Thousands of people tuned in to watch AJ Dillon tend to a farm
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A professional football player spent part of his team’s bye week playing an ag video game.
AJ Dillon, a running back for the Green Bay Packers, logged onto his Twitch account for some gaming on Oct. 11 and included Farming Simulator among his game choices.
About two hours into a gaming session spanning nine hours, Dillon and another player started the farming game where they bought land, operated equipment and tended to crops.
During the stream, Dillon purchased a John Deere 7R 270 tractor with twin Michelin wheels for his virtual farm. That came at a cost of $263,500.
After buying the tractor, Dillon’s partner suggested he buy a cultivator. But with only $71,208 left, and with him still needing a planter, Dillon’s gaming partner suggested he take out a loan.
In another part of the stream, Dillon is using a John Deere combine to harvest wheat and hoping for good commodity prices.
AJ Dillon harvesting wheat with a John Deere combine in Farming Simulator (Twitch photo).
“We gotta make some money off this stuff,” he said. “We’re in debt.”
As of Oct. 13, Dillon’s farming stream has almost 10,000 views.
Some of those views came from farmers who invited Dillon out to experience a farm in real life.
“Whenever you’re ready to come check it out for real,” Brent Scamehorn, a farmer from Nebraska, said on X.
Another farmer thought Dillon was going too fast and therefore losing yield.
He’s “probably throwing 6-7 bushels per acre out the back cause he’s going too fast while the straw is tough,” Kris Cherewyk, a producer from Saskatchewan, said on X.
And Rodger Sherman, a basketball writer, thought about somewhere in America, there’s a reversal of roles going on.
“Somewhere in America a farmer is playing Madden as AJ Dillon at the same time AJ Dillon is harvesting his soybean crop in Farming Simulator,” he said on X before someone corrected him that Dillon is harvesting wheat.
Dillon and the Green Bay Packers are back in action Oct. 22 against the Denver Broncos.
Farms.com has contacted the Green Bay Packers hoping to connect with Dillon about his virtual farming enterprise.