Tens of Thousands Tune In to Daily Life on a Mt. Vernon, SD Farm

Cole Sonne, the fourth generation on his family’s Mount Vernon farm, spoke at the 2025 AgOutlook Conference and Trade Show in Sioux Falls about the importance of the next generation getting a solid foothold on the farm. A young farmer himself, Cole’s days are spent alongside his father raising corn, soybeans and Black Angus cattle, but there’s more.

“We also have a YouTube channel called Sonne Farms, which I believe is the biggest YouTube channel in South Dakota,” said Sonne.

In a recent episode that followed a steep drop in the temperature, two days after the video was posted, more than 83,000 viewers had witnessed the jump-starting of an achy John Deere with a reluctant battery nearing the end of its life. Once the protesting machine was running, viewers were welcomed into the tractor cab at hay feeding time. In the video, Sonne jokes with his dad Brian about how long it’s been since the elder Sonne’s stocking cap had been laundered. In the next scene, Cole is beside a big round bale cutting twine so the hay can be fed.

The video concludes with Cole and Brian installing a new engine block heater on the John Deere, getting a cattle waterer to flow in the sub-zero cold, and being thankful that local weather, at least on this particular day, included only wind and cold without snow that would complete the “South Dakota winter trifecta”.

Sonne has a knack for performing daily farm chores while documenting his day on video and sharing it with a huge number of followers. A sampling of the many comments on the video described above indicates overwhelming support, relatability from other farmers and gratitude from viewers in other countries, such as Norway, Ireland and Belgium, to name a few. Sonne admits his motivation is two-fold.

“I really got started because I thought it was fun making videos and showing people,” he told the South Dakota Soybean Network. “I didn't start because of specific advocacy, but I do know that there are people out there that are against agriculture and they’re posting things online. And so, I do see the value of, you know, real farmers posting their lives and showing why we farm and how we farm.”

Cole Sonne’s hope is that his videos are enjoyed, and that they reach people who have no connection to agriculture and who need to know that, as a typical farming operation, Sonne and his family make conscientious efforts to be better.

“We're improving every year. Just thinking about our farm, some things we've been doing with soil testing, variable rating, we are growing more and using less,” he said. “And we're able to show that with these videos and show that we do care about our animals and our land.”