Farm land loss in TN

[Sleep profit]

Attended a UT agricultural seminar The presenter stated Tn is losing farm land at an alarming rate of 8 acres per minute or 70.000 to 80.000 per year on average due to home development. Older farmers dying. and other factors  He said TN was 2nd or 3 rd depending on data gathered in the nation for Farm land loss. And now fertilizer has gone to 750 dollars a ton at my Coop  Food cost will be going up  on a positive note now is a good time to over seed your lawn or put pre emergent chemicals down for weeds  But you can’t do both at the same time unfortunately I thought this was important information farm report done 

[gregintenn]

Farms are disappearing around me at a very alarming rate.

[OldIronFan]

The land around me that is being developed, at an alarmingly fast rate, has not been farmed for at least a decade, if ever. 
Most of that land was either owned by a farmer who has been gone for at least a decade or two and the land was left in Family Land Trust but not actively farmed or was owned by a large land trust for the purpose of speculation/wealth. 
The only farms that still exist in a ~40 mile radius of me are 30~100 acre hobby farms with less than 100 head of livestock, a few hay fields, or a few 10~20 acre fields of row crop.  
At least here in my area of Mid TN the ground is too rocky or the hills to extreme to row crop for food production, efficiently or economically at least. 

The ~30 acre field behind me had soybeans 7 or 8 years ago. That was the last time it was planted. The last planting was left unharvested and the field was returned to weed/brush growth. The cost of the diesel to harvest the beans was greater than the yield from the field would have paid. I think he has partially bush hogged it twice in the last 7 years. Not a huge loss in my opinion, soybeans are horrible and the more fields of those we loose the better off we are. 
Along those lines our, now sold, family farm was up in Robertson County and in the middle of lots of small to medium sized  tobacoo farms. With already low and further decreasing demand for tobacco products much of that land is being repurposed. Some of it went to corn or hay, some of it went to developers, some of it went to livestock but there is a lot of it that is just not actively farmed for any purpose anymore. 

I don't think the blame is solely on home development even though it hurts to see pretty woods and fields turned into subdivisions. 

[10-Ring]

I was going to say something about this, but bit I couldn't think of anything nice to say, so I'm going to leave it alone. 

[NoBanStan]

Selfishly, I would rather see flowing fields rather than a subdivision. However, I agree that 90% of the farmland I see going away around me is/was privately owned horse farms or hay fields. I haven't seen crops since my youth when my grandparents farmed up in Portland TN.

[TennesseeCamper]

I used to be surrounded by farms.  All are gone now. Replaced by subdivisions. Down the road the rest are gone to development for business and more subdivisions. 
Progress they call it.  Not in my book I hate the  added noise and traffic. 

[ArmyBrat61]

The fields in my part of the county are being turned into solar farms. They are supposed to bring down the cost of power but that is not what is happening to my electric bill. .

[btq96r]

19 hours ago, OldIronFan said:

The land around me that is being developed, at an alarmingly fast rate, has not been farmed for at least a decade, if ever. 

I was wondering if this was the case.  Losing farmland that sits fallow isn't a big deal overall except for the changes.  It's the ones who bring products to the market we need to keep an eye on.  Even enough smaller family ones add up in commerce.  But land development of unused farmland is just change and growth of the state.

[ExplorerXC]

I'm in Oklahoma and currently own some farmland.  Unfortunately, the only things that grow in our crappy soil is hay and weeds.  

But I'm planning to retire to TN in the near future, Lord willing.  

I used to live in TN and, come to think of it, don't remember any farmers who grew wheat, corn, watermelons, etc.  All such farmers I knew grew cattle.  Sounds like OK.  

Oh, yeah, we grow a lot of dope.  The combined IQ of our governor and state legislators barely reaches double digits.  And legal dope has been the bane of the state.  

Like numerous other states, liberal filth from the left coast flooded into our large metropolitan areas (via our universities) and are destroying OK.  

 

Edited February 22 by ExplorerXC

[FUJIMO]

I feel fortunate knowing I'll likely die on the family farm. While there's cattle on it now we have ability to fence off and start growing other crops if the need arises.