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Oklahoma rancher Landon Heaton lives alone on his 700-acre ranch near a small town called Coyle, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City.
The 35-year-old said he loves caring for his animals, watching his dogs roam free and cattle thrive. But his devotion to working on the ranch took priority in his life, and he lost sight of finding a girlfriend.
“Why am I gonna go out to the bars when I gotta wake up at six in the morning and go check calves?” Heaton said. “That’s kind of the pattern I found myself in. Relationships went away, and I was here to take care of animals and farm.”
Then out of the blue Heaton got an Instagram message from a FOX producer asking him to be a part of a reality dating show “Farmer Wants A Wife.” At first, he thought it was a spam message – he had never even watched reality TV before and was hesitant to join. But after saying no “150 times,” Heaton finally agreed.
On the show, Heaton is one of four farmers from across the U.S. who is set up with a group of single women, then shows them life on the farm. For Heaton, who loves his life ranching and farming, the show made him realize the value of finding someone special.
“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what life you build for yourself,” he said. “If you don’t have someone to share that with or pass that down to then what’d you build it for?”
For farmers, ranchers and other rural folks, finding love in a small town isn’t always easy. That’s partly because as more and more young people leave rural areas behind, it naturally shrinks the dating pool.
Rural farming-dependent counties, like those across the Midwest and Great Plains region, have lost about 40% of young adults between 20-29 years old each decade since the 1950s, said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer and sociologist at the University of New Hampshire. Continue reading
