Watch the young farmers from NI who are getting millions of views on TikTok
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Sixteen-year-old John Hobson and his friend, Jude McClements (15), have been sharing their farming lives with their followers via their respective social media channels, but now they’re joining forces and aiming to reach even more people around the world.
John’s account, @support_local_farmers has amassed over 30,00 followers, with his videos viewed by 12,000,000 people to date.
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Jude, meanwhile, has over 37,000 followers on his TikTok account, @judes_life_on_bushfarm.
The pair are passionate about sharing the ups and downs of farming and educating others on where their food comes from.
Now, they are planning on getting together to create content, with videos featuring a tractor pull, different jobs on the farm and tours of their own farms and machinery in the pipeline.
John, who is from just outside Caledon in County Tyrone, lives on a medium sized dairy and beef farm and is already thinking about the future with hopes of expanding.
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The 16-year-old created his TikTok account at the start of 2021.
“I wanted to try and influence both older and younger people to support local farmers,” John explained.
“It soon turned into a daily routine and 30,000 followers later, this is where we are!
“My collaboration with Jude, which is coming very soon, will open so many more doors for us both as we will reach lots more people across the UK, Ireland and other countries across the world.
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“We want to brighten the spirits of farmers, and showcase the good and the bad.”
As well as working on his family farm, Jude runs his very own car valet business.
“I have worked on our family farm all of my life,” Jude explained.
“In the future, I hope to combine my love for technology, social media and farming to do something with all of them.
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“I would love to go into robotic farming to combine all these things together, and I would like to run our third generation family farm.”
Jude’s farm is near Newtownards in County Down, where his family have around 350 milking and a further 300 dry cows, young stock and heifers – not forgetting their donkey, Jack!
He began sharing his life on the farm after his dad encouraged him to set up a YouTube channel, inspired by other social media savvy farmers like Tom Pemberton.
“I discovered my cousin was on TikTok and that got me into it,” Jude added.
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“I then started to take inspiration from John, posting one to two times a day and, over the summer, one of my videos went viral.”
The video, of Jude driving the JCB, hit almost one million views!
The County Down teenager feeds the calves on the farm every morning and night, before and after school.
“We have a 16 swing over milking parlour, which around 350 cows go through,” he continued.
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“My dad and grandpa both run the farm and I enjoy working with them.
“My dad is my biggest role model because he eats, sleeps and breathes farming.”
Through his social media platforms, the 15-year-old aims to show people what farm life is really like, how important farming is and how food ends up on our plates.
“I share videos on how we take care of the animals and show the ups and downs of farming,” Jude ended.
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And, he has been raising money for Air Ambulance NI through bidding wars and sales of his own merchandise, which includes hoodies, hats and polo shirts, with proceeds going to the charity.
John and Jude are hoping to share their first video over the next few days, so keep an eye on their social media accounts to see what they have been getting up to - @support_local_farmers and @judes_life_on_bushfarm