Unlike many influencers, the Johnsons haven't yet tapped into the agency world to help grow their brand. Don't miss: Women farmers earn about $58,000 a yearbut they still outearn their male counterparts, Get Make It newsletters delivered to your inbox, Learn more about the world of CNBC Make It, 2023 CNBC LLC. A farmer in western Minnesota has a YouTube channel that's approaching 1 million subscribers. "When you hear the word 'millennial,' your head probably goes to the same place as mine. To watch Zach make these repairs, visit Minnesota Millennial Farmer on YouTube. He is 37 years old today and sits on 350 acres of prime land where he farms soybeans and corn. Find contact details for 700 million professionals. @chrisforgione9 . We go on family vacations where we take an entire day and create videos on other farms. I want to see the carpet of pine needles it leaves behind., A parasocial relationship is when viewers develop emotional connections to people they know only through media, and these tend to deepen with more screen time. The Johnson family has roots in Sweden, with the first generation of Johnsons settling the farm in the 1870s. Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. Posting everything from slice-of-life videos (like choosing a Christmas tree with his wife and four kids), to harvesting soybeans, the MN Millennial Farmer has connected Zach with people around the world. Why dont I just farm with Dad for a year or two, and well see how this goes? he remembers. He made a five-foot (1.5m) putt on the last hole for an apparent three-shot victory, but a ruling on the final hole resulted in a two-stroke penalty. Then theres the relaxation factoror mood management, in media-researcher parlance. I started farming with Dad, and as I went along, I decided farming was what I wanted to do.. His social platforms on Facebook, Twitter . A Division of NBC Universal, Photo courtesy of MN Millennial Farmer YouTube. He finished the season ranked a career best fourth on the money list. 2:27; See All. "Extreme disappointment. It just kind of continued from there. LOWRY, Minn. For a farmer, there's as much love for their community as there is for their land. In 2012, Johnson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial for the second time in his career. But in his second year, he broke his ankle in a snowmobile accident and moved home, unable to walk around for three months. That was the first video I had that went over a hundred thousand views, and it probably did that in three or four days, Johnson remembers. Ever. We didn't have close neighbors or we couldn't ride our bikes to a friend's house.". Johnson won his first PGA Tour event in 2004 at the BellSouth Classic outside of Atlanta, one stroke ahead of runner-up Mark Hensby. Johnson", "There are two Zach Johnsons at the PGA Championship, and people are confused", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zach_Johnson&oldid=1142244799, Most consecutive cuts made 10 (2017 U.S. Open 2019 U.S. Open), Longest streak of top-10s 2 (2013 Open Championship 2013 PGA), This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 08:42. Although I personally favor chiropractic back-cracking videos, bird-nest cams, and ASMR of rabbits eating lettuce as my relaxing YouTube fare, at one point I decided to join him. The MN Millennial Farmer brand now includes YouTube videos, public speaking engagements, farm tours, merchandise and the recent debut of the"Off The Husk" podcast, backed by Farmers Business Network, his biggest sponsor to date. He has links on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. [10] Johnson defeated Troy Matteson, who started the day up four shots on Johnson and had led the tournament since the first round,[11] with a birdie on the second hole of their playoff. They have also lived in Foley, MN and Chicago, IL. Zach actively promotes agriculture by sharing his day-to-day experience on the family farm. My husband and I are fully aware of our own parasocial relationship with the Johnsons; whenever the familys two dogs and bajillion cats are onscreen, my husband pauses and calls me into the room so I can awwwwwww in a way that I just dont with random #catsofinstagram reels. Another part of mood management argues that when we feel badsad or upsetwe are more likely to seek out positive mediaand the Millennial Farmer fits that bill, Myrick adds. For a year and a half, Johnson did all of the recording and editing alone. 241.6K. Once a fixture near the top of the rankings, Johnson slipped to 126th in the world. Isla, 3, rode along in the combine with her dad, Zach Johnson. His vision is to build the connection between farmers . And its really hard for consumers to understand what goes on on the farms and what we do out here and why., In other early clips, Johnson defends hot-button topics like GMOswhich humans have actually been using for centuriesand glyphosate, the controversial weed killer known as Roundup. "We are down to our last 350 acres of soybeans to put in, our corn is all in, but right now we've got a 9560 John Deere it's an RT Model, like that," Johnson says, pointing to the one behind him, "but a bigger frame, that's an 8360 and Jim is stuck.". For more than a year, the channel was just a hobby. It turns out that people are clamoring for a look at the Millennial Farmers personal life. (Last Updated On: January 30, 2020) Millennial Farmer is a popular YouTube channel created by a guy named Zach Johnson who is from West Central Minnesota. Golf News. He's like Bob Ross or the Pioneer Woman, but with John Deere tractors. "He's not just a fitness person, he's not just someone who does jokes he's a farmer. [17], On July 20, 2015, Johnson beat Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in a four-hole playoff to win the Open Championship at St Andrews for his 12th PGA Tour win and second major. There are a lot of them out there, and thanks to YouTube star and Minnesota farmer Zach Johnson (better known to most everyone as Millennial Farmer), we see all these stereotypes in one place. In 2013, Johnson, in defense of his John Deere Classic title, lost in a three-man sudden-death playoff to Jordan Spieth at the fifth extra hole, after he bogeyed the final hole of regulation play with a one shot lead. So how did the hobby become a lucrative success? His signature sponsor right now is Farmers Business Network, but other partnerships include, or have included, John Deere, WD-40 (Johnson's very first sponsor), AGCO, J&M Manufacturing, Walls Clothing, Lumax, May Wes Manufacturing and Dakota Micro. ZJ: It was the episode when one of our hired guys got a tractor stuck in the mud. Zach actively promotes agriculture by sharing his day-to-day . One of the Kenworths got a new tarp motor, the 8360rt got a new set of batteries, and I spent some time cleaning shop.. In 2003, he topped the money list on the Nationwide Tour with then record earnings of $494,882, earning an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. LOWRY, Minn. Each morning before the sun rises and each night after it sets, fifth-generation farmer Zach Johnson is hard at work. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Zachary is related to Kelly Sue Johnson and Rebekah Christine Stoner as well as 2 additional people. In 2006, Johnson recorded a number of impressive results, with two runner-ups and a third at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. What I do is different from what my great-great-grandfather did in 1876, but it's still honest work and we're still doing a good job. Once the video started doing well, Johnson signed up his YouTube channel for a Google Adsense account, which matches ads to a user's site based on their content and visitors. It sounds clich, but I had a story to tell and I wanted to tell it. I mean, I just couldnt believe it., The appeal of his channel isnt exactly surprising to Jessica Gall Myrick, Ph.D., an associate professor of media studies at Pennsylvania State University. He and his dad work full-time while employing one part-time Lowry resident and three to four seasonal workers. Zach's mission is to become a national voice for agriculture, provide farmer-to-farmer . Harvest almost stopped, so the Johnsons maintained the grain and fixed machinery no small tasks. I was getting the combines ready and took a walk around the grain bin. His vision is to build the connection between farmers and consumers. Zach Johnson, a 37-year-old western Minnesota farmer, has become a YouTube star with frequent videos about farm work and life that he posts . Hosted by three farmers, Field Work is a podcast that provides space for frank discussions about the benefits and challenges of sustainable agriculture. "I never saw this coming, if I'm being honest," he said. Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009. "I've read so much negative stuff on farming. [23], Johnson and his wife, the former Kim Barclay, were members of First Baptist Church in Orlando. Sixth generation family farmer Zach Johnson started his channel to address misinformation about farming online and unexpectedly turned into a powerful spokes. After an hour of trial and error, Johnson and three other guys finally managed to free the John Deere from the knee-deep muck. On the bright side, Tractor Stuck in the MUD went on to amass more than 3.2 million YouTube views after Johnson posted it on June 4, 2019, making it the all-time most popular video on his channel, Millennial Farmer. The Johnson crew began their second stint of harvesting on Sunday, Oct. 14. Join Field Work podcast hosts Zach Johnson, Mitchell Hora and Tara Vander Dussen on Sunday, December 4, for a live, online event. Family content has also become a year-round staple. All https://www.barchart.com/solutions/ is provided by Barchart Solutions. Becky and I try to respond to as many posts as possible. What ensues is a politically incorrect podcast filled with genuinely improvised, authentic . Western Minnesota farmer Zach Johnson has amassed big YouTube following with his down-on-the-farm videos. Johnson has some theories of his own about why his channel blew up the way it did. Its giving viewers an idea of what farming is like, but always they see Zachs enthusiasm for his career of choice. So there's more opportunity when you play more, but that has nothing to do with my play." Theres a lot of stuff out there on the Internet. "We have a well that goes straight down into the water underneath our fields. It was time to start soybean harvest. A tractor stuck in the all-caps MUD is about as dramatic as things ever get. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Johnson and his dad farm more than 2,600 acres in Minnesota. He has stated: "This Foundation will fulfill a dream of mine and Kim's to give back to Cedar Rapids in a long-lasting, meaningful way. For related content and insights from industry experts, sign up for Successful Farming newsletters. The YouTube videos during the first two weeks of October showed the challenges of rain, snow, sleet, wind and cold. Yet theyve raked in more than a million views apiece, and not just from people in the agriculture business. We showed people, OK, we have a problem, but rather than drag each other down, lets go to work and pull it out. (Editors note: So far, Stuck in the Mud has 1.6 million views.). ZJ: In 2012, the rest of the country was in a drought. Johnson also started the day behind three-time defending champion Steve Stricker, who was three shots behind Matteson. Facebook gives people the power to. An 85-year Harvard study found the No. The Millennial Farmer videos on YouTube tell the full story from morning to night as Zach moves about the farm with children and dogs in tow. I would never say that everything we do is perfect or that farmers never do anything wrong, but if you're worried about clean water, so am I.". One program created by Johnson and his wife Kim helped to raise $700,000 for community agencies serving children in need. It was our best crop ever, with corn $8 per bushel. Oct. 18 was a good harvesting day the first after a long string of wet, cool days that were spent trying to wrestle the crops out of the fields. Still, Johnson has another love: dirt-track racing. You get that compaction, you wreck the microbes in the soil, and you end up with a poorer crop next year; but at some point you have to get out there and you have to get your investment back to get what you can from the crop youve invested into.. It is not my intent to in any way infringe on their content ownership. With more than 2,500 acres of soybeans and corn to tend to . Thats when Johnson and his wife, Becky, started their own YouTube channel, Millennial Farmer, in the spring of 2016. Zach's mission is to become a national voice for agriculture, provide farmer to farmer . [13], At the 2012 Open Championship, played at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England, Johnson finished at even par for the tournament (280), tied for ninth, seven shots behind winner Ernie Els.[14]. 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