Nathan Peterson of Peterson Farms runs a pretty typical Kansas operation; he and his family grow wheat, corn, soybeans, milo/grain sorghum, and a variety of forages for their cattle. They also have one additional commodity that is a bit more unique – a YouTube page with more than 300,000 followers. 

Thirteen years ago, Nathan, alongside brothers Greg and Kendal, started the Peterson Farm Bros. YouTube page, where they post parody videos. They rewrite the lyrics of popular songs to make them about life on a farm and create music videos to accompany them. 

Their most popular video has racked up a jaw-dropping 18 million views, Farmer Style – a parody of the viral 2012 smash Gangnam Style by K-Pop singer Psy. The next most popular? I’m Farming, and I Grow It, based on Sexy and I Know It by LMFAO, with 12 million views. 

“I’ve got passion for my plants, and I’m not afraid to show it,” they rap while standing in a field surrounded by lush, green crops. “I’m farming, and I grow it.”

“It's kind of a whole family deal, just like the farming. And we have fun doing it. We like that people like watching them. And we like that we can do it while farming together,” says Nathan of the YouTube channel videos, crediting eldest brother Greg, who runs the farm’s social media, as the originator of the idea, main lyricist, and video editor. 

“It can get a little helter-skelter when we're trying to film and farm at the same time. And we got to make sure we're doing things safely, so sometimes we just stop farming and film a video or whatever. And sometimes we just stop filming and get the farming done. But for the most part, we work together pretty well. Just like any family, there are stressful times, but we try to work through them, trust God, and trust each other with it.”

As Nathan mentioned, both the videos and the farming are a family affair through and through. The three brothers are fifth-generation farmers working together with their parents, David and Marla Peterson, as well as their wives, and now even their kids are starting to get involved. Their farm is also open for tours and can be booked as an Airbnb or a wedding venue. To put it lightly, they are busy. 

The videos on their YouTube channel aren’t all music videos. They also have tons of content offering a behind-the-scenes look at their operations. A recent series of videos sees them brace for a winter storm and then explain what a snow day looks like on a cattle farm (Spoiler Alert: you still need to feed the cows!). 

And while the videos, especially the parodies, can certainly be a little silly, they also serve a more pointed purpose: to share the family’s story about their life in farming, and to introduce elements of farming and agriculture as a profession to people and groups who may not have been exposed to it. 

A couple of years after their first videos went viral, the Petersons started receiving requests for speaking engagements. More than a decade later, the brothers still take turns going out into communities near and far at least once a month to share more about their life and farm. 

“We kind of saw that need right away. And we know that, like our main audience, is probably other farmers and other farm kids, but you know, if everyone we reach, if they all talk to someone that doesn't know about farming and helps them learn, then it's making a big difference,” says Nathan.

“And we've done public speaking in the middle of a city, like a grade school. And we tell them about farming, we show them our videos, and they get to see the big machinery in action. And so that's really cool. That's like extra special when you get to talk to kids that have never seen it, you know, maybe haven't even been out of the city. And we really like that,” he continues. 

“We've done a lot of FFA conventions and just encouraging kids to look to being involved in agriculture, because it also takes more than just farmers, there's a lot of supporting jobs that farmers need people to help with agronomy, with mechanics, there's a lot of opportunity in agriculture.”

And while the brothers are certainly the focus in the videos and speaking engagements, out in the fields, the star of the show is the MacDon 12-row C Series Corn Head they’ve been demoing. 

Central Kansas had a “really good corn season,” says Nathan, explaining the previous three years had been quite dry with below-average crops. This past summer, the rain finally started to come, and by the end of the season, it had been officially deemed a “wet year,” with rainfall above average. 

“It's been a very good corn season for us. You know, the corn was able to go all the way to finish without too much stress, at least relative to this area. We're in an environment where 100 bushels per acre corn is kind of the county average, and we're doing a lot better than that this year, so I think everyone is encouraged by that. Obviously, there's a lot of corn out there, so the prices aren't real great. But it does feel better to have a good crop to harvest versus a poor crop to harvest,” says Nathan.

“And around here, a lot of people have cattle. So, we feed a lot of our own corn to our own cattle, and we just kind of sell the extra. So that's also good, too, that we do a lot with cattle, and the cattle market’s been good. So, we're hoping that hangs in there too.”

The Petersons were given the opportunity to demo the corn head after their friend, a local MacDon rep, reached out to see if they wanted to give it a try. MacDon brought the header to their farm, and they’ve been testing it ever since. So far, they’ve put about 350 acres on it on both dry and irrigated land.

“It's been pretty easy to go through,” says Nathan of the demoing process. “The rep was eager to get it out and let people see it and try it and compare it to what they have.”

“We've really enjoyed getting to demo this and run it. And it's been doing a really good job for us, both in irrigated and dry land. It has the adjustments that we need to make, and it's been doing a good job processing these heavier stalks just to help with breakdown over the winter and stuff.”

The Peterson farm is no till, and they run a lot of cows on milo stalks, so they do like to break them down a bit so the cows can digest them better, but they haven’t had the chopping mechanism on the corn head engaged. The ability to engage or disengage the chopping knives is another feature Nathan appreciates. They harvest for a neighbor as well, and the neighbors will till that field, so getting things thoroughly broken down is more of a priority in that circumstance.

The Petersons usually run an eight-row corn head and a 16-row planter, but so far, Nathan has enjoyed using the 12-row MacDon corn head because he says he can keep the combine full more easily and doesn’t have to drive as fast, which helps him do a better job harvesting. 

“It's not bad to just be able to drive slower, and you don't have to pull that corn through as fast. You have less shatter that way, and you have an easier time keeping the combine full than with an eight-row,” he says.

“Last year, we had like some 70 to 80-bushel corn, and we were just flying with the eight-row trying to keep the combine full, so it would have been easier with a 12-row. We don't have a ton of corn compared to true corn country, so that's why we haven't worried about a bigger head.” 

Additionally, Nathan has been loving the ability to fold the header for easier travel between fields. This optional feature on the C Series corn headers allows operators to go from full width to completely folded in less than 2 minutes, with a single push of a button from the cab for maximum ease.

“It's kind of nice to be able to drive around with the eight-row and not have to unhook it. But with this (MacDon corn head), we've been able to fold, so that's been really nice. You know, any bridge we have to go over, you can't get through with a 30-foot, 12-row head, so to be able to fold has been nice,” he says. 

“We haven't had to pull a trailer around and take the head off the combine a bunch. You just fold it up, go to the next field. And really, it's easier going down the road than an eight-row, because it folds narrower than the combine, so that's been a nice thing to use.”