‘Clarkson’s Farm’ star Kaleb Cooper has helped two more students with his agriculture bursary for the Royal Agricultural University (RAU).
This year’s recipients are spending their funding on Aberdeen Angus calves and a second-hand car.
Students Robyn Sherriff (23), and Isaac Covington (19), were chosen as the two recipients of the 2025/2026 RAU Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary.
On Wednesday, June 10, Cooper met with Covington at the annual Cereals event at Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm.
Sherriff was unable to attend the Cereals event as she is back home in Zambia.
The bursary is now in its third year and is only available at the RAU. The two students are the fifth and sixth recipients to be helped by Cooper.
Speaking at Cereals, where Sherriff and Covington were publicly announced as the latest bursary recipients, Cooper 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.
According to Cooper, celebrating ambition, skills, and creativity from all walks of life is something that farming and agriculture can do well.
He added: “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.”
Bursaries
The RAU Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary was launched in 2023 and currently offers two bursaries annually.
One is funded by Cooper and one is funded by the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust which has an existing relationship with the RAU.
The scheme is open to all the university’s undergraduate agriculture students.
Preference may be given to students who are not from a farming/agricultural background (similar to Cooper) and/or who can demonstrate hardship or financial need.
As well as a £3,000 payment, the bursary provides the winning students with the opportunity to apply for a work placement with either Cooper or one of his industry partners.
Impact on students
Covington 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.
“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.
“In Year 10, I did my work experience at the farm in the village. At the end of the work experience week, they offered me a part-time job and I’ve worked there ever since.
“I do everything – yard work, milking, and working during the harvest.”
After A-levels in business, geography, and sociology, Covington applied to study for a degree in agriculture at the RAU.
He added: “When I applied for the RAU Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary, I really didn’t think I’d be chosen since I already work part-time on a farm so I was just so shocked when I found out he had picked me”.
Covington explained that he is going to use the bursary money to buy some Aberdeen Angus beef calves which he’ll keep at a smallholding in his village.
“A bit like Kaleb, who started out with a few chickens, my dream is to have my own farm, or smallholding.
“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,” Covington concluded.
For Sherriff, 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.
She explained: “Receiving the bursary has totally changed my university experience.
“Having the car means that I spend much less time getting to and from both lectures and work, so I have more time to devote to my studies.
“Since I am from an agricultural background, I wasn’t sure if I would qualify for the bursary but I thought I might as well give it a try as I saw that he was also encouraging applications from students who were in financial need.
“Obviously studying abroad isn’t cheap so I was working four different jobs, alongside my university work, just to fund my studies and day-to-day life.
“Being able to give up two jobs and freeing that time up to concentrate on my studies has already made a massive difference.”
Sherriff 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.
She added: “When I graduate from the RAU I would love to buy some virgin land in Zambia and start my own timber farm, planting eucalyptus and pine”.
Sherriff added that she would like to produce cash crops, like “broiler chickens and cabbages, once I can afford a borehole for irrigation to keep me going while the trees are growing”.
Prof. Peter McCaffery, vice-chancellor at the RAU, said: “We are extremely grateful to Kaleb for his continuing support of our students.
“Kaleb is a passionate champion of farming – as we see on Clarkson’s Farm – and it’s terrific that he is helping new entrants and the next generation of farmers to realise their aspirations.
“It’s a real incentive for our students.”