A farmer who makes YouTube videos of his work now has 37,500 subscribers and says he makes more money online than from his dairy herd. Ian Pullen, 57, a cattle farmer known as 'Farmer P', makes up to £2,000 a month from YouTube videos on his 57-acre farm in Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire.
He began making YouTube videos in 2018, but the channel really took off during the pandemic - when he began uploading videos every day so his mother, who was living in a nursing home, could keep up-to-date on the farm when he couldn't visit. Now, with help from his wife, Jean and four daughters, he has 37,500 subscribers from all over the world, and even sells cuddly toy merchandise of his dog, Biskit.
He says videos involving shiny tractors and his dog are particularly popular and sometimes get him hundreds of thousands of views. He said: "When Covid hit I couldn't visit my mum in the nursing home, so we bought her a TV for her room and uploaded videos every day so she could keep up to date on what was going on at the farm.
"Turns out everyone in the home was watching them too, and the staff. Then suddenly the numbers skyrocketed. I had people all over the world write me, contact me and thank me for keeping them sane.
"Then around two-and-a-half years ago, I got a message saying YouTube had paid me £47. I had no idea this was even a thing, I'd never done the videos for the money - I wanted to keep an open diary so I could look back in 25 years and show my grandkids what the farm looked like.
"The next payment was £80, and then £300 - which is not to be sniffed at. Now I can make sometimes up to £2,000 a month from YouTube which is more than my cattle."
Ian, who grew up on the farm, reinvests all of the money he makes from YouTube back into it - so far paying for a new barn and all of his fertiliser this year, plus a new camera and a drone to shoot videos from above the farm. He keeps 50 Dexter cattle along with a few sheep - although he plans on selling them within the next few months to focus on his specialty cattle.
He also grows some wheat on the farm - although 'can't rely' on it for his income due to unpredictable weather, disease and soil from year to year. He still uploads a video most days, although his mother passed away last November, and he estimates each video takes four hours to make.
He said: "People seem to love the videos - but my dog Biskit is the true star. We even have cuddly toys of her that we sell - hundreds have sold to people all over the world. Everyone loves her, although if they came here and met her she's a right bugger - especially if you're a rat.
"Farmers are the biggest gamblers in the world, you have no idea how much you're going to make each year because so much of it is out of your control. You can spent £35,000 producing a crop, only for there to be bad weather or for it to catch a disease and you lose everything - so YouTube is a security for the farm almost.
"It's a form of diversification, some farmers open bed and breakfasts, some open a cafe, this is my version of that and I've met some amazing people along the way."
