This 8-Year-Old Is the Youngest Old Farmer You’ll Ever See

Tractors feed a lot of people’s stomachs. Those same machines also feed the imagination and curiosity of countless young people. One such tractor-obsessed eight-year-old will be the first to tell you that farming runs in his blood, and just hearing him say it will remove all doubt. Now he’s sharing that passion with the world and catching the attention of millions.

At first glance, it’s easy to assume the popularity comes because Jackson dresses the part. His plaid short-sleeved shirt’s tucked neatly into his Levis, leaving easy access to the small leather tool pouch on his matching leather belt. A pair of well-worn boots completes his outfit. He’s not an actor though, and he talks the talk to back up the look. It’s that talk which has drummed up millions of views across social media recently. His passion and seemingly endless knowledge of the machines used to get the work in the fields done. That knowledge is the centerpiece of the videos posted to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube under the username Just a Jackson Thing.

In an interview with Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s WANE.com, Jackson summed it up pretty well. “It’s fun to tear something apart, fix it, and then put it back together. You get to figure out new stuff, you get to learn new stuff, you get to figure out new tractors…and then you keep that knowledge and when you go buy other stuff, bigger equipment, maybe it has the same motor or something.”

Such a strong grasp of how one builds expertise and understanding of the mechanical world by an eight-year-old is really fun to see. The bonus is that the enthusiasm is infectious. Maybe Jackson just reminds me of the dusty gentleman who sat at the counter of the local diner when I was growing up in Kansas. The equipment talk was seemingly never-ending, just like the coffee in the diner’s tan porcelain mugs. How an eight-year-old on social media made me nostalgic about Sunday morning breakfast two decades ago might be a hint as to why this young farmer has gotten so popular. Keep on doin’ what you’re doin’, Jackson.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.