'Farming for Love' Season 2: Farmer Kirkland on jealousy from daters and the risk of 'over-communication'

The dating is getting spicy for both farmers and daters on Canada's Farming for Love Season 2 (Wednesdays on CTV, CTV.ca and the CTV app). But the jealousy seems to be particularly evident with the men dating Farmer Kirkland.

"I am so surprised about how early some of the jealousy came out," Kirkland told Yahoo Canada. "I had no idea, I thought it all was ... at the barn party."

"When it kind of gets brought to my attention, that's when I thought it started. But no, it was going in hot right off the top."

That's now been amplified with Kirkland introducing a new dater, Sam, to the group. Their first date included a helicopter ride to Chilliwack, B.C., which naturally resulted in a lot of resentment from the other daters.

Kirkland particularly called out Issa for being "mean" to Sam and "direct" about not wanting the newbie around. While Kirkland recognized that meanness started to shift a bit later in the episode, he ultimately decided he didn't see love in the future with Issa, who left the farm at the end of this week's episode.

'I feel honoured to be the first farmer to do this'

Now being able to share his Farming for Love journey with the world, Kirkland described it as a "wild" experience.

"We filmed back in the fall, so it feels almost like a lifetime ago, and now I'm reliving it and everybody's going to join in on this big secret that I had," Kirkland said.

Kirkland adds a gay dating storyline to the show this season. The farmer was really drawn to the experience because his story would be "unique" to this particular franchise.

"'Farmer Wants a Wife' is very far from what I'm doing here," he said.

"I thought it was very special and unique to be able to bring gay dating to ... reality TV. ... I feel honoured to be the first farmer to do this."

As we've learned about Kirkland, the former rodeo champion moved to the city, actually two different cities, but at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he moved back to the B.C. farm near his home community of Cheam First Nation, he realized the move would be permanent.

"I lived in Vancouver for about 12 years and I moved to Toronto, and I'd been there for about nine months when the pandemic hit, and so that brought me back," Kirkland explained. "Once I was back on the land, doing my thing, I realized how much I crave that sort of peace and openness, and it just brought balance to my life."

"I could spend my weekdays out in the farm and then head on out to the city if I wanted to have a little fun."

Sending the daters on the farm into a 'spiral'

While Canadians will have to keep watching to see if Kirkland does in fact find love by the end of the season, he says he has learned something significant through the process — the risk of "over-communication."

"I would realize how far my words would go," Kirkland explained. "I could say something and go home for the night, and I come back the next day and send the house in a spiral. ... I learned how powerful my words were."

In the world of reality TV, there are always questions about how "real" a show is. But being able to watch the series now, Kirkland confirmed it's an "authentic" representation of his experience.

"Obviously a lot gets cut out because you can't show everything, but you're really seeing those big highlighted moments that really stood out during filming," he said.