Clarkson’s Farm star Lisa Hogan has issued further bad news from Diddly Squat farm - which she shares with Jeremy Clarkson - as the devastated farmer claimed they had been hit by another illness outbreak. On Saturday (August 9), the 51-year-old model took to Instagram to share a clip of her freshly sheared sheep. The heard of animals had been wrangled into a small enclosure as vets at the rear attempted to inoculate them against a viral disease known as Bluetongue.

Alongside the clip, she wrote: “Vaccinating the lambs against blue tongue, which is spread by midges. It’s relentless at the moment”. Bluetongue is a viral disease transmitted by biting midges causing various symptoms like fever, swelling, and lesions – although a ‘blue tongue’ is not always present.

While this isn’t a food safety concern, the disease can be fatal with mortality rates ranging from 2 per cent to 30 percent, with some susceptibly sheep populations known to soar as high as 70 per cent.

It didn’t take long before fans flooded to the comments to pass on their support online, with one user penning: “God, farming is literally one of the toughest gigs around. Hope you are all doing well.”

Another echoed: “It’s always something, isn’t it? Farmers seem to get the short shrift and people don’t seem to understand the amount of work, expense, and risk involved in bringing food to our tables. My thanks to you all.”

Meanwhile, others reassured the broadcaster that they farm animals are being well looked after in their care. A third insisted: “They’re in good hands with you [applause emoji, heart emoji].”

The heartbreaking news comes after Jeremy Clarkson issued a grim update on Friday (August 8) as he warned his loyal fanbase that the next year is going to be “catastrophic” for the Oxfordshire farm.

Posting on X – formerly known as Twitter – he emotionally penned: “It looks like this year’s harvest will be catastrophic. This should be a worry for anyone who eats food.

“If a disaster on this scale had befallen any other industry, there would be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Although he didn’t clarify exactly what had gone wrong on the farm, fans in the comments assumed that his bad luck was down to the British weather.

This isn’t the first time that Clarkson’s crops have wilted. Back in June, when the UK experienced a scorching heatwave, the former Top Gear star shared in his column in the Times how the unpredictable weather patterns had been affecting his Diddly Squat Farm.

The broadcaster explained how a severe lack of rain in recent months had stunted the growth of his crops massively. He remarked: “It used to be reasonably predictable, but it just isn’t anymore.

“In March, Diddly Squat had no rain at all. Not even a drop. In April we got 20mm, which in old money is bugger all. And so far in May we’ve had 4mm. You couldn’t keep a window box going with a dribble like that.

"It’s been drier than it was in 1976. And while we do have about thirty springs on the farm, they’re all in the wrong place. So my onions and my beetroots are just sitting in the dust.”

He continued: “The wheat, meanwhile, is curling up, the barley won’t really get cracking at all and I dread to think what manner of terribleness is being foisted on my poor potatoes.”