Ron Jeremy recently returned from working 17 days on a farm in England for a top-rated, reality television show in which he competed with nine other amateur farmers.
Jeremy was the last remaining non-British participant left on “The Farm” that had a format in which the viewing public voted people off the show. Orville and Keith, a ventriloquist and a talking duck, won the competition and the $100,000 prize for being Top Farmer.
The Metro Studios star lived on the East Hill Farm in the Heytesbury section of Warminster, which is north of London near Stone Henge.
“It was brutal work. It was the real deal,” Jeremy told AVN.com. “It was not just feeding, watering and cleaning manure. We were taught, and then had to practice trimming the toenails of bulls, vaccinating animals, assisting in the birth of cows, sheep and pigs. We even helped deliver three different lambs. I was getting up at 7:30 in the morning and going to bed at 11 at night.”
He also assisted in removing the horns from a baby calf and castrating baby lambs.
“I recently did an ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and I’m really happy to know that PETA in England found this to be a very humane farm,” Jeremy noted. “They even allowed me to wear a PETA t-shirt. It was a meat-producing farm, but it was very humane and very ethical.”
He added, “I never assisted in any of the deaths. I wasn’t around, and I was a vegetarian the whole time I was there. I’ll eat a steak at Spago, but I don’t eat animals that I’ve met. That’s a policy of mine. And I’ve given up turtle soup for life. (Ron has a pet turtle).”
Jeremy was paid $100,000 in salary just to be on “The Farm.” Among the notables that he beat were Flava Flav of Public Enemy fame, Charlene Tilton from “Dallas,” and Italian adult star Cicciolina.
“They almost had Monica Lewinsky and Anna Nicole Smith on the show, but at the last minute they cancelled,” Jeremy said. “I had more votes than most of the British celebrities. All the Americans, I outlasted them by a week. I lost to a talking duck.”
Jeremy called Orville, the duck, and ventriloquist Keith Harris something like “‘Captain Kangaroo,’ ‘Mister Rogers,’ and ‘Sesame Street’ all rolled into one.”
“The Farm” format included housemates nominating each other for “public auction,” or the possibility of being kicked off the show, most of which was broadcast live on Channel Five in the U.K.
“Then the English public makes the final decision. I left the day before the ending. I lasted two weeks and three days, and the show ended in two weeks and four days, and then I got on a plane and went to Newfoundland, where I did a comedy show for two nights in Canada. It was sort of a whirlwind,” he said.
“The Farm” was also seen in the British Isles, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe, Jeremy added.
“I was mainly in charge of bottle feeding the little lambs that were born and their moms were not producing enough milk, so we were supplementing them with milk,” he said. “I liked that.”
He got up so early that “I never even woke up with a boner.”
“It makes you think the next time you order a meal what went into it,” Jeremy said. “These animals are purposely raised to be food.”
The male turkeys made an impression on him.
“They have all the plumage, the fancy feathers. They would walk all the way across the field just because there are people talking and then gobble amongst themselves like a bunch of old Jewish women,” Jeremy recalled. “They’re very curious. I’m going to feel very guilty next Thanksgiving. There are a lot of personalities with turkeys. And I’ve given up lamb chops.”
Jeremy said the show would be coming out on DVD.
“The ratings are huge, all of England saw it,” he said.
Pictured: Ron Jeremy and Orville the Duck.
