ESTILL SPRINGS, Tenn. (WTVF) — Andrew Dixon looked down among the corn stalks for a particular pair of feet.
It wasn't his brown boots he hunted. Rather, a pair of little black velcro shoes, attached to his 2-year-old son ducking under the leaves that were already too tall for him.
"It's a jungle," his son Carter chirped, running between the leaves. He ran so hard and fast the strap of his denim overalls fell off his shoulder.
This mimicked a lot of Andrew's childhood — one spent in the Tennessee humidity following his father and grandfather like a shadow. Now, he works alongside them both in Franklin County as the fourth generation of his Estill Springs farm.
"My father, grandfather and great-grandfather have worked hard for the things we have today," Dixon said. "We want to keep it going. It's special to work with family. They have your best interest in mind. We are all here working together trying to help each other."
The Dixons have a vast operation of 2,000 acres that includes row cropping, tending cattle, and a growing agritourism business called Granddaddy's Farm that welcomes hundreds of families every fall. Hours on the farm range from a normal eight to some days as long as 15 — depending on the season and the weather.
"When you grow up in it, you get used to what you're doing, and you don't think a whole lot about it," Dixon said. "You're busy, and you go and you do it. You do pretty well just to learn to roll with it. You have to learn to be flexible, especially as I have become a father."
But leaning into the changing landscape isn't always welcome, especially since the Dixons have owned their land since the early 1950s.
The 250 miles that surround Tims Ford Lake have become enticing to developers, so hanging onto family farms has been hard.
Dixon said he understands what's happening around him, even when for sale signs pop up on land that's been nothing but agricultural for decades.
"When the parents die and the kids get the land, a lot of times they aren’t able to hold onto the land because of the cost of the taxes and just having the land," Dixon said. "There are all sorts of factors involved in it, but it is sad to see it go."
What do the numbers say?
The youngest Dixon took off in the soybean field, not watching his step to avoid the tiny plants that had broken through the soil.
"Can you be nice to the soybeans?" Dixon asked his son, as he started picking into the dirt.
Despite Franklin County agriculture producing a $162 million economic impact, the rolling farmland nestled in the valley of Monteagle Mountain has slowly been affected by development.
An economist for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville wanted to know how much farmland Tennessee had lost.
Through 18 months of research, Charlie Martinez crunched the acreage data. He found Tennessee lost 1.5 million acres of land to development — commercial or residential.
I took his data and broke it down further, focusing on the 45 counties in NewsChannel 5's viewing area.
Of those counties, Franklin County has lost the most acres since 2014. It totaled up to 26,000.
Two of our biggest counties — Davidson and Williamson — did not have any data available for the last decade.
What about the future?
But the Dixons don't want their farmland to become a part of the statistics.
In attempts to diversify the farm, Dixon is the primary manager for Granddaddy's Farm, a fall experience for families that includes pumpkins, corn mazes, a kids zone, landslides, pig races, flowers, and food. The experience also includes a farm store, where visitors can buy the usual favorites of apple cider donuts and slushies.
Dixon had the opportunity to take the tourism helm in Franklin County when another farmer retired. Since 2005, the family has been inviting thousands to their farm every fall, the hayride path even going behind Dixon's own home.
"For the future, I hope that my kids take the opportunity to farm if that is something they want to do," he said. "Farming is changing. The way we farm today is not the same as when I was a kid. Our farm has grown. We wouldn't mind keeping it that way."
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
