Farmers answer reality TV's call
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By GWEN TIETGEN / Lincoln Journal Star
Finding true love can be a real pain. The bar scene, online dating services, friends prodding you to meet other single friends, speed dating and now, for some Nebraska farmers, reality TV.
“What the hell, I’ll do it. What’s the worse that could happen?” said Tim Wiese, 26, who farms north of Waverly.
Wiese was one of about 70 farmers who answered the casting call for a new reality TV show, “Farmer Wants a Wife,” at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln Tuesday. The show, which has yet to find a network home, is being produced by FremantleMedia, best known for the Fox TV smash, “American Idol.”
“Farmer Wants a Wife” is set to pair young farmers looking for a long-term relationship with city girls attracted to a country lifestyle.
No, Wiese isn’t a Fabio lookalike who saw the casting call as his big break. Like most of the Nebraska farmers who made their way into the conference room of the Lincoln hotel at the end of a long hallway, Wiese was encouraged by his friends’ wives and his sister, Sara.
Farmers work seven days a week most days out of the year, so meeting women can be hard, he admits.
Brent Katz, 32, who farms near DeWitt, said the biggest hindrance to meeting people is the job itself. Interacting with people isn’t in the core job description.
“There’s times you’ll go eight, 10 or 12 hours without seeing people who don’t work on the operation,” Katz said.
Katz said four or five friends called him and half jokingly, half seriously, said he needed to check out the casting call.
“Most said, ‘Why don’t you go, that way we can say we knew you when you were nobody?’” he said.
Others like Kurt Bartling might be a Fabio lookalike. In fact, you can find pictures of his body, or those of his equally chiseled brothers, on the covers of romantic novels, cards and the like.
The Bartling Brothers might be the cream of Nebraska hog farmers, with more than 20,000 head of hogs and several hundred head of cattle, on farms throughout the state, based in Unadilla.
“I’m getting old. I need a wife,” said Kurt Bartling, 35, as he started filling out a questionnaire about his background and interests.
Bartling is the second of the three Bartling brothers and said the farm near Hickman and his 11-year-old son take up most of his time.
“I’m so busy, we expanded our farm. I don’t get a lot of time to get out,” he said.
Bartling said he’s looking for a woman who has good morals and values, is secure and takes care of herself and is able to put up with what he does for a living.
A farmer’s wife, he said, must be patient and “be able to carry 5-gallon buckets,” he joked.
“Farmer Wants a Wife” has already aired in five countries — the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Norway — and is said to be very popular, according to FremantleMedia.
Some Nebraska farmer activists, including John Hansen with the Nebraska Farmers Union, is worried the show will feed on an already ignorant view of farmers.
Deborah Tarica, casting director with FremantleMedia, said the show isn’t looking to exploit anyone, but give people a taste of farm life and “form some matches in the process.”
The producer, Julie Uribe, is a graduate of Lincoln East High and the University of Nebraska. She told The Associated Press she’s determined to search her home state for farmers who will star in the show
Farmer Alan Bruntz, 22, answered the casting call Tuesday and said he wondered about how the show would portray farmers. Farming, he said, has become so technologically involved that the days of getting on a tractor and working the field are only half the story.
“That’s the thing, I would hate to look like some stupid redneck,” he said. “Anymore in farming, there’s a lot of technology and knowledge you have to know.”
The show is expecting to set up two or three young farmers throughout the country with a group of women with whom they would get to know over the course of the show, said Luce David, Fremantle casting producer. The show could potentially be produced this spring and air in the summer or fall, he said.
Reach Gwen Tietgen at 473-7242 or gtietgen@journalstar.com.
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