High Plains Agriculture: Local farmer turned social media influencer

BOOKER, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – Daniel Sell is a local farmer who turned his passion for farming into a way to teach others about farming on the High Plains. Sell is a social media influencer on Instagram and TikTok with a combined 180,000 followers.

Sell owns a farm in Booker, TX, where he works alongside his dad.

“I started farming in 2017, took on my own land, and dad’s been kind of by my side the whole way,” Sell said. “It’s been nice to make my own decisions, to have someone backing me, and to be able to call and ask questions.”

The Sell’s farm grows sorghum and hard red winter wheat on the High Plains of Texas and Oklahoma.

“We’ve been able to grow our operation for the past three years consecutively, adding acreage to our farm,” Sell said. “That’s important to me, because I have to grow to be able to support my family, and that’s been the main goal here these last few years, which is just to continue adding acreage to our farm.”

Sell’s ancestors settled on his farmland over 100 years ago.

“There’s a lot of weight, you know,” he said. “It worries me sometimes when I think about my past ancestors. I’m sure I’ll do well, but it’s a little bit of a heavy weight on my shoulders, because I don’t want to fail them. But you kind of just have to take it day by day.”

As a fifth-generation farmer, Sell has understood how the agriculture industry works from a young age. And the farm will stay in Sell’s family for generations to come, with his son already getting a feel of the land and a new addition on the way.

“I love taking them out on the tractor,” Sell said. “I love taking my wife, and she’s expecting another baby. It’s going to be great to have the whole family in the tractor or combine, and just kind of have that assurance that everyone’s there.”

Sell is a local farmer-turned-social media influencer, turning his passion into a way to show others what it’s like to be a farmer on the High Plains.

“I’ve got about 180,000 followers across two platforms,” he said. “Been doing it for a lot of years, and it’s fun showing people how we farm in the High Plains. A lot of people don’t realize that we leave out a third of our acreage every year just to help the ground recuperate and build up soil moisture. And so it’s fun to show my audience what we do out here versus what they may do up in the Corn Belt or Washington or somewhere else. I’ve talked to people in Russia before about farming, and it’s difficult translating it, but once you do that, you kind of get to see what they do versus what we do.”

Sell said being an influencer is another way to support his family since the profits from the farm go back into the farm.

“It was more just kind of surprised than anything,” Sell said. “Just kind of interesting that people are willing to follow me and learn what we do on the farm. It’s fun, but it’s also a way to start my business. We make money on the side from social media, and it’s been really handy doing that, so we can support ourselves.”

According to Sell, being an influencer has helped with the networking aspect of farming.

“It has helped a lot,” he said. “We’re in talks now with a company to try to promote their products, and just working through that. I like going to farm shows. That’s a great way to meet some higher-up people in the booths and tell them what I do and why I’d like to promote them. But also trying to make sure that it’s a company that I can trust and make sure that they’re not something that I wouldn’t use on my farm. I’d love to promote Deer someday. We just finished a campaign with Bayer Crop Science and worked with them to show people the truth about glyphosate. Now it is a dangerous herbicide, just like any other herbicide is, but as long as you use it correctly in the way they tell you to do in the label, I feel it’s truly safe. So that was an interesting deal. I know everyone doesn’t agree with that, but that’s how we use it, and glyphosate is an extremely important tool to pretty much any farm.”

Sell can be found on Instagram and TikTok by searching the name “Farmer Dan 97.”