Have you heard of "Farm Tok"? It is a new trend taking the social media world by storm.
A crop of Aussie farmers are now picking up their mobile phones to document life living and working on a property.
Providing an insight into the early starts, late nights and the highs and lows of living on the land.
The Mackay based cattle producer has amassed a following of 111,000 people on the social media platform TikTok - providing laughs to an audience around the globe.
Queensland Country Life spoke with the true blue Aussie larrikan to chat about what made him decide to give the online world a crack.
"I got stuck into putting out some videos when the pandemic began because my farm life barely changed, but the world was changing and maybe not for the better," Travis said.
"People seemed to like seeing some farm life, cheeky Aussie humour or some cute calves.
"It gave them a break from reality and something to smile and laugh about, which I thought was pretty cool that I had a platform to do that."
Travis is based at Blair Plains in the foothills of Blue Mountain in the Sarina Range region. A family affair, he operates a Speckle Park breeding operation across their 1300 acre property.
"We've got Speckle Park, Droughtmaster, Brangus and still got a bit of a Brahman and Charbray influence here as well," he said.
"We run all Speckle Park sires now. We've got about 150 breeders and followers here at the moment."
A talented soccer player Travis engaged in the sport after high school travelling overseas to assist with football tours and also did a stint with the Australian Futsal Association looking after the local Mackay region.
"That was sort of in between me having a bit more of a need to be on the farm and working out whether I was going to go down that route," he said.
"The old farm needed a hand and as you do, you come wandering back."
Travis has been permanently based on the property since 2014 and managing the reins from 2016 onwards.
However, it was when the global COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020 that life on Blair Plains was broadcast to the world.
The beef producer said he had always had social media accounts and was aware of TikTok for a year before deciding to actively post video content.
"I used it as a waste of time when it was raining or when it was too hot to work," Travis said.
"I had it for a while and then a few people said why don't you put videos up?"
The first video Travis ever posted was a humorous tractor debacle on the farm.
"We had a brand new tractor delivered and it was only three hours old," he said.
"I was out slashing on it and managed to run over a complete stump that a dozer had pushed out of the ground and drove the root into the side of the tyre, which went instantly flat.
"The tractor was sitting up on its side and not even three hours in, I've already got a $1800 dollar bill sitting there for the tractor.
"I thought that was a bit funny and on the lighter side of things, so I took a quick video of it.
"It didn't do all that well, it was just a little video and a few people commented on it and thought it was funny as much as I did."
Almost three years on and Travis now has a following of over 100,000 people; from calling calves 'grass puppies' to sharing working life and educational knowledge into the Australian agricultural industry.
With a large Australian base, Travis also reaches a worldwide audience in a range of different demographics.
"The analytics will tell you that most of your followers are from Australia or America, but there are people from Canada, Venezuela, Japan and Great Britain," he said.
"There are people tuning in from sort of everywhere; and I don't know how to process that and I don't know how to understand that.
"That's the type of app it is, you can end up anywhere on anyone's screen.
"There was someone from Argentina asking me questions in Spanish the other day and I had to go to Google translate to work out what they were going on about.
"It's such a unique thing."
Humorous videos aside, Travis said the pandemic had shaped how he operated as a producer.
"The pandemic definitely made me sharpen up as a business person," he said.
"There's that age-old thing with farming; they ask you your job title and you say I'm a farmer, but there are 20 different things under that bracket of what a farmer is.
"We've got to be a meteorologist, have certain amounts of agronomy knowledge, veterinary knowledge to look after animals and you need to have a decent business acumen about yourself to work out, should I be selling or buying something now?
"You've got all these different supply issues and freight costs to now think about. It's not as simple as it used to be."
Moving forward Travis said he hoped to continue bringing joy to his followers.
"A few people have asked me; are you going to get more serious about it?" he said.
"And I just think, I wouldn't even know where to begin.
"Do you do one video that maybe appeals to younger people or do you do a video that is three minutes long talking about cows that might appeal to someone in their 30s.
"You never truly know and that's the fun side of it."
Travis said it came back to providing people with a break away from whatever troubles they may be experiencing in their lives.
"If my silly head turns up on their screen and I'm going on about a couple of funny calves, and it makes someone laugh, that's why I do it," he said.
"It gives them that break from whatever reality they're in because there is plenty of bad and awful stuff going on in the world at the moment.
"At the end of the day that's what it is about for me - giving people a laugh at my expense."
Travis can be found at @travisparry8 on TikTok.
Zoe Thomas
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
