A star of the hugely popular Clarkson’s Farm has opened up about his happiness after two young farmers were awarded his annual bursary.
The Cotswolds’ most famous farmer Kaleb Cooper, as seen on Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm, has helped two more students in the third year of his exclusive agriculture bursary with the Royal Agricultural University (RAU).
Students Robyn Sherriff, 23, and 19-year-old Isaac Covington, from Cherhill, near Calne, were recently chosen as the two recipients of the 2025/2026 RAU Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary.
On Wednesday, June 10, Kaleb met up with Isaac at the annual Cereals event at Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm near Chipping Norton.
Isaac and fellow student Robyn were selected from applications for the annual bursary which is now in its third year.
They are the fifth and sixth students to have received the bursary, which is only available to students at the RAU.
Speaking at today’s event at Cereals, where Isaac and Robyn were publicly announced as the latest bursary recipients, Kaleb said: “Today is a special day. I’m so happy that we’re now in our third year of awarding this bursary to yet more truly deserving students.
“What started out as an ambition to help one person a year quickly grew to two a year. I can’t tell you how much of a difference something like this would have made to me when I decided to go into farming.
“We have to keep fresh, hard-working, talented young people entering this industry – whatever their background. Celebrating ambition, skills, and creativity from all walks of life is something I truly believe farming and agriculture can do brilliantly.
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“I hope that seeing how much of an impact it can have on these young students, and the wider industry, will encourage more people to get involved and start contributing to these bursaries.”
The RAU Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary was launched in 2023 and currently offers two bursaries annually – one funded by Kaleb himself and one funded by the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust which has an existing relationship with the RAU.
As well as a £3,000 payment, the bursary provides the winning students with the opportunity to apply for a work placement with either Kaleb himself or one of his industry partners.
Isaac has just completed the first year of his BSc in Agriculture at the Cirencester-based university.
He said: “I am not at all from a farming background – my mum is an artist and my dad works in IT – but, when I was younger, I went to a lot of big machinery days and Open Farm Sundays and I just loved the idea of working with animals and machinery.
“I’m going to use the bursary money to buy some Aberdeen Angus beef calves which I’ll keep at a smallholding in my village.
“A bit like Kaleb, who started out with a few chickens, my dream is to have my own farm, or smallholding, with animals and this bursary means I can now afford to buy some cows, which are a bit bigger than the animals I would have been able to afford without it!”
Meanwhile for Robyn, who is now working back on her parents’ farm in Zambia, the money from the bursary has meant that she has been able to drop two of the four part-time jobs she was doing to enable her to afford her course, and also buy herself a cheap car.
Robyn joined the RAU two years ago to do a foundation degree in Agricultural and Farm Management which she has now completed. She has now enrolled for an additional year to study for a BSc (Hons) Agri-Management (top-up) to obtain an Honours degree.
