Clarkson and Lisa are told to look for "a white broad bean in black fluid" using the ultrasound scanning systems; unfortunately for them, neither of the heifers are in calf. Lisa suggests another round of artificial insemination, while Dilwyn suggests two options: bringing a bull or the unpopular "nuclear option", eating the heifers. Spurning the latter option, Clarkson opts to inseminate the two heifers again, despite Charlie's discouraging due to the cow's life expectancy being lowered due to the area being a hotspot for bovine tuberculosis. With Dilwyn present, Clarkson sits down with him to get briefed about bovine tuberculosis; they narrow down the cause of the bovine tuberculosis to badgers, while Dilwyn informs Clarkson that attempting to shoot badgers is illegal, having been as such since the 1980s. Clarkson inquires about what happens if a cow catches bovine tuberculosis, with Dilwyn responding saying that it has to be shot.
After chatting with Dilwyn, Clarkson rings up conservationist Tom, who brings along badger specialist Andy to detect for any evidence of badger life around the farm; this does not take long, as Andy and Tom quickly detect sett entrances and a number of active badger holes. After reviewing the area, Tom quickly warns Clarkson to not attempt to do anything that could destroy a badger's habitat or harm the badgers themselves, such as shooting or gassing them. Clarkson gives an anecdote of a friend of his who shoots badgers under cover of night, and wonders what happens if he got caught; Tom informs Jeremy of the potential penalties if there was evidence that could prove that he had shot and killed badgers, which would be a £40,000 fine per badger or sett and up to 12 months in prison.
Aware of the slim chance that the setts were empty, Clarkson decides to enlist film crew member Casper Leaver to set up some trap cameras to prove the existence of the badgers; the reviewed footage was "terrifying", showing numerous badgers in the area. With Clarkson describing his cows as being "in the cow equivalent of Rorke's Drift", he spends money on badger deterrent measures, such as raising the water troughs, electrifying the fences near their setts and installing field troughs with badger-deterrent rollers. In addition to these, Clarkson spends even more money on building a barn for the cows.
The construction workers request that Clarkson take away the subsoil to make the site level, so he hitches a trailer and gets to work. He takes the subsoil to an abandoned quarry on the farm, where he uses a telehandler to dispose of it. At this point, Charlie arrives, informing Clarkson he has to fill out a waste exemption license to inform the government that the soil is free of contamination; in addition to this, Charlie also delivers "great news" to Clarkson, and takes him to the rapeseed fields.
Here, Clarkson and Charlie spot a runway of rapeseed which Kaleb forgot to drill. Gleefully, Clarkson abandons his chores and proceeds to mock Kaleb, driving him to the field for inspection; Kaleb quickly denies any responsibility, refusing to take the blame. Soon after, the duo receives an invitation to the British Farming Awards to receive an award; Kaleb gets a haircut for the occasion, meaning that they were late in setting off. Thanks to Clarkson's "other job", Clarkson decides to take a car which would get them there on time: a Lamborghini Huracán STO.
With Clarkson driving and the melody of its V10 engine breaking the silence in the countryside, Kaleb is astounded at the car's performance and remarks that he wants one. As they pass a farm which Kaleb remarks he farms as well, Clarkson takes this opportunity to take pot shots at Kaleb. Clarkson and Kaleb arrive just in time, where Kaleb treats Clarkson like a chauffeur and requests that he drop him in front of the red carpet; exasperated with Kaleb's orders, he goes and parks the car and enters the awards, chatting with the guests while Kaleb is taking photos and selfies with others.
The ceremony finally starts and various awards are given out to who Clarkson describes "unsung heroes"; about an hour later, Clarkson and Kaleb are given the award for Flying the Flag for British Agriculture to rapturous applause and cheers, to which he feels quite humbled. Clarkson gives a speech while Kaleb takes pot shots at him, while Kaleb later gleefully declares he has won an award. Kaleb later participates in a cider drinking contest.
The next morning, Kaleb is initially not present due to being hungover; as payback, Clarkson begins sowing wildflower seeds in the part of the field which Kaleb missed in the shape of a snarky message. Having finished that message, NFU representative Georgia Craig stops by the farm to talk to Clarkson about the financial toll that occurs if a cow is infected with bovine tuberculosis by badgers; Clarkson is informed that he may not sell cows, nor may he buy cows to replace the infected ones, essentially putting his farm on lockdown.
Knowing that Clarkson would want to understand this disease further, Georgia introduces Clarkson to a new project involving badgers. The gist of the project was to determine if a badger's carcass was infected with tuberculosis, which would be used to determine if the badgers in the area were infected; the project requires relatively fresh carcasses which were either found dead or became roadkill, which would then be tested for tuberculosis. Clarkson suggests hitting it with a hammer to ensure it is dead, which Georgia discourages him from doing.
With the project underway and the cow shed being built at a good pace, Clarkson turns his attention to creating more produce to sell at the restaurant. Clarkson talks about a project that had begun a while ago, where Clarkson bought a share of a local brewery and requested brewery owner Rick Keene to create a lager using the barley harvested from the farm; fast forwarding a few months, this lager is now ready to sample and name. Clarkson suggests naming the lager Hawkstone Lager, a name which Rick likes. They experiment with a few different brews of lager, using different constituents of ingredients. With Clarkson, now clearly drunk and talking nonsense, the film crew decide to try the lager for themselves, with Clarkson being driven back to the farm by "an extremely patient director".
Back at the farm, Clarkson gives Kaleb and Gerald a taste of his new lager. The three quickly work through the case of lager and discuss "many matters of great importance". With positive feedback about the beer, Clarkson decided to move onto harvesting another batch of potatoes, having decided to make them into potato chips, deducing that they would get £13,000 in profits. Clarkson orders a fry kitchen for manufacturing the potato chips, which arrives a few weeks later. To make space, Clarkson is told to move a green Ford Fiesta which belongs to Lisa's daughter; having found the keys, he moves it out of the way but drives over a manhole, scraping its undercarriage; he eventually moves the car out of the way with the help of two construction workers.
With the fry kitchen now set up, Clarkson and Lisa attempt to make an initial batch of potato chips; Clarkson uses a mandolin to attempt to cut up his potatoes to make these chips but ends up slicing part of his thumb off. Lisa quickly bandages him up, escorts him out and proceeds to make the potato chips herself. Meanwhile, Clarkson uses a chainsaw to cut down a tree to make a Christmas tree when he receives a text message from a local hospital, informing him of a surgical appointment he has relating to his thumb. Clarkson visits the local hospital in the evening, with Lisa on filming duties, where he gets a skin graft operation on his thumb.
A few days after the incident, with Clarkson's thumb recovering, Clarkson spots a badger carcass on the side of the road; he quickly bags it up and sends it for testing. Here, Clarkson talks with dairy farmer Emma Ledbury, who has come to stock the farm shop with dairy product; she laments that she lost about half her herd to bovine tuberculosis. By now, the barn for the cows was ready; Clarkson, Kaleb, Charlie and Lisa attempt to move the cows into the barn but are hindered by a sudden downpour. Thankfully for them, the rain eases up and they quickly get the cows moved into the barn using food; this time, the cows's disobedience shows and attempt to attack Clarkson and the others. Continually disobedient, the cows do not follow the direction of Clarkson and attempt to escape; with Lisa's help they herd the cows into the barn, but one cow, being incredibly disobedient, attempts to escape.
Deciding to let the disobedient cow tire itself out, Clarkson collects the calves from another field to move into the barn. Clarkson attempts to herd the disobedient cow, and it is in the barn by the next morning. As he fed the cows with hay, Clarkson sorts through his mail to find a letter from the laboratory regarding the badger he collected; he finds that the badger has tested positive for a virus which causes bovine tuberculosis. Clarkson deduces that it was likely that all the badgers on the farm were infected with bovine tuberculosis; Kaleb drops by to see the result and is equally shocked at the result. Clarkson and Kaleb begin to wonder if the rest of the cows were infected; the timing was right however as they were in for their bi-yearly tuberculosis test, which Dilwyn helps to administer. Clarkson opts to name the disobedient attacking cow Genghis Khan; by then, the tuberculosis test has finished, but the two would have to wait until three days later for the result. Clarkson and Kaleb then discuss what happens if a cow has contracted bovine tuberculosis.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Actor Allusion: The Grand Tour is alluded to in this episode.
- Blatant Lies: Kaleb claims he didn't miss the bit of the rapeseed field and denies any responsibility.
- Celebrity Cameo: Vernon Kay acts as the host of the British Farming Award.
- Cool Car: Clarkson's Lamborghini Huracán STO.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Kaleb confuses Genghis Khan with Mahatma Gandhi.
- Freudian Slip: Clarkson mentions about finding a fresh carcass, like one he had just run over; noticing a change in Georgia's face, he quickly corrects himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Kaleb's reaction when finding out that the badger Clarkson collected tested positive for the virus which causes bovine tuberculosis.
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Squick: Clarkson's open wound is shown.
