‘I started out selling eggs’

Kaleb Cooper got his start in farming selling eggs around his home town, the Clarkson’s Farm star has told the BBC.

“I’m not from a farming background at all, but I learnt from a very young age that I love farming,” he said.

The 27-year-old said he was 13 when he started selling eggs around his home town of Chipping Norton, after getting three chickens for his birthday.

Cooper’s comments come off the back of the third series of the hit Amazon Prime programme in which he helps Jeremy Clarkson farm the former Top Gear presenter’s Oxfordshire land.

Explaining his start in the industry, Cooper said: “I think actually the business aspect of farming drew me to it, and then of course the tractors, and then the animals and so on.”

The father of three, who is proclaims to be “Chipping Norton born and bred”, said he began farming at the age of 12.

“For my 13th birthday, my mum didn’t buy me a new phone or a new Xbox or anything like that, but in fact she brought me three chickens,” he said.

“I started my first company at thirteen, selling chicken eggs around Chipping Norton with a basket.”

“Within two months of my 13th birthday I had 450 (chickens), and I used to walk around, knock on people’s doors and sell my eggs.”

Cooper – who has become a fan favourite partly for his ire towards Clarkson’s farming shortcomings – explained that he then brought sheep and a tractor, before starting his own contracting business at 16

“Because I wasn’t born into the industry I thought ‘I’m never going to be handed down a farm’, so I thought I’d become the next best thing – a farm contractor,” he told BBC Radio Oxford.

“I turn at at other people’s farms, farm there farm for them, and then leave again. We’ve now been going for 11 years – it’s amazing.”

His comments coincide with the release of a new children’s book he has written, which tells stories of his time farming.

“I’m a firm believer that young kids should know how to grow a potato, should know where their milk comes from, where their beef and lamb comes from – and how hard it is to produce,” he said of his reason for writing the book.

Cooper is also the father of three young children, and said: “I’m very lucky to be on the farm every day, so my kids can come and help me and actually find it’s really enjoyable.”

“Of course as a farmer, I want them to follow in my footsteps, but at the same time I want them to be happy and enjoy what they do,” he added.