By Celeste Baumgartner

Ohio Correspondent

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – If you have eaten a watermelon from Kroger, there is a good chance you’ve tasted some of George McDonald’s produce. McDonald, owner and operator of Catesa Farms, has been named the 2024 Tennessee Farmer of the Year.

“George and Catesa Farms are a huge part of our community,” said Katie Martin, agricultural agent and director of the University of Tennessee Extension, Smith County. “They host one of our big county fundraisers at their farm. He is constantly helping me with tour groups for ag leadership days and different events. He is a great spokesperson for the industry, all that is apart from having an outstanding operation that is very efficient, and very innovative. They have a great work culture at Catesa Farms as well.”

Catesa Farms is 50 miles northeast of Nashville in Riddleton, Tenn. They grow more than 9,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, milo, hay, watermelons, and strawberries.

The farm will celebrate its centennial in three years and it has evolved. McDonald started farming with his father, Sam, in 1978. They farmed as partners until his dad’s early death in 1999. Catesa was a typical Tennessee farm with dairy and beef cattle, some hogs, and corn, soybeans, wheat and tobacco. They got into the sod business for a couple of years but dropped that when the housing crises hit in the 1980s and 1990s.

“After my dad passed, the pressure was truly on me to do the things I had dreamed of and talked about for years,” McDonald said. “Over time, we transitioned out of the dairy business, experimented with multiple commodities, and had many learning experiences which ultimately led us to where we are today.

“We have progressed,” he explained. “We got heavier into row crops, corn, soybeans, wheat and milo. We grow milo because of the deer population we have in the urban areas. We cannot grow soybeans behind our wheat because the deer will eat them.”

They started growing strawberries by accident when the girls planted some as a fundraiser, McDonald said. That evolved into 20 acres. If they have an excess, a winery takes them. They got into the watermelon business seven years ago.

“We direct ship watermelons to Kroger,” McDonald said. “We’re not giving brokers and trucking companies our money. By doing that, we have a value-added supply chain there with Kroger. We have other value-added other enterprises. We grow soybean seed for Beck’s Hybrids. We also grow corn for Chattanooga Whisky.”

Of all the farm’s accomplishments, McDonald is most proud of the people involved in the operation. His daughter, Sarah, completed a master’s degree in elementary education and taught for five years before coming back to the farm. His mother, Linda, works in the office. Kyle Cato is a young man and another partner who also has a vital role in the operation. He handles their business with Beck’s Hybrid.

“I tell people we don’t have anyone who works for us – we all work together,” McDonald said. “And it’s not a job; it’s a place where we go to earn a living for our family. I am proud of the full-time, part-time, H2A (temporary agriculture workers) workers. When people drive up to our operation, they come to the office, they come to the facility we have on the farm. I want it to be difficult for anyone to know who I am because of the pride everyone there takes.

“The thing I am proudest of is having one of my own children being involved in the succession planning too, to carry on our farming operation,” he said. “I always tell people this farm is much larger than me.”

This is the second time around for McDonald being named the Tennessee Farmer of the Year. He also won the award in 1996.

As the 2024 Tennessee Farmer of the Year, McDonald will be honored at the Institute of Agriculture’s annual Ag Day event, Sept. 14 in Knoxville. He will also compete in the Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year competition, the winner of which will be announced in October at the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Ga. The Sunbelt Ag Expo is coordinating the Southeastern Farmer of the Year awards for the 34th consecutive year. Cash awards of more than $1.3 million have been presented to 296 southeastern farmers since the award was initiated in 1990.