'Backyard Farmer' Clips Hit 1 Million Views on YouTube

By CnAgri2012-07-19 19:23:48 Print

"Backyard Farmer" video clips reached 1 million views on YouTube on July 1, said series producer Brad Mills.

The gardening show has been produced from April to September each year since 1953, and features University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension experts addressing a host of gardening topics such as selecting plants, managing pests and diseases, designing landscapes and planting flowers, fruits and vegetables.

The series airs on TV once a week from April to September, but Mills said in 2006 he started posting video clips from the show on YouTube "on a whim." He had been posting videos on other video sites, so YouTube seemed to be the next logical step when he discovered it. "I thought I might as well try that, too," he said.

Since then, the "Backyard Farmer" YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/bucslim) has garnered more than 700 subscribers. The video clips receive an average of 1,800 views a day, peaking at 2,400 views on a day in mid-June 2012. "I think our online presence is rivaling our TV audience, and it's exciting," Mills said.

One reason that the series has been so successful is that the show focuses on something that has broad appeal among people everywhere, not just Nebraska. "'Backyard Farmer' is essentially a university extension program but it's on the universal subject of gardening and almost everyone is interested in that," he said. "I think we've carved out a good niche for ourselves."

Aside from being on YouTube, "Backyard Farmer" has also extended its online presence into social media such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/backyardfarmernebraska), Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/BYFUNL) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/byfunl/).

"Backyard Farmer" also recently released a free mobile application called mBYF via the iTunes Store for Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad. The app allows viewers to access the "Backyard Farmer" website, Twitter, Facebook profiles, and also view enhanced weather information, garden calendars, soil temperature maps and so on.

The series airs at 7 and 10 p.m. CDT Thursdays on NET1/HD, continuing until early September. "Backyard Farmer" episodes also can be seen on NET3 Create on Sundays at noon CDT. Each show is also streamed live on the "Backyard Farmer" website at http://byf.unl.edu/ and is available as a podcast on iTunes after it is broadcast on Thursdays.