An apparent theft of sheep from Jeremy Clarkson's farm has turned out to be a miscount by a member of staff, police have confirmed. 

It was initially thought that Diddly Squat Farm had been targeted by rustlers, with 11 animals taken under cover of darkness.

Police began investigating as the former Top Gear host demanded the return of the sheep and warned thieves not to attempt further raids, saying: 'We're armed.'

However, Thames Valley Police confirmed in an update yesterday that the reported theft had in fact been the result of an accidental miscount by farm staff.

All sheep have since been accounted for and the investigation has been closed.

Clarkson responded with fury when he believed some of his flock were taken in a late-night raid from the farm in Oxfordshire when no camera crew was present.

The presenter and his co-star, Kaleb Cooper, discovered that only 16 of his 27 Easycare sheep - a modern British breed - were in their field.

An angry Clarkson told The Sun: 'It's a farm. We're armed. Just so they know.

'It p***** me off. Honestly, it just p***** me off.'

He said the sheep were worth more than £2,000 at market, with lambs worth up to £8,000 for meat – and added that he was now worried that other livestock might have been stolen from the farm.

He said he believed that his hit Amazon show Clarkson's Farm had made Diddly Squat a potential target for livestock thefts. 

He added: 'How can you [stop it] if someone's determined to steal your livestock?

'This is 1,000 acres, it's a big farm. Anyone could be anywhere and you wouldn't know.'

Last month he said his harvest was 'f*****' because of the scorching summer.

The farm and pub owner posted a screenshot to Instagram of the BBC weather forecast for nearby Chipping Norton showing a high of 29C (84F), captioning it: 'Harvest already f*****. May as well just enjoy it now.'

Filming has started for a sixth series and it appears likely that its focus will be on the record-breaking weather this year and the challenge it posed for farmers.

The farm has previously produced crops including wheat, barley and rapeseed alongside potatoes, mustard and clover.

But Clarkson said earlier in the summer that he had deliberately left 200 acres fallow this year because planting wheat or barley would have led to a financial loss.

He warned it was becoming 'quite simply impossible' to make money from growing food and warned more farmers could be left with little choice but to use their land for other means.

In 2021, Clarkson said avoiding inheritance tax had been 'the critical thing' in his decision to buy the land in 2008. He did not start farming it himself until 2019.

During a protest in 2024 against proposed reforms by Sir Keir Starmer's government to the tax he said he had actually bought it 'to shoot'.

The Government had proposed imposing a 20 per cent levy on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1million from April this year, ending the 100 per cent tax relief in place since the 1980s.

But after months of protests by farmers – including tractors bringing traffic to a halt at Westminster – the Government raised the threshold to £2.5million.

In its first year, the farm – which was bought by Clarkson for £4.45million – made just £144 in profit before making less than £15,000 in the year from 2023 to 2024 and losing £5,000 in the year from 2024 to 2025.

He wrote last year: 'If those numbers are typical, it means farmers are working twice as hard as anyone else and not even getting the minimum wage.'

Earlier this year, the presenter said he had been diagnosed with 'aggressive' prostate cancer which had been discovered early.

He later said a PSA test in April showed no sign of cancer and he was in remission.

This month, he appeared at the premiere of the latest series of The Grand Tour, which stars new presenters Francis Bourgeois, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman, replacing the classic line-up of Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Jeremy Clarkson's representatives have been contacted for comment.