When Mr Bird set up a YouTube channel to promote the good side of farming he was thrilled to get 100 views for the first video.
‘‘Then we got 50 subscribers and we were stoked, and it’s just sort of grown organically,’’ he said.
‘‘We haven’t had massive jumps or peaks, it’s just been steady. We are sitting around [14,200] subscribers now with views for an average video of 6000 to 8000.’’
A viewing audience of his many clips on daily farming life goes beyond local followers to Youtubers from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The top-viewed video had 186,000 hits for a grumpy cow at calving time trying to chase him down.
‘‘You try and recreate a video or think ‘I like this one and it will do really well’ and it doesn’t and the ones you think are a bit average tend to go well. so there’s no rhyme or reason about what will do well or not.’’
If he had to put his finger on the Kiwi Farmer channel’s success he would put it down to a candid portrayal of farming.
He and his wife Genna fell into being YouTube creators when a few videos about their farm accommodation never fully fired on a Facebook page.
So they gave the online video sharing platform a crack.
‘‘We were trying to encourage people to get on farm and see our world by opening our doors. I’d been watching some of the American farm Youtubers for a while and thought ‘why not give this a go?’.
‘‘At the time there were only a couple of farmers in New Zealand doing the same sort of thing.
‘‘We thought we could show our perspective and try and promote Ag from our point of view and show people we are not environmental terrorists as farming was getting a pretty bad rap in the media then with the environmental stuff.
‘‘No-one was telling the good we were doing. It was all negative and we decided to try warts-and-all what we go through and bring our side of the story out there.’’
Three years later they film and edit videos weekly.
Into their packed working day they fit running a soon-to-expand agri-tourism accommodation venture and their dryland sheep and beef farm, The Grange, between Oxford and Ashley Gorge.
He is often the one in front of and behind the camera and she has been known to make the odd cameo appearance, as does one of their daughters. Another daughter does not want a bar of YouTube life.
Weekly videos lasting about 20 minutes are sometimes stretched to twice a week and sponsors liking their story have got on board.
The Grange, near Ashley Gorge, ranges from flats on the bottom end of the farm to steep, hard, native hill country scaling up to 880m above sea level. The 560ha breeding farm is partnered with a nearby 65ha flat dryland lease block for wintering and early lambing on August 1 to get their offspring away to the works before Christmas.
Split lambing is delayed on the home farm until September 25, as they can get late snow storms, and to also reduce market risks.
Angus cows roam the hills and there are regenerating native and planted tree blocks set aside for the Emissions Trading Scheme.
A canopy camping site for the high-end market will be followed soon with hut-style accommodation next to a waterfall for families. There are tracks being developed for bush walking and horse riding.
Multiple revenue streams outside of protein are needed to gain value from the land and keep the ‘‘lights on’’, he said.
Mr Bird has developed a thick hide against fault-finding keyboard critics, but finds loyal followers soon put the record straight if anyone gets out of line.
A deep well of informed and well-meaning advice can be tapped into via the comments and a personal spin-off from the YouTube involvement is getting out of his comfort zone.
‘‘I’m an introvert and it’s really helped with my communication skills. Putting myself out there is something I’ve been working on since I was 15 so it’s just a facet of that really.
‘‘There’s a to-and-fro of information so it’s not one-sided. I ask people for advice and it’s pretty cool in that regard.’’
Occasionally, he delves into mental health messaging, as his father is involved in the Rural Support Trust in Marlborough, but he is conscious to tread lightly as viewers come to the channel to be entertained.
