Clarkson’s Farm breakout star Harriet Cowan has made an emotional plea as she fronted a new farming campaign.
The glam farmhand, 24, stole the show in series four as she arrived on screens to assist at Diddly Squat Farm while Jeremy Clarkson’s usual helper, Kaleb Cooper, was away.
But after leaving the show, Harriet has returned to her family farm and shared a powerful message to the public and the government this week about the ‘dying industry’, asking them to ‘put British farming on the map’.
Harriet has been leading a campaign called Farm24, which sees farmers across the country showcase the best of British farming by sharing content on social media for 24 hours from 5am to 5am.
In a video filmed on her family farm, Harriet said: ‘Going forward I hope that the next generation of farms would be recognised more by the public and the government especially to put British farming on the map.
‘People should be aware that we are here and the government should invest more time and money into farming because we need it.
Clarkson’s Farm breakout star Harriet Cowan has made an emotional plea as she fronted a new farming campaign on Instagram on Wednesday
The glam farmhand, 24, stole the show in series four as she arrived on screens to assist at Diddly Squat Farm while Jeremy Clarkson’s usual helper, Kaleb Cooper , was away
‘I think it’s a bit of a dying industry otherwise.’
In another clip, she said: ‘Being out on my family farm, it’s so special to me because this is what my grandad bought it for. He wanted me and my sister and generations to come to own and farm this land.
‘Now that there’s so many farms being turned into housing and different things like factories and agricultural land isn’t being used for agricultural purposes anymore, I think it’s so important to just farm what my grandad bought.’
She added: ‘This is my happy place, being out in the fields and tractoring and contracting out to me and my sister.
‘We never want to lose this farm and it’s important to us that generations to come will farm this land.’
Harriet is heavily involved with her rural community which her grandparents joined in the 1950s when they bought the land which her father still farms.
When she’s not trying to keep Jeremy in line Harriet works at a cattle farm with her boyfriend, James, just a short distance from the family farm.
Prior to becoming Jeremy’s side-kick, Harriet had already been building her profile as a farmer on TikTok and had around 40,000 followers before joining the Diddly Squat team.
Harriet revealed that she has enjoyed showcasing the skill of female farmers on the show and has plans to continue doing so
But after leaving the show, Harriet has returned to her family farm and shared a powerful message to the public and the government this week
Harriet has been leading a campaign called Farm24, which sees farmers across the country showcase the best of British farming
In a video filmed on her family farm, Harriet said: ‘Going forward I hope that the next generation of farms would be recognised more by the public and the government’
She told The Times recently that she now gets approached all the time, saying: ‘Mums have reached out to say my daughter’s wanting to go into farming.
‘Or I hear about four-year-old girls who want a toy tractor for Christmas, so that’s really nice.’
It was through her TikTok that Harriet was approached by the show, she said: ‘Charlie [Ireland, Clarkson’s land agent] let me know they were looking for someone to come and help.
‘I think they were keen for it to be a woman who could do that role and show they could do it well.’
Despite saying he’s not a natural born farmer, Harriet has praised Jeremy for his work at Diddly Squat saying he is, ‘very much like every other farmer I’ve ever met’ and ‘very much willing to learn. He wanted to do well by the farm.’
Poking fun, Harriet added that ‘he’s got the physique of a farmer’ too.
The glam farmhand added that other young farmers in her area couldn’t believe that she would be on Clarkson’s Farm.
She said: ‘They thought, “Ah, you’ll be in the back of the pub and they’ll have filmed the pub and the back of your head will be in it.” So when it came out they were, like, “Oh sh**, she is actually in it a bit more than I thought she was!”‘
The farmhand stepped in to assist Jeremy Clarkson for the fourth season of the series after Kaleb Cooper took some time off for his tour
Fans fell in love with Harriet’s glam style which did not hold her back from being an expert farmer
In a now famous scene from the recent series Harriet attempts to bring some glamour to Jeremy’s life by trying to pluck his eyebrows
Harriet’s fans have raved about her not letting go of her girlie style and look despite being a farmer but in conversation with The Times she opened up about the ‘challenges’ of being a young woman in the industry.
She said that her father told her and her sister that without a male heir, they would be stepping up to help.
Harriet added that she has loved showcasing that women can farm too and now has plans to start documenting life on her family farm on YouTube.
The fourth season of Clarkson’s Farm in which Harriet was introduced to viewers released to Prime Video in May.
