There have been plenty of accusations in recent years about the men on Farmer Wants A Wife not being considered “real farmers”.
Whether this is because they balance their farming work with a second job outside of agriculture, they don’t actually own the farm that they use to film the reality show, or they simply live “too close” to a capital city, the audience criticism poses the question: is wearing a cowboy hat and a flannel shirt enough to be cast on Farmer Wants A Wife, or is there specific criteria the men need to meet?
Farmer Wants A Wife 2026 cast responds to ‘fake farmer’ allegations
Well, the age-old debate kicked off again this week, as only two of the farmers on the show’s 16th season own and operate their own farm. The other three — 24-year-old Dylan, 24-year-old Zac and 28-year-old Alex — all live and work on their family’s farms, although they insist this doesn’t make them “fake farmers”.
“There’s commentary I see a lot about family farms being fake farming, where you are in the process of succession in taking over a farm, but you’re obviously co-living with your parents in some ways,” Alex said on PEDESTRIAN.TV’s podcast Villain Edit.
“That’s a completely normal structure for farming in Australia, and it’s a totally unrealistic and uneducated perspective to have that every farmer is buying their farm and starting a dream.”
The beef and mushroom farmer, who hails from Kin Kin in Queensland, added that most of his mates who live on the coast also live on their family’s farms.
“They haven’t bought their farm, their dream $20 million property, and started farming for $500,000 of produce per year. First of all, terrible business decision. Second of all, it just doesn’t happen,” he remarked.
“So, [am I a] fake farmer? I do have a farm, and it’s my family’s farm. I’m a third-generation farmer.”
Zac, an apple farmer from Forest Range in South Australia, agreed that it’s “pretty impossibly hard” to buy a property and start farming at a young age.
“It’s my family’s farm, it’s been in the family for three generations now,” he said. “It is what it is, especially in this day and age with the younger fellas coming through.”
Can a farmer live close to the city?
Meanwhile, rodeo cowboy Dylan confessed that he’s copped criticism from viewers for his location, as his farm in Cherry Gardens is only a 30-minute drive from Adelaide’s CBD.
“I do understand I’m not completely rural, but we work on a farm, and when I’m not working with the sheep, I’m working with racehorses, and I’m doing rodeo,” he explained.
“So I understand where people are coming from, but I think farming is a role, not a postcode. That’s my take on it.”
Regardless of their “farmer” status, one thing’s for certain: they all want a wife. The new season kicked off this week on Channel 7, so stay tuned to see if they end up making this dream a reality.
