Strathmerton’s Brayden Coburn living his childhood crop farming dreams

Brayden Coburn was a tractor-obsessed six-year-old in 2004. We caught up with him 15 years down the track to find out if he realised his farming dreams.

All grown up: Brayden Coburn was featured in Country Living’s ‘Kids on Farms’ feature in 2004 and now he works on the farm. Picture: Chloe Smith.

FIFTEEN years ago, when Brayden Coburn graced the pages of The Weekly Times, he was a tractor-obsessed six-year-old with ambitions of being a cropping farmer.

Flash forward to now and the 21-year-old has his own real-life tractors and has realised his dream of working in cropping.

He is also running his own contracting business and does a bit of off-farm work, backing up his grandfather’s sentiment that he’s “a workaholic”. “I always had a passion for farming. I loved the outdoors and loved machinery and growing up on a farm it was something I always took an interest in,” Mr Coburn said.

Flashback: Brayden in 2004.

In March 2004, the Coburn family ran a dairy farm at Strathmerton but have since sold the cows and are now focused solely on growing crops, which suits Mr Coburn well.

“I always enjoyed going on the machinery with dad more than going milking with dad,” he said. “I never took a fancy to cows and I think it was the lifestyle of a cropping farmer I liked a bit better”

Mr Coburn’s debut in The Weekly Times recently made a comeback when it was brought out from the archives as part of his 21st birthday celebrations.

Though he was the front-page star on that Wednesday in 2004, Mr Coburn didn’t let the fame go to his head.

“I don’t think too many kids were reading The Weekly Times at six,” he said.