Finding love in rural places can be hard; 'Farmer Wants A Wife' show helps four of them, and there are other options

Landon Heaton on his Oklahoma farm
(Photo by Xcaret Nuñez, Harvest Radio)

Bacon and eggs, high socks and baseball, or narwhals and unicorns; the world abounds with delightful twosomes. But for humans, finding a fantastic partner can be tricky, and if you're a rancher like Landon Heaton, making things OK at the corral can take up most of your time, and dating doesn't make the chore list.

"Heaton lives alone on his 700-acre ranch near a small town called Coyle, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City," reports Xcaret Nuñez of Harvest Public Media. "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." Heaton told Nuñez, "Why am I gonna go out to the bars when I gotta wake up at six in the morning and go check calves? That's kind of the pattern I found myself in. Relationships went away, and I was here to take care of animals and farm."

"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," Nuñez reports. "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. . . . Heaton is one of four farmers ... set up with a group of single women, then shows them live on the farm. For Heaton, who loves his life ranching and farming, the show made him realize the value of finding someone special."

Farming is pretty solitary work, so most marriage-eligible farmers won't meet a potential spouse on the job. And younger people leaving rural areas, which "naturally shrinks the dating pool," Nuñez notes. "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."

Although farmers can't count on Fox productions to find them possible matches, other options exist. "Dating sites like FarmersOnly aim to make finding love a little easier for people living in rural areas. The niche online dating site connects farmers, ranchers and rural people, has attracted over 10 million members since it launched in 2005," Nuñez reports. "Despite the site's name, Michael Gober, the company's marketing manager, said FarmersOnly is meant to help people with similar small-town backgrounds and values find each other more easily. . . . Other dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble can also help broaden the dating scene for small-town folks, but driving long distances might be necessary." Gober told her, "They want somebody who is accepting of their lifestyle, who's accepting of their work ethic, and their work-life balance and wants to make a life together in rural America."