Teen creates videos to showcase local farms
Brady Lower stands in a corn field on his family’s dairy farm. He creates videos about farm life and uploads them to his YouTube Channel, Lower Dairy Farms. His goal is to have 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year. (Jen Jones)
Fourteen-year-old Brady Lower started making videos three years ago to showcase what farmers do. He started making the videos just of his family working hard on their dairy farm, but people saw them on his YouTube channel and started asking him to film their farms as well.
“I film everything that farmers do every day. Like making hay, planting corn, harvesting – anything farm related,” said Lower. His mom, Merlene Lower, said he does it all by himself.
“I watched other videos on YouTube and a friend of ours, Annie Schlabach, made a video and I kind of got the idea to do one of our farm.” He uses his phone, a drone and a Go-Pro for his filming. “I started with just my phone, but then I got a small drone for Christmas. Then I got a better drone for my birthday and now I have a camera for my phone for even better quality to my videos.”
His YouTube Channel, Lower Dairy Farm, has 645 subscribers and he is hoping that will grow. “Once I get 1,000 subscribers, I can start to make money from the videos.” He had about 100 subscribers his first year and added about 500 more the second year. He has a video from a tractor pull at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, that has more than 18,000 views. He is also on Tik-Tok and has a video of someone making hay that has 14,000 views.
He doesn’t charge to create his videos, though people have offered him money for his skills. He just asks people to subscribe to his channel. After he films for one to two hours, he spends two to three hours editing short videos. Longer videos can take four to six hours to edit. He adds music, cuts parts of the videos, speeds up or slows down the video. He only talks in two of his videos – ones that are year in review. “I don’t like to talk on the videos.”
His videos are very creative. “It’s just a hobby. I like doing it. I want the world to know what the world of agriculture is like.” His videos are seen by people all over the world. Many people leave comments after they watch a video and Lower enjoys reading them. “Sometimes, they just say ‘good video’ but sometimes, they’ll ask a question like what kind of tractor is in the video.”
There are about 70 videos on his channel now. Lower asks his friends and neighbors if he can film them while they are working. “Lots of times, people will text and let me know what they are doing and ask me to come out and film.”
Lower isn’t interested in college right now, but is considering learning diesel mechanics. “I could save money by fixing stuff myself, then.” He wants to stay on the farm and milk cows. “I don’t really like crowds.” His mom said being on the farm gives him plenty of freedom to roam around.
Each of his videos starts the same way. A picture of his favorite cow, Maggie, appears and then a recording of Paul Harvey. “And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker…
So God made a farmer.’”
Category: People & Places
