Iowa brothers use Farming Simulator profits to purchase $2 million in farmland

Many people are drawn to farming as a career because of the opportunity it provides to interact with and connect to the land. But this career path requires a lot of grunt work and business savvy to thrive.

A farm business also may require registration to apply for agricultural operating grants like microloans and cost-share. Whether the farm is owned or leased, these registrations are important to consider.

BARNES CITY, Iowa — For many people, playing video games is just a hobby. But for two brothers in central Iowa, playing Farming Simulator made buying their own farms possible.

Grant Hilbert has always had a passion for farming, following his grandparents around their northern Iowa farm as a kid. But he knew that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to go back to the family farm.

“I was like, OK, well somehow at some point, I want to be able to farm, whether that’s when I’m 50, 60, 70 or like 40 or 30 years old, something like that,” Grant said.

Grant Hilbert drives his new tractor on his farm in Barnes City, Iowa.

In high school, he began sharing his love of farming by creating a YouTube channel called The Squad, where he posted videos of himself playing a video game called Farming Simulator.

“I started doing it, and I didn’t know if it was going to go anywhere. I knew there was kind of a business opportunity and a bunch of agriculture kids started watching the channel,” Grant said.

The Hilbert brothers working on a tractor hitch.

At the same time, his younger brother Spencer also began posting the same type of content on his own YouTube channel, Spencer TV.

“I was like ‘Oh, might as well fire up a laptop and start playing this game and see if I can, you know, get some views and start a YouTube channel,'” Spencer said.

Since then, both YouTube channels have grown significantly with The Squad having 1.43 million subscribers and Spencer TV having 500,000 subscribers. Thanks to their virtual successes, they were able to purchase over $2 million dollars of real farm land in central Iowa to start their own operations.

“I bought my first piece in early 2020 and just started getting started buying land and then started buying farm equipment and now I just document the journey of a beginning farmer on YouTube,” Grant said.

Soybeans at Grant Hilbert’s farm in Barnes City, Iowa.

For Spencer, farming wasn’t his original passion, but it’s something he became interested in as he watched Grant begin his farming journey. He purchased 50 acres of his own this year.

“I helped Grant for the past three years, so I got a lot of experience, kind of learned hands-on what farming is about, what it’s like, and I feel like the best way to learn is probably to do it,” Spencer said. “So now technically I would be a farmer if you could say that. I planted my first crop, it’s in my name, kind of doing the full thing.”

Grant Hilbert checking corn at his farm in Barnes City, Iowa.

However, playing farming simulator is not the same thing as farming in real life.

“Everybody always asks the question, is it the same? Like did you learn anything from farming simulator the game? And as cool as it would be to say ‘Yes I learned a ton,’ it really doesn’t teach you too much,” Grant said. “So I have really learned just a lot of getting started from like even South Dakotans, Ag PhD , the Hefty Brothers and stuff, that has taught me like a ton about getting started farming. So it’s been unique and I’ve learned a lot more than I thought.”

Grant’s goal is to show others that starting their own farming operation is possible and has started a second YouTube channel called Grant Hilbert where he is documenting the journey.

“Hopefully I am kind of getting the message out there that it’s possible. It takes time before you get into starting farming to build up kind of capital to start that planning way ahead before you actually purchase your first farm or something like that, but hopefully I am showing that it’s possible somehow,” Grant said. “Whether a kid or a teenager or anybody wants to literally copy my strategy of literally just starting a YouTube channel and playing Farming Simulator, that’s all I did. It’s kind of simple in reality. I mean that’s a route to go and there’s so many routes to be able to get into it. It may take longer for others, some may get it right away.”

Or maybe they will get their start playing Grant’s new farming video game, American Farming.

Since Farming Simulator is based on farming in Europe, Grant decided to start his own software company to give gamers a chance to play a game that simulates farming in the United States.

“So, the map is actually based out of central Iowa, like all of the terrain is taken out of central Iowa,” Grant said. “There’s five different farms on it so you walk up to a farm in the game and you’re like ‘OK, this is Midwest farming’ you walk up and stuff and not to toot our own horn, but these guys know what a Midwest farm looks like.”

The game is licensed with Case IH along with around 10 other implement brands.

“A lot of companies we are licensing with, and it will be available on IOS and Android,” Grant said.

But even with all the success, Grant’s real goal is to fulfill his lifetime mission of becoming a full-time farmer and working alongside Spencer.

“I think as a kid you are just addicted to it, just being at the grandparents. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I was just there and got addicted to it and now when you get older, it’s fun but you also see kind of the money side and some of the challenges to it and it’s almost this game that’s just super addicting,” Grant said. “Slowly, slowly expand the farm and get larger and hopefully fulfill that dream of becoming a full-time farmer.

Source: agweek.com