Online presence brings farm stories directly to consumer

To hear 29-year-old Davide Gomiero talk about life on his 1,000-acre, 1,500-cow dairy farm near Venice, Italy is to understand immediately how he’s amassed nearly half a million followers on Instagram.

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He’s bright and open, and his optimism about farming is infectious.

Why it matters: The public trusts farmers and wants to hear from them about what happens on their operations.

While Gomiero started posting content to YouTube some 15 years ago, he only really started to post regularly in the past five years. Three years ago, his content caught the attention of Discovery Channel executives, who offered him a reality TV series. Now going into its third season, Quella pazza fattoria (That crazy farm) is so popular that it has renewed interest in agricultural studies at local universities.

Gomiero was part of a group of social media stars that was invited to EuroTier, held in Germany every second November. During the four-day trade fair, the largest of its kind for livestock producers in the world, he shared his experiences with young farmers and would-be ‘agri-influencers’ in the hopes that they, too, will be able to move the needle on the public’s perception of farming.

From his first post, Gomiero had one goal: to educate the public about farming and to clear up common misconceptions around topics such as environmental management, animal welfare, and even the income of farmers. He said the latter is something the general public gets wrong. They assume farmers are rich when they see the expensive equipment used on farms.

The public has responded positively. Gomiero attributes their acknowledgment to his dedication and to his ‘no-filter farming’ approach. The key, he said, is to post regularly, and to show the realities of farming, including the beauty and the challenges. He shares at least one original video each day, and posts everything from equipment malfunctions to the birth of a new calf.

While Gomiero is transparent about what happens on the farm, he does have to be careful around some topics. The general public, he said, is sensitive about animal care and welfare. When posting livestock-related content, he carefully explains what he’s doing and why. When performing potentially dangerous tasks, he clearly points to the risks and highlights proper safety protocols.

“I have a little bit of responsibility because there are a lot of people watching my videos every day,” he said.

Gomiero said it’s especially important to create posts that help clear up common misconceptions. For example, he’s used his platform to highlight the environmental efforts of Italian farmers and to explain how and why they use pesticides. While his authenticity has won him public respect for the most part, dealing with ‘haters’ is a hazard of the job.

“Sometimes maybe there will be some haters, but don’t care about these things,” he said. “Just continue because I think people like what we do.”

Public persona pitfalls

Olly Harrison, a 44-year-old crop farmer from Tarbock, England, calls his foray into social media accidental at best. But what started out as ‘a joke’ has turned into a serious following. In fact, the earnings from his YouTube channel have helped pay for a brand-new sprayer.

It started during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, around the time when social distancing rules were first introduced.

The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) was working on a story on moisture challenges in UK farmers’ fields and needed footage of an actual farmer. Harrison was asked to shoot a short smartphone video for the story. That night, he shared the video on his own social media channels and watched with surprise as it gained traction.

On a lark, he shot a second video the next day, this time from inside his tractor cab, and again posted it to social media. Engagement was high, he said, and people seemed to like what he was doing, so he decided to keep going.

“After about a month, I was still making a video every day,” Harrison said. “I was like, when do I stop? And I thought, well, the world is going a bit mad, so when the world’s gone back to a normal place, I’ll stop.”

But he hasn’t stopped. Since March 2020, Harrison has posted at least one video every single day. His YouTube channel, Olly Blogs Agricontract, is now home to over 2,000 videos that have garnered over 100 million views. The channel boasts 145,000 subscribers.

In 2023, the DLG invited Harrison to Agritechnica, the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery, where he was awarded Agri-Influencer of the year. In a one-on-one interview, he shared the pros and cons of becoming a public persona.

Like most social media mavens, Harrison is uncomfortable with being called an influencer. But he is. Viewers like his honest approach, and they like his content, which features the highs and lows of arable farming in the UK. Some days he posts videos of equipment and field work. In others, he talks politics and policy.

His aim is two-fold: to narrow the divide between urban and rural communities by championing farmers and the work they do, and to make a difference. The latter may sound vague, but the results are distinct.

In 2020, Harrison started a movement that he calls #AnswerAsAPercent whereby followers share their mental health status as a percentage. He’d just lost a friend to suicide — a friend he thought was perfectly well.

“The biggest lie in the world is ‘I’m fine’,” he said. “It’s much easier to say I’m 50 per cent or 60 per cent. And if someone has the time, they can ask why. It’s so simple. If we can get everyone doing this, we can make a difference.”

In the early days, Harrison took the time to respond to as many people as he could. Eventually, the movement produced an organic community that began to take care of itself.

Following the loss of a second farmer to suicide, Harrison and a friend came up with a plan to drive a combine from Liverpool to Land’s End, the westernmost peninsula of Cornwall, to raise awareness about farmer mental health. The 1,500 kilometre journey took four days to complete and raised over $175,000 and caught the attention of mainstream media.

Harrison cautions those who aspire to become social media influencers that there are downsides to becoming a public persona. There’s a sense of responsibility that comes with creating a community, especially one with such a strong focus on mental health, and as he put it, you can’t always be online.

Harrison is also uncomfortable with being a public figure. People feel they know him, he said, but they really only know his online persona.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am what you see,” he said. “I’ve just got to be careful.”

Despite the challenges, Harrison shows no sign of slowing. “If people keep watching, I’ll keep doing it,” he said.