciated a little more tact, that is all.
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You think its more tact to show off how he does t have to care about farming stuff because he has deeper pockets. He was by FAR more tactful buy working to a budget and showing the potentially harsh realities' for a private farmer, and stating how if he didnt have other things to fall back on he would be in difficulty.
Also although it was shown on Amazon it seems it was made by a different production studio, and not the one the GT people set up with Amazon.
Potentially that also wrecks elements of the show, we wouldn't have got the (to me) eye opening moment with Charlie who showed the brutal paper work Farmers have to go through, especially the paper work for his farming money, go to markets. Imagine he just said " Nah never mind that paper work, ill just pay the 80K the gov would give me cause im rich. H e would have been crucified.
 
cu3ed said:
You think its more tact to show off how he does t have to care about farming stuff because he has deeper pockets. He was by FAR more tactful buy working to a budget and showing the potentially harsh realities' for a private farmer, and stating how if he didnt have other things to fall back on he would be in difficulty.
Also although it was shown on Amazon it seems it was made by a different production studio, and not the one the GT people set up with Amazon.
Potentially that also wrecks elements of the show, we wouldn't have got the (to me) eye opening moment with Charlie who showed the brutal paper work Farmers have to go through, especially the paper work for his farming money, go to markets. Imagine he just said " Nah never mind that paper work, ill just pay the 80K the gov would give me cause im rich. H e would have been crucified.
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I think you have missed my point somewhat.
 
Regarding the money argument - IIRC, when they are talking about the £144 profit he actually says that, and I may paraphrase a bit, "I can go do an episode of WWTBAM and I have an Amazon crew following me around here, I don't know how farmers thst don't can get by"

I forget his exact words but he makes it patently clear that there is a difference between him and normal farmers and is quite honest about it.

It was a great show and highlighted how tough the lifestyle is. The general public will moan about how farming shouldn't have to rely on subsidies... Perhaps this will help explain it
 
Just because he has deep pockets doesn’t mean he wants to spiff it all on running a farm at a loss. Generally people want to make money with their assets, not loose it.

Rich people don’t stay rich by losing money ;)
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Just because he has deep pockets doesn’t mean he wants to spiff it all on running a farm at a loss. Generally people want to make money with their assets, not loose it.

Rich people don’t stay rich by losing money ;)
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Some with money have fun just dabbling with stuff like that - maybe with the intention of turning it into something profit making, even if they don't cover the initial losses, in the long run but having a bit of fun seeing what is what, etc.

Richie said:
Regarding the money argument - IIRC, when they are talking about the £144 profit he actually says that, and I may paraphrase a bit, "I can go do an episode of WWTBAM and I have an Amazon crew following me around here, I don't know how farmers thst don't can get by"
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Some of the stuff they costed into the first year would be paid off over multiple years, etc. so that is how farmers would get by - some stuff might be a loss for the first year or two but is an investment really that lays the ground for later years.
 
I love tractors, and I know that if I was Clarkson's position I'd have a barn built purely to store my tractor collection in. I'd probably have a steam engine or two too. :D
 
Regarding the £144 you will notice that's just from the direct income/costs from his arable crops and that was from being £90k down on income from the previous year. Any businesses accounts aren't going to look good with a 40% decrease in income! But as mentioned, it was one of the worst years on record. Also they didn't actually mention how much he got in Govt subsidies, which would have been very substantial on a 1,000 acre farm (I wouldn't be surprised if it was a 6 figure number) just that they are being cut/reduced and what would farmers do in the future. The answer to that is they will have to change their practices to meet the criteria for the new subsidies.

It was good TV and showed how finicky and variable farming can be, but they were playing with things for effect (like the Lambo tractor not fitting in the lamb shed - it was only the flashing light, which they often took off when needed :p) So take those figures he presented with a pinch of salt, they weren't the whole picture at all. I say this as someone who does accounts for a small holding, ~50 acres, and from doing accounts in general where you can present figures in many ways to show things in different lights.
 
Who cares.

A Rich man decides to spend his pennies on a farm he bought, yes he has a leg up of many farmers but it was also a bloody good TV show and highlighted the downs and and downs of farming better than Countryfile has done in all my years of watching it.

Fair play to him his new side kick, who quite frankly Brilliant and has more knowledge in his head than some 40 year olds I know.

Would love a second season somehow.

Finished it all now, fair to them all they put some serious graft in. One of the best things on TV for a long time.
 
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Binged this over the last couple days. Really enjoyed it!
I don’t know much/anything about farming, so was interesting to see what goes on.

What I didn’t understand… The sheep he had, and associated costs. Where does the profit come from in that area?
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
What I didn’t understand… The sheep he had, and associated costs. Where does the profit come from in that area?
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Aside from him approaching it wrong like with many things they costed it up over one year whereas for farmers doing this for real so to speak it is a multi-year thing which makes more money in the future once it is up and running - though a bad spell in the middle if you don't have much reserves can cause all kinds of trouble.
 
I've watched it through twice now, Kaleb makes it for me. Really good easy watching TV.
I've also learn some things I'd never have even considered like the tram lines, moisture before harvesting and stuff like that.
 
think i might start watching this series. i find Clarkson entertaining in a way but cant help feel he should never have got to where he is today
 
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