Howdy Global: the new dating app that lets you ditch the swipe and find your farmer

This is branded content for Howdy Global.

When Mia Ryan set out to create a new dating app, she was hoping to bring people together. What she wasn't expecting was that the app would lead to her own love story.

Single at the time, and living and working on the family farm in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, Mia understood the unique struggles of finding love in a remote area.

Like many others, she tried the existing dating apps, but found she struggled to find people who understood her lifestyle. She went searching for an app suited for people in her shoes, but couldn't find one.

"As I started doing a little bit more research into it, I was looking at the studies of mental health in rural areas, and how many people experienced loneliness and isolation and the male to female ratio," she says.

"It got to the point where I just thought, 'it's not so much about why make an app, but about how can I not make an app'?"

So make an app she did. By day, you will usually find Mia riding horses and breaking them in, but as for building an app, this was her first rodeo.

But her determination paid off. Launched in March this year, Howdy Global is a dating app for farmers, or for those wanting to meet a farmer. Unlike the fast-paced swiping of other apps, Howdy allows users to scroll through profiles.

"It's a scrolling format, similar to social media feeds. I found that with swiping, you make a rushed decision, usually based just off what someone looks like or their job description. I didn't think there was any depth to that, especially with such a big decision," she says.

"With Howdy Global you can look through profiles at your own pace, and go back to them whenever you wish, and really take your time with it.

"It makes you read their whole bio, and what they're about. It's just a little bit more thoughtful, because we're trying to bring people together that actually match and stay together."

The app also features a unique search function.

"So if you meet someone out and about - you might be at a rodeo or Campdraft - and you only know their name, you can go straight onto Howdy and search for them," she says.

Another key feature of Howdy Global is the search radius, which can stretch to Australia-wide.

"The radius on other apps is restricted, which poses a really big issue for people living rurally, where 100 kilometres might barely be the end of your property, or the only people you could match with you're related to. We need to widen the dating pool," she says.

In the name of "product testing", Mia has been on the app herself since day one, and while the launch has kept her busy, in April she started chatting with a farmer Josh from Western Australia.

They've now flown across the country a couple of times to see each other, and things are going well.

And Mia is far from the only early success story, with many users sharing their own stories of budding relationships.

"The feedback is that everyone on the app is genuine. You're not having to weed through people that are on there for the wrong reason. Everyone is looking for a relationship," says Mia.

"There's a subscription fee, which only works out to be $4 a week, but somehow that creates a commitment."

Howdy Global is available to download now on Apple and Android, and when users sign up, they select either 'I am a farmer' or 'I'm looking for a farmer'.

And unlike many dating apps which are flooded with men, Howdy Global has proven particularly popular with women so far.

"We've got all these single women looking for farmers. We just need more single male farmers now," says Mia.

So, if you are a single farmer, know of a single farmer or want to meet a single farmer download Howdy today - what are you waiting for?

You can download Howdy Global's app by clicking on one of the icons below.

Get started by downloading Howdy Global's app at Google Play or Apple App Store.