Virtual farming continues as IRL farming expands - Grant Hilbert 

Hi everyone. I'm Paul Yeager This is the MtoM Show podcast to production of Iowa PBS and the Market to Market TV show. We're back in the studio today with a live guest. There's a little bit of humor in that joke, because this live guest is a return guest. But he's someone who's made a name for himself, virtually. But he's also made that transition into real life. We're talking virtual farming. And real life farming, Grant Hilbert is back with us. You know him from The Squad, that's where he does virtual farming videos and has done one since 2014. When he was still a student. He's now made enough money from his side jobs. You know, we'll call them off-farm jobs. It just happens to be that he's a YouTube star. To buy some farmland, we're gonna find out what farming in real life is like, how it differs from what you see online and how the two worlds collide. And also, this one is interesting is where does he get recognized the most? We'll cover that in this episode, new shows come out each and every Tuesday here from Iowa PBS. If you have any feedback for me, send it to Paul.Yeager@IowaPBS.org. You saw it on the screen here just a moment ago. Like, subscribe, share, tell a friend, check out some of our past episodes. Lots to get into there. If you have any interest in agriculture. That's what we do. Now. Let's get to Grant. You're a big deal on YouTube. That's a fair one? Right.

[Grant Hilbert] Yeah. All right. Oh, retrospective. Yeah, no, Mr. Beast, but you're pretty darn close. Yeah, actually. Well, not to cut you off. But Mr. Beast, when in 2017. I was on the call with him for like four or five hours. And we were at the same subscriber count in 2017. And now he's at like, well over 100 million or something like that? Well, what are you at right now? Like 1.5 million.

[Yeager]  You're not that far off. I mean, yeah. In the scheme of the internet, let's face it. You're close. 

[Hilbert]True. But Mr. Beast is, I mean, he's up here. I'm down here. Fair enough.

[Yeager]  When you come into a TV studio, do you sit and go? Oh, they overdo it. I can do it with much less?

[Hilbert]  No, you guys. It's a little different. YouTube's like, YouTube's like you're supposed to, you know, it's all homemade stuff. That's how YouTube has always been.

[Yeager] I wrote down the notes. The last time we talked. And I only wrote down two things. Three things. One of them was you started doing this in 2014. Right on the Squad? 

[Hilbert]  Yeah, I was a sophomore in high school here.

[Yeager] And I asked you that question before I ask it again, how different is the internet of 2014 to 2024. In 10 years?

[Hilbert] it's changed like YouTube. YouTube changes a lot. Like every two years, there's some new thumbnail or title, the way you're doing it and stuff. So that's changed. But I'm surprised how consistent YouTube's been like how you've been able to just grow a channel and stay with it. Most people thought, Okay, this is a one two year deal and stuff. But it's actually turned into most people like a business where it's like, okay, I expect these cash flows. This month, I'm gonna bring in this income and it's been pretty steady. So I'm surprised by that. But YouTube's always changing every year and two.

[Yeager]  I didn't look at your LinkedIn. Are you still listed, what do you list is your main occupation?

[Hilbert] Not a farmer, not a farmer. I wish it was farmer. I wish it was only farmer, YouTube. And then I started a software company in 2020 When I started farming, create a mobile game called American Farming, which was hardest thing I've ever probably built or done. Because I'm not a software Dev and somehow I ended up managing software devs for that. But yeah, so we will watch that game in November 2023. And so that with YouTube, I'd say are my main main things and farming.

[Yeager] But that doesn't make you said Dev and I believe you mean developer. Yeah. So are you're not a developer on the internet? Are you a developer on the internet? I don't even want to say internet. Celebrity internet personality, YouTube host and media mogul. I mean seriously, what is your title?

[Hilbert]  Probably the best way to put his like entrepreneur, I guess entrepreneur, even though I sometimes hate that title. But it's, you know, YouTube, and then you're trying to create businesses off YouTube and stuff like that trying to, you know, trying to grow wealth that way. So probably entrepreneur.

[Yeager]  Virtual farming is what started all of this and allowed this Yeah. You shed the name virtual for farmer. How did that happen?

[Hilbert]  I don't know. I always wanted to farm. I always wanted to farm when I was younger. And it was like, you know, how do you start farming and in my head I was kind of like, okay, well I. Some people start from scratch, like go into it with no capital. But my idea was to gain capital throughout life, whether it be you know, when I'm 40-50-60 years old, have some capital base to then start farming, you could buy higher acres, 80 acres, and then start farming that way. And stuff. And so I got kind of lucky during high school and college and YouTube's are taken off a little bit and gave me the opportunity to, to be able to start farming at a younger age than I expected to. 

[Yeager]  But I think you're very similar to a lot of people who are getting into farming that are your age and of the new farmer generation, it is that exact same blueprint, go have an off farm job, yes, you accrue some money, maybe rent some land, maybe buy for the present itself and get into it that way. 

[Hilbert]  Yeah,, no, I would. I would agree. It's, I shouldn't say impossible, but it's almost impossible. I mean, you know, it's almost impossible to start farming without outside income and outside income just makes it so much easier to get started farming. It's kind of interesting that everybody, everybody loves farming that much that they're willing to, you know, go, you know, have that outside income to buy, it's like, you know, are you going to go make a bunch of outside income just to buy a bunch of gold and leverage a bunch of gold or something like that. Not many people, you know, take that much risk on something like that. So it's interesting to see that in the farming world. 

[Yeager]  You bought your first piece of land when?

[Hilbert]  2020 close? Yeah, November 2020.

[Yeager]  So your first crop was 2121?

[Hilbert]  Yep. So I've had three crops since

[Yeager]  I guess in the quick three years, what has been the biggest change?

[Hilbert]  For me personally, or what? Like I've seen in the farming industry?

[Yeager]  You personally, first.

[Hilbert]  The biggest thing is, like you don't you don't have you don't like you have all these thoughts going into farming of how it's gonna play out and stuff like that. And you learn so much by actually being able to do it. There's just nothing that can, you know, I play farming for a living. There's nothing that can simulate farming. Nothing like, you know, like, I walk into it. Honestly, young guy think, okay, I know, I'll do all this. Boy, what population do I run on my planner? How do I set that and stuff? It's like you're going into a plant you're like, oh, shoot, I probably should have thought of that. So you're calling your neighbors and stuff and you're learning all these things, you know, physically actually doing it set in a combine setting a planter? All that stuff? Biggest thing for me, I would say is, when you buy a $500,000 piece of farmland or seven or $50,000 piece farmland or when you buy a half a million dollar investment in real life, you know a lot about that investment, you understand that really well most investors do. When you buy off a farm and you've never farmed before, you have no idea how this side hill is going to yield or This flat is going to yield or how this is going to drain. And so really the past three years has allowed me to understand what farms are good farms, what are bad and stuff, What mistakes have I made and stuff? Because yeah, it would have been nice to maybe read some ground for the five years before going to buying it and understanding how certain farms farm.

[Yeager]  Was that your plan, or was to to rent first?

[Hilbert]  No, no, it was, you know, whatever came open first. It was just whatever came open in 2020. Yeah, yeah, whatever came open in 2020. And, you know, when I first bought it, I was looking more for the discount by, you know, like, a lot of good farmers only buy high quality ground. I was looking for the discount by the farm that I thought made sense. And it didn't matter where it was. And it didn't matter where it was. Yeah, yeah. Because you're not in your backyard. No, no, but I haven't told you this. But actually, some of the ground I bought in 2020 I'm actually selling, selling all three different farms and buying in my backyard. So kind of close to home close to where I grew up. Yep. So more central in central Iowa. It's about 30 minutes away from our group. And not that well. hour and a half. Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, exactly.

[Yeager]  I mean, that's a challenge in itself to farm. But you're not alone. In those that lives somewhere and farm somewhere else. It just creates its own set of challenges.

[Hilbert]  Exactly, exactly. And I'm like well, why do I have this challenge but I can just transport the farm and you know, be kind of closer to home. So that's kind of my goal, at least.

[Yeager]  But in all honesty, the land around your backyard is really expensive. Yes, Gord. Well, yes, it's great, great dirt. The stuff that you're leaving is not but it's totally different. But it's also very high priced you're in an area that is expanding and the city wants it just as much as the farmers around it. Want it. 

[Hilbert]  Exactly. That's the tough part. That's why you can't be five minutes from your backyard you know, you gotta be 30 minutes from your backyard and stuff, but but boy some of the some of the lower quality stuff if you get rain I've started realizing will produce just as good as higher quality stuff, but I haven't been through a really hardcore drought where we've had you know, a hard 30 Hard 20 bushel corn or anything like that, on that lower quality stuff. So that'll be interesting.

[Yeager]  I'll ask you, you said something about the real land and did anything. It's like Hollywood did anything that happened to real life inspire your virtual virtual life in a storyline that you came up with, on a virtual farm. And on the Squad?

[Hilbert]  There's a lot of stuff where we do a lot of roleplay series where we'll have a truck dealership, and we come in to buy trucks as farmers or we, you know, do NASCAR racing or something like that in the game farms where you can do a lot of stuff in that game. Probably the biggest thing is we, you know, we'll roleplay the 1980s. Like, you know, run ADC equipment, EDIUS trucks, stuff like that. But when you go to plant a crop, or something like that, there's a lot of stuff I learned in farming like, okay, let's, let's get out, check the planter. Okay, are we six inches apart on seeds? Yes, we are. And I'll role play the aspect in the videos and a lot of a lot of the viewers and stuff like that. So there's little aspects I took from farming and incorporated in the videos. 

[Yeager]  Which one of those two jobs is harder?

[Hilbert]  Oh, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. YouTube is by far work. Farming is fun. Farming is fun. It's an addiction. YouTube is the thing. It's like, boy, I gotta record two videos a day. And it's so ironic because it's playing a video game. That's all it is. But we're more you know, making a movie, I would say than playing a video game. It's like you're having a whole storyline written out. 

[Yeager]  In a way you still have the day job. Yes. Yeah. Virtual is still the day job and you still does not matter as an insult. No, no, no, you can't consider it a hobby farm.

[Hilbert]  Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Come from Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm caught. We can worry. I just farm on the farm on the weekend. So that's all it is. Saturday, Sunday, I'm farming unless you gotta get a crop planned on Wednesday or something like that.

[Yeager]  Has that? Yeah, has weather created some challenges for you in managing the two?

[Hilbert]  It has. But I mean, with YouTube, you're your own boss. You can set your own recording schedule, you can do whatever. So if I really got to go out on a Wednesday, Thursday, harvest corn or plant and stuff I will, but I try and get all the work done on Saturday and Sundays. I know some people don't work on Sundays. 

[Yeager]  But what did you do at your job? Once you have to? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And if you have the ability to store on site, you can do it on a Sunday. You can harvest Yeah.

[Hilbert]  Which I don't. I've been taking everything to the coop. So it's really like that 7am window on Saturday. And sometimes those guys like to get out early. So 5pm on Saturday night, they're closing? Yeah.

[Yeager]  Then let's go back to the dirt farming for a minute when you took over that piece of land. I remember following along on your progress. It was fence lines that needed work that needed to be retired that need to be done. Yeah, in the sense of it was harder, or it was different than what you'd simulated? Was that what you were talking about? Or just all of the back to the planning space, or was the biggest challenge

[Hilbert]  That was like, like, I bought a farm. It was the last one we bought that I learned that was really wet, sad, really wet. Soils really heavy. You know, the CSR to index was like 75 across that soil. So pretty good soil. But CSR to index doesn't, it assumes that ground is artificially drained if it needs artificial, artificial drainage. And so I'm like, boy, there's no title underneath this. Why is it yielding? Why is this TSR 275 and season 141 30. Like that's supposed to be at least 200 bushel corn. So, you know, learn a lot during that time. It's like, boy, this needs a lot of tile on it. So like fall 2022, we went in parallel, real close on 30 foot spacing on that piece. And it was probably the best moment I've ever had farming was having a horrible crop and 2020 to like 130 bushel corn across that piece. And then it went to 30 across that piece. And it's not amazing, but it's like, boy that just felt really good being able to fix a farm and get it producing decently.

[Yeager]  Your farming neighbors, your old farming neighbors, do they know who you were when you bought the land? Did it quickly spread?

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, kind of I don't hear like any of the neighborhood talk too much. Stuff like that. But sometimes people know like, Hey, you're the YouTube kid, you know, YouTube kid that's buying farmland stuff like that. Some farmers have no idea and stuff. So it's always tough. Like, sometimes a random farmer will come up to me and come to my shed when I'm working on something local and talk to me. And I don't think they knew who I am. And then an hour later, they're like, Oh, how's your How's your dad doing? Or how's that? How's the 8110 do and it's like, oh, you watch the YouTube channel and stuff. So it's always tough to gauge what people know what people don't.

[Yeager]  That's very interesting you say that because there's a sign over here to your left in the in the room here that it used to hang in the Cattleman's Quarters at the Iowa State Fair. And Mark Pearson used to bring in a different analyst a couple of days a week during the fair, and he would host a little, you know, market analysis segment live in the cattle in the cattle producers barn. And my boss now the senior producer on the show would go and he's like, Oh, nobody seems to be listening. But he could tell that nobody was leaving. And they were just quietly Oh, I'm in my book. I'm writing and oh, I'm fake working and they were listening. So just what it doesn't appear that someone is knowing or paying attention to who you are

[Hilbert]  They are. Gotcha. Yeah.

[Yeager]  You have to think of they really don't want it. They don't want to know you to know they know who you are.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, sometimes it's always, it's always weird. I guess you're playing my mind games, even though I hate that stuff. But okay,

[Yeager]  Let's go to the, you talked about the physical farming, you get the land, or you get the crop in you. You work on it in the offseason. How's the marketing side gone for you?

[Hilbert]  Marketing side has been good. I'll say it's been average. It's been like I didn't hit the highs in 2021 2022 actually sold some good corners, you said to have good yields in 2022. And then '23, didn't hit the lows had some good sales in the summer when there was a little scare. But but didn't hit the highs or anything like that. It's been pretty average. I do cash sales. I don't do anything. I don't do anything crazy. So I listen to market to market for a lot of my information. A lot of guys on Twitter even though you probably shouldn't I just you know, kind of always figuring out things like that. And then oh, standard grading Joe might be technically one of your competitors. But he's really good. Watch Allah's content, too.

[Yeager]  Do you feel that the reason you've been apprehensive to jump into those forward contract teens or hedging this or putting this or calling? Just a little bit of fear or not knowledge or what's holding you back?

[Hilbert]  Yeah, it's, it's probably that I haven't taken it seriously enough with my 250 acres to really dive into it more. I probably spent more time on other businesses. I'm like, well, let's, let's just be average for now on this 250, don't do anything complex. Sometimes I think of it like the bell curve, where it's like, you know, you got the you have a really complex people are probably getting the same returns as somebody doing something pretty standard, too. But it's definitely something I know I need to learn. Because eventually once you get bigger and bigger, it's going to pay a lot more returns to no less stuff.

[Yeager]  Do you have any old crop left?

[Hilbert]  I don't. I don't. I sell everything as I go. And I usually I'm 70, 80% sold going into harvest. So that paid off really good this year. 2021 didn't pay off as well.

[Yeager]  Yeah. So I mean, you've watched it go down and go. I guess I'm still $1 and a half,

[Hilbert]  Maybe $2. Ahead. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[Yeager]  But in those other years, you didn't miss an opportunity, is what you're saying? Yes. Yep.

[Hilbert]  Yep, exactly. I'm pretty standard. I say the same on most years. I was a little more aggressive this year. 

[Yeager]  We talked about land. Equipment. How did that all come together? How is working on machinery? First identifying it. Yeah. Then working on it and keeping it in the field? 

[Hilbert]  Yeah, well, I would say in 2021. When I was on this podcast, I was it was more me. But my brother Spencer, He's two years younger than me. He's kind of followed the same path. He started a YouTube channel and does farming similar and bought about 50 acres actually last spring. And he's way more of a mechanic than me. So honestly, anything that has a really complex issue, he's the first one they're working on it. And then I'm kind of his handy helper, and that works out really good. That he's, in my opinion, master mechanic and other people's opinions. Just normal farmer but that's, you know, I'm not. I'm not too good on the mechanic side.

[Yeager]  But you're not paired together. on everything, just on some of his stuff. You're helping him.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, some of his stuff like we share equipment, and then you know, his art. Our equipment will run on his ground and my ground I own the majority of the equipment. He just owns an excavator and 4020, best tractor built.

[Yeager]  It's all part of the operation. You need to have help on all of this. Yeah. When you thought about being a farmer, whether it was five years ago, 20 years ago, is are you in the place where you thought you would be when you were a farmer? 

[Hilbert]  No, no. No, I thought I would be like I said, I thought I'd be 40, 50. You kind of have a family starting this little hobby farm and maybe trying to grow it from there. Kind of once I had a little more capital. That's always how I kind of envisioned it. I always knew I want to start farming but I was pretty safe and risk averse when it comes to jumping into it.

[Yeager]  When you consider your virtual platform, an opportunity to educate the non farmer on what farming is, did you ever think of it that way when you started the simulator?

[Hilbert]  The simulator on simulation, not really on the real life stuff, though. I mean, we get people from all over watching that. And I think that helps educate what's going on. I don't dive too deep into like, the numbers, how much you're making my brother Spencer, he has a separate YouTube channel. He goes in everything he showed net net acre profit this year, he actually lost money this year showed how much he lost. And this is his own stuff. This is his own stuff. So I have a channel called [Hilbert]. He has a channel called Spencer Hilbert. He started up like a year ago, and he has a video that kind of like two and a half million views out there. And it's you're getting people from all over, all over in Europe all over the world, asking a bunch of questions about it. And, boy, you can really see what the average consumer thinks of, of the average farmer there. You know, like, I think when he first bought that farm, there's some CRP that expired and so he had to burn it off. And there's a bunch of comments from people in Europe, like, boy, you'd be behind jail, you'd be behind bars in jail if you're in Europe doing that stuff. And so it really gives a good view of what kind of the world thinks the US farmer and it's both positive. And you obviously have negative comments, too. 

[Yeager]  What do you do with comments that come in?

[Hilbert]  I don't respond to them too much. Actually, some on the farming side, on the farm real life channel, I respond to some of them. On the gaming side, I don't respond, respond to too many of them. But on the farming side, I do and I don't, you know, take quick shots back at him. I try and stay up if the commenter was right across the table from me trying to have a respectful conversation about him. So we can both learn and stuff there. So I never get mad at any comments. 

[Yeager]  Go back to your real life. channel do you get? Do you see it as an opportunity to have debates? If they are?

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. table from you. 

[Yeager]  But do you take that opportunity to tell the German now this is how we do it in this country? And this is why Yeah,

[Hilbert]  no, I think I think that yes, yeah, I think, I think so like on the my real life channel, I get a lot more, you know, 3040 50 year olds that are pretty educated versus, you know, younger, younger audience on the squad channel. So you get a lot more, a lot more smarter comments across the channel. So you can actually have those conversations about commodity prices, or what farmland prices are going to do or what or should the government be informed? Should the government not be in farming? It's really interesting to have those conversations.

[Yeager]  Do you have to you pay attention to the global issues and the US issues and how they relate to you?

[Hilbert]  I try and I try and read, learn, listen to them all. I mean, I watch Market to Market every every Friday night. That's how, you know, I'll watch Market to Market and stuff and try and pay attention to those. I'm not an expert at all on any of it, though. Just more learning.

[Yeager]  Well, then I guess I'll ask if you've been watching the show, then you've seen the stories we've been doing about the European farmer protests. Yes. Did you know how much did you know about them before? I know we weren't worth them. But did you know much about the European farmer and the issues and challenges they face?

[Hilbert]  I didn't. I'd see a couple of let's see a little bit of stuff on Twitter. And then I'd see I'd see the stuff on market market I didn't know much. I actually had a buddy who came over from the Netherlands, knowing how bad it was going to be and came over to the US in central Iowa started a dairy farm so that kind of gave me a little background even previously before it got bad but your guys's stuff helps a ton.

[Yeager]  Okay, asking your friends I've been thinking about this question figure out when this I think seems the best time to ask this. Where are you most well known like if you walked down the street in Des Moines, or the Iowa State Fair Agritechnica Commodity Classic who stops you and fanboys you the most? 

[Hilbert]  Definitely Farm Progress Show. Farm Progress Show like a lot of my audience. So like on the gaming side it's a younger audience on the real life farm side it's an older audience so you get the mix of both you get the young kids who will chase you down the squad the squad at Americana, get a picture of the squad, and then you'll get you know, the older audience and stuff who just want to have a good conversation with you. So definitely Farm Progress Show any ag event like auctions or stuff like that. But if you go, Aki will walk into a restaurant and nobody will stop you really. So only if they went to high school with you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[Yeager]  Is that Grant? Was that our friend's son? You know, I do that all the time. Exactly.

[Hilbert]  One of the weird things that happens is like I'll go buy some ag machinery on Facebook. And it's like the old no up The Squad or Grant Hilbert, and it'll be like, Oh, my next door neighbor, kid, I think watches you. So there's been like four times I bought a piece of equipment, and they'll line up, you know, a younger kid who's, who's a fan to be there. And I always think it's always the when I'm buying a piece of equipment that, you know, you get those connections. So, yeah,

[Yeager]  but what about okay, the Farm Progress Show, obviously, I think, when we were communicating to set this up, you were going on a show you were going out? I don't know, if you were going to Vegas or where it was. You were on some shit. I mean, do you? Are you traveling to a lot of those shows as the Squad or as Farmer Grant?

[Hilbert]  Yeah, I was. I was heading out to Utah, then. But yeah, when I go to shows it's, you know, the Squad and Farmer Grant? Pretty much. Yeah, it's, it's a mix of the two. And like I said, you get the younger audience, you get the older audience in there. 

[Yeager]  And I guess so. I mean, paying the bill. I mean, it's like a tax write off, right. So you can charge it to this company. But you're, you're filling both roles.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I really only went to a lot of the shows, obviously to connect with people learn more and stuff. But at the time, we were building American Farming. And so building this game, you need to license a lot of brands in there. And so I was going to the shows to try and get brands licensed in our game. So we got Case, a bunch of implement brands in there. And, you know, at the Farm Progress Show 2022, we had a booth there. And my goal was to go and talk to a bunch of brands, but it ended up being a meet and greet the whole time. Like I need to escape and talk to it. Do. I gotta do business? I gotta do business. And it's not a bad problem to have and stuff. But that's a real reason why I try and go to law. It shows us is trying to grow the growth of mobile game.

[Yeager]  Are you learning things at all about farming when you go to their show? 

[Hilbert]  Yeah, yeah, because I can't afford any equipment there. But yeah, you learn a lot. 

[Yeager]  Even when you see the price tag on something like that. You are still in the used machinery. Yep. Yep. I mean, that's where you're fighting. You're trying to find value, and flip it to something else. Exactly. I call it the American Farming dream. Right?

[Hilbert]  Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's 100%. Correct.

[Yeager]  Do you find that the majority of young people your age and below it? What's the percentage of someone that moves straight into an operation that has 10,000 acres and they are a cog in that? versus how many are like you that off farm job? Starting small, starting from the bottom here am I?

[Hilbert]  My knowledge comes from people and friends I'm with on social media, because there's not many real life who are either jumping into the 10,000 acre farmer or, or starting their own diet? No, like friends in real life. So a lot of it comes from social media, I'd say, well, when I'm thinking through it, it's like, it's probably 6040 60% kind of jumping into the operation of, of, you know, family farm, going back to farm vlogging, the real life farming experience, and then some that are starting from scratch, running their own land, starting maybe a hay business on the side doing a bunch of side gigs, and certain farming,

[Yeager]  The gig economy that was determined a few years ago, but entrepreneur, it seems like everybody of your generation, I'm just amazed at how you find just a little bit and string it all together. And you just figure out what pops and what keeps your passion going. I would imagine is that accurate?

[Hilbert]  Yeah, I think I think the internet's allowed so much to be able to run like a side gig business, kind of like what I'm doing with YouTube. In the software company, people run that and then also be able to Farm Plus, a lot of people were working, you know, remote from home. So it makes farming so much more flexible. And I think that's just the nature of the internet coming about and present a lot more opportunities for people.

[Yeager]  Okay, you don't have to answer this one. However, have you ever been somewhere where one generation knows you? And the older generation might be tagging along and I who in the heck is this? Yes. Yeah, I have to explain it to you. And did they look at you kind of like, that ain't real.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, it's Does that bother you? No, it doesn't, but I'll always get the young kid who's super excited. He's like, Oh, I've been watching you for three years. Comes running up to you. And then you usually have grandpa with them at the Farm Progress Show. He's like, why is my grandkids so so? So like, excited and stuff? To meet you and stuff, and then the grandkid, or actually, I'm having to explain to the grandpa like what I do I play virtual farming games. And your kid, your grandson, probably watches some of that.

[Yeager]  Yeah, when I hang out with your 14 year old. Yeah, basically say

[Hilbert]  what it is. Yeah, it's an explanation for sure.

[Yeager]  I have a 14 year old that's the only reason I use that number. Not not picking anything, but I mean, he's a guy that my kid is one who knows who these YouTube stars are. He's past some of that. Now in other things, so has that generation those people that maybe were with you in 2014? Have they stuck with you?

[Hilbert]  That's, that's interesting. Because when I talk to people in real life, a lot of them are, oh, I watched you in 2014 2015 2016. I moved on. And then I started watching the real life content because I've gotten older. And so I watched the real life content now. So you kind of got like an age group for everything. It's like, a lot of kids started watching me on the squad, and then they only watch the real life content now. And then you have, I have some of the, you know, some younger viewers that only watch the squad and they don't know I have a farm in real life. And they're like, Oh, you actually have a tractor in real life, that you drive stuff. That's pretty cool. And stuff. And they don't realize, yeah, they don't realize it from real life.

[Yeager]  Analytic wise, where are your viewers coming from? Majority are the US.

[Hilbert]  Let's see, it'd be 70, 75%. US based. I'm gonna say 8% 10%, Canada, and then mixtures, Australia is actually a big one. And then mixtures of other countries. 

[Yeager]  And of those us viewers. Are they mostly from farm states? Yes. A little more around them.

[Hilbert]  Well, yeah, Texas, California, always the biggest no matter what, but Iowa I think is our third or fourth most watched state. So we have a lot of, like, when I'm playing farm son, we always play maps for Iowa. I just love Iowa and stuff. And so I'll call it 1980s roleplay. Buchanan County, your Madison County map or something like that. You remember I'm from Buchanan County, Benton County. Yep. 

[Yeager]  Yep. So I have to admit, have you used Buchanan County on a sim? 

[Hilbert]  I haven't. So I built a mobile game though. And we used I probably shouldn't say what county but we use a central Iowa County for the terrain like built this thing out of the train of a central Iowa County and had real life farms. But I know a lot of people that there's like a Carroll County map and farm sim. I don't think there should be a Buchanan County map. I have a map created working on creating a map for kind of where some of my farmland is to. Eventually there will probably that's fine.

[Yeager]  I it's just I just when you said that I was. I'm curious. 

[Hilbert]  And the funny thing is in, in farm sim, the best maps are the ones that are hilly have a one half trees, half farmland, you don't want the flat storey County where it's a flat 160, flat 80 It gets super boring. So we can have some rolling ground. That'd be good.

[Yeager]  Yeah, there's a little bit not much like I think of even just south of Des Moines when you get into, on your way to Lyon, and that was we had family in Jasper County, and Jasper has some good hills. And then you'd go south and on your way. That's where we had family. And so I just remember like, this is nothing yeah, here. And then northeast Iowa even farther northeast has way more hills and I think how's the school bus ever go up that hill, I now as a parent, you get worried about the school bus traveling down the road, not the adventure that the bus might have going up and down that hill on ice.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, exactly. Northeast Iowa. There's, that's where actually the majority of the farms and maps are from that's where Bill was playing northeast Iowa, actually, you said.

[Yeager] That's funny. You have a good sense of virtual in real life. What's next?

[Hilbert]  That's a good question. That's a good question. I don't know. For me, personally, I just launched the mobile game. So I'm not like that was three years, you know, growing gray hairs in the side of working like crazy. So now it's kind of a time where it's like, okay, reflect, figure out what you want to do next time?

[Yeager]  I don't know. I don't know. Do you see yourself leaning more into real life farming?

[Hilbert]  I, if, if the opportunity is there, right, so gotta be able to have farm ground for rent, which is something I'm always working on. Always don't do the best job but working on increasing that. And then purchasing farm ground you know, depends on how much capital you have and stuff. So I'd like to get into more of the real life farming side. But I also realized that maybe some of the outside paths can almost expand the farm faster than actually doing the real life stuff and spending a majority of time on the real life farm and even though I have so much passion and love, it's a struggle. It's like a trade off. I love real life farming so much. 

[Yeager]  What was that moment when you were on that farm for the first time when it was yours and your equipment? Yeah, I've watched your smile. I can tell you are the kid in the candy score. Moment Do you reflect and go? holy crud. I actually made this happen.

[Hilbert]  I think it was the day about my first farm. I was out there with a camera and I just filmed a YouTube video of Like, totally like buying my first farm. And I mean, that was us. That was probably one of the best. That was a cool day. That was a cool day to say the least. And then, and then you know, in the winter, you always think back a lot about like, oh boy, I can't believe I'm farming, even though it's that many acres, 200 acres, two or 50 acres that I never would have imagined it when I was a kid. So I think that first day about that farm was probably the best moment.

[Yeager]  And the moment that maybe wasn't as good, but I think that you exhibit when I see it show up is when something breaks, you show it. Yeah, break down or something doesn't go your way. You're there to admit, this didn't work or this wasn't my plan. 

[Hilbert]  Yeah, we don't. We don't cut out any parts. It's like a bad accent or something. Or I screwed up. I try and show everything like there was a racy moment. I don't know. Maybe you didn't see it. This fall. I was holding two wagons up a steep hill, like 60,000 pounds behind me. I could go and we have hauled this much weight up a hill before and I start power hopping bad. I'm going too fast. I'm trying downshift downshift, the tractors literally jumping to foot in the air, the hitch brakes on it. It was stupid. It was something you shouldn't but probably been doing. The only thing that saved me is and I thought if I stopped I was getting yanked down back down this hill, the only thing that saved me as a safety chain that I put on. And so many people were like, oh, man, you would be fired off my farm right away. But we try and show like literally everything, every mistake, if we have a bad yield, you know, we yelled at bush on the spot, I screwed up, I try and show it. Also try and show some of the successes especially like when I had a bad yield per tile and we fixed it. We did everything right the next year. I try and always show those two. 

[Yeager]  I think that's what endears you to the public. Yeah. And I think the genuine side of it is important. Like your brother, showing I made money I lost money I gained I lost I subject you know, whatever. Yeah, I think the real because there, you've seen it online, people will talk about other farmers like Well, that's not a real farm. That's not a real cow girl. That's not a real cowboy. That's not real. But come on. You're doing it. Maybe you put a filter on.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, exactly. And I can see, I can see that. Like if you're a you know, 10,000 acre farmer, and you're fifth Gen, I can see the side of maybe not going into details too much on some stuff. We're so young and getting started where we try and document everything from scratch. And it's a little easier in art. Because we're such smaller acreage and we're starting from scratch to be able to do that I'd say, then probably a larger farmer. 

[Yeager]  And you're probably more identifiable than two people relatable of the struggles because again, not everybody is going to come in at that high operation that's already functioning, most likely they're going to have to be the ones making a mistake. Yeah, there's gonna be several things, and it's gonna be daunting, and it's gonna be scary. Yeah, Grant can do it. But that's some inspiration. I mean, do you feel that happens? 

[Hilbert]  Exactly. Yeah. And another point back to that thing, I think it's easier to to document all the failures and successes when it's just you, you know, that large family operation, it's like the uncle doesn't want to show like any of the numbers behind the farmer operation, I should say, that's a really key point to that, is that when it's just you and your mistakes, that it's super easy to document your mistakes. 

[Yeager]  Well, you could easily also be that farmer even if it is just you. 

[Hilbert]  I'm not telling anybody how much true true true true. 

[Yeager]  Yeah, too much pride for farmers.

[Hilbert]   still has a lot. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[Yeager]  Yeah, so I've asked you what's next? So a new piece of land. Closer to home? Do you think anything will change in your approach and lessons that you have learned over the last three years?

[Hilbert]  What will change what will change? Not not. Too much will change. Obviously, like every year you're learning stuff. I'm doing a bunch of trials trying to learn stuff. That'll change in with farmland, you always want to buy the perfect piece that you want. But it's like, there was one available this fall for auction. And that's the one yeah to choose from. And that's one I bought and stuff. So when you're trying to be logistical and smart about farmland, it's like, for me in my situation, I kind of just gotta buy the one that comes up in the area you want to buy. But just being smarter, learn it, run a bunch of trials. That's probably all that's gonna change. 

[Yeager]  Grant, I appreciate you making time for us. Good luck in 2024. And whatever happens in the field, we'll be following along.

[Hilbert]  Yeah, appreciate you for having me on again. So thanks, Paul.

[Yeager]  Thanks to grant. Always good to catch up with him and we just kept talking after the cameras were done rolling and probably should have just kept going. I'd have been another good 45 minutes of questions. So if you have any guest topics for me or feedback, send it in an email to MarkettoMarket@IowaPBS.ORG. I will see you next time, bye bye.

contact: Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org