Richard Cobbald welcomes Jeremy Clarkson promoting farming

While listening to Chris Evans on the radio the other morning, I was surprised to hear a superb plug for Farmers Weekly.

Jeremy Clarkson was his guest and he was doing a pretty good job of “bigging up” farming, albeit in a typical Clarkson fashion. He stated how he would like to do a column in this magazine (again in a Clarkson fashion).

Who am I to tell the editorial staff what to do, but I do think there could be an opportunity to involve a high profile TV celeb in a bit of promotion for UK agriculture and the magazine itself. How about a one-off interview?

Maybe he could put a farmer in a reasonably priced car. And as it’s a busy time of year for all of you I would dutifully find time in my hectic schedule and put myself forward for the job. Got to try, haven’t you?

With TV still in mind, Panorama stuck the knife in a bit over the “slipper farmer” issue, but although they didn’t mention the good the single farm payments does for farming and was very one-sided, I do think that the problems with non-farming people claiming subsidy needs to be addressed. Then the money would go to the right places; surely in these austere times the guys in Brussels should be looking hard at this policy and the definition of a non-farmer. A lot more work needed, please.

Sugar beet drilling is under way as I write, and despite the lack of rain, the ground is really quite wet, but good seed-beds are being achieved with a little patience. And the Bateman is now hard at work in the battle against rust. Need more rain, predictable, but true.