What started as a video demonstrating how to use a milk vending machine has led to Tom Pemberton gaining 107,000 subscribers on his Farm Life YouTube channel.

The young farmer runs a dairy, beef and sheep farm with his father on the Fylde Coast in the east of England. Releasing videos every Tuesday and Friday, he has gained a worldwide following and this has helped his farm shop business as well as going some way to bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.

He shared his experience with delegates at the Macra na Feirme national conference at Corrin Mart, Fermoy. The Pembertons sell a lot of their produce direct to consumers and this is where the video idea came from.

I show the general public that we try to make the animals’ lives as good as possible

“About three years ago we started doing a raw milk vending machine and we thought, how can we get people to come and use it? So I did a 90 second demonstration video just on my phone. It got 11,000 views on Facebook, so I put it on YouTube and thought why don’t I show more of what we do. I moved on to doing videos of rearing calves and people really liked it.”

The popularity of his videos snowballed to the extent that they now have had millions of views.

The development of a farm shop and his proximity to Blackpool helped bring extra customers, with Tom saying a lot of people come from YouTube after watching the videos.

Challenges

Speaking with the Irish Farmers Journal after the event, Tom said showing what you do on your farm online is not without its challenges. These come in the form of either vegans who are opposed to what he does or fellow farmers who know how to do things better. He said: “You put yourself out there and you put a target on your back. In all my videos I like to explain why we do it and tell them what we do.

“I’m a traditional farmer. Everything’s not new, it’s not always perfectly clean and I think that is what people relate to. I show the general public that we try to make the animals’ lives as good as possible.”

Tom’s videos not only show what happens on his farm. The relationship between him and his father unfolds on camera too, and makes for interesting viewing.

Fans

Such is his farming fame that Tom found himself meeting some of his younger fans and signing autographs after the conference. It’s not every day a farmer has to do that.

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