Australian TikTok farmers to watch: Malleeboy3490, Zoe Carter, Farmer Zayne
These farmers have accidentally found themselves the face of Australian agriculture to tens of millions of curious young people.
SOCIAL networking giant TikTok, the video-sharing platform which has risen to huge success in the last year, has unlocked an unexpected audience: young people with a hunger for agriculture content.
A small group of farmers have found themselves the face of Australian agriculture to tens of millions of curious young people across the world.
Their quick-wit and comedic videos of life on the land have given them accidental viral success and now they’re using their new-found fame to educate critical consumers and inspire young Aussies to consider farm work.
The Weekly Times took an in-depth look at how it happened and how the agriculture industry can capatilise on their success here.
These are the social media stars you need to keep an eye on.
PETER VALLANCE
529.1k followers and 8m likes
PETER Vallance, who works on his family farm at Ouyen in Victoria’s Mallee Region, started filming videos and posting to TikTok as a way to create and save some memories with his old cattle dog Spud.
But his account took off, with Patrick the Alpaca stealing the show.
Peter’s most popular videos are of him yelling at Patrick — who is actually girl — for not doing her job of looking after the farm’s goats and instead creeping up on Peter, stealing feed or harassing the sheep.
Peter, 30, has found that people are not just sticking around for the laughs though, receiving hundreds of messages from young people asking how they can get a job like him.
“To have those young people come and go ‘I really like look of your life, how do I get to do that?’ has been amazing,” he said.
“The cross section of people I talk to is unbelievable.”
Not only is he inspiring people to think of farming as a career choice, Peter is passionate about educating city folk about where their food comes from.
“It’s definitely good for farmers to have a voice and get the right information out there,” he said.
“You can fit a lot into a minute and a minute is about how long you can hold someone’s attention.”
ZAYNE HALL
357.2k followers and 10.4m likes
ZAYNE Hall, known as Farmer Zayne in the social media world, works on his family’s farm near Stawell in Victoria, where they run crossbred ewes and a few crops to put back into the ewes.
The 21-year-old started TikTok for a laugh with his friend to see who could get to 5000 followers first.
“And as it turned out, there were a few people that enjoyed my content,” said Zayne, who now has nearly 360,000 followers.
“I love how my videos can either educate or make people laugh from the other side of the world.”
While comedy and equally-famous sheep Johnny has won over his huge following, Zayne says he has had hundreds of messages from curious users asking questions about farming, from lamb marking and shearing to fencing.
He says he has also learnt so much himself, including how other farmers run their farms in different countries across the world – “just from scrolling through the app”.
ZOE CARTER
157.6k followers and 2.8m likes
TWENTY-two year-old Zoe Carter grew in up in the Victorian city of Geelong but after leaving school has spent as much time as she can in the middle of nowhere.
She works as a ringer each year on a few different stations in Western Australia, where she will do just about any farm job that keeps her living the lifestyle, from mustering and working with horses to putting up fencing and welding up yards.
With a passion for encouraging young people to get into agriculture, Zoe has spent years building up her presence across social media but was blown away with how quickly her followers skyrocketed when she joined TikTok.
“With my TikTok account I’ve only had that for maybe 12 months and I’m sitting at 155,000 followers,” she said, compared to the 55,000 she gained in about 18 months on Instagram.
Zoe says she is constantly receiving messages from people, who have seen her videos on TikTok, asking how they can get into farm work.
“I’ve reached a lot of people that either had no idea about agriculture or were uneducated, or were kind of interested in it and now are wondering how they can be a part of it all.”
TIMMY B
79.8k followers and 1.4m likes
THIS fourth generation farmer from Western Australia has found internet fame in sharing his packed lunches at smoko time during harvest.
His quirky videos have brought thousands of people along for the ride throughout the season.
JACK MOYSES
32.6k followers and 494.9k likes
FOR fans of machinery or just beautiful on-farm imagery, eighteen-year-old Jack has the content for you.
The Western Australian posts professional-level videos of tractors during harvest, including stunning drone shots and from inside the cabin – putting the viewer right in the driver’s seat.
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