By TESA NAUMAN
Tennessee Correspondent

BURNS, Tenn. — For Tennessee farm owners concerned about what will happen to their farms after they “buy the farm,” officials at the Tennessee Farmland Legacy Conference had all the information they needed.

Farm owners and officials from all over the state gathered at Montgomery Bell State Park Oct. 9-10 to attend the conference, which featured guest speakers presenting information on farm estate planning, property taxes, conservation easements and planning techniques that help preserve farmland in keeping with local community objectives.

“At this conference, we wanted to make sure that farmers know their options in planning the future of their farms, as far as estate planning and conservation easements,” explained Jane Howell, Tennessee budget analyst, who organized the conference.

Ken Givens, Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture, said the conference was important because agriculture is a vital part of Tennessee’s economic growth and its history.

“The Department of Agriculture was the first state agency created in 1854, so agriculture was important then. It’s probably even more important now. It’s the number-one industry in our state,” he said.
At a luncheon Oct. 10, attended by Gov. Phil Bredesen, the conference recognized some of the oldest surviving farms in the state that were established in 1796 or earlier.

“We want to keep farmers farming. We want to keep farmland as farmland. So, we wanted to pay tribute to those farmers who’d been involved in agriculture for over 200 years, even before the birth of our state,” Givens explained Thursday night. “We hope that 200 years from now, that those farms are still in farmland.”

Among the speakers at the two-day conference were Rhedona Rose of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, who spoke on the importance of agriculture in Tennessee, and Dr. David Ostermeier of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, who spoke about forestland trends in the state, including changes in land sales in the Cumberlands and the changing interests of forest landowners.
Dr. Ron Hanson of the University of Nebraska focused on the often-sensitive family issues surrounding farm or family-business ownership succession. He said problems may arise when one generation tries to pass on ownership or control of the family farm to the next generation.

Emily Parish, land protection manager for the Land Trust for Tennessee, and John Rissler of the USDA Natural Resources Conversation Service spoke about the options of conservation easements – the process of donating or selling development rights of one’s farm to a conservancy.

Steve Fisher, a farmer from Bethesda, and Karen Guy, a farm owner from Old Hickory, explained to the attendees how conservation easements helped them achieve their vision of how they want their property to remain after they’re gone.

Fisher credited the Land Trust with getting him and his wife to think “outside the box” when it came to their property.

“The most beautiful thing that happened with us was we were thinking real short-term and the Land Trust was able to do two things that were critical for us,” he said.

“Number one was they were able to help us think long-term. We were just thinking about our children, and they said, ‘Be thinking about what this piece of property will look like in 100 years.’”

“The other thing they did to help us was with in-kind donations with getting the conservation easement put in place. I’m a grade school principal and my wife’s a county librarian, so you can do the math and figure out that we didn’t have a lot of money lying around, especially with two kids getting ready to go to college.

“It worked out wonderfully that (the Land Trust) was able to make this happen,” Fisher said.

Guy, who inherited her 178-acre farm in Old Hickory in 1992 – several years before the Land Trust was created – thought about leaving her farm to the Girl Scouts, in hopes that it would keep the property unchanged.

“Well, if the Girl Scouts had inherited that farm from me, they probably would have sold it to have the money to do other things for the Girl Scouts, which would defeat my whole purpose,” she said.
Eventually, Guy found out about conservation easements through her friend, Fisher. Now she is benefiting from tax breaks that go along with the easement, as well as knowing her property will remain undeveloped after she dies.

“The reason I did (an easement) was because I love that farm,” she said.

The evening of Oct. 9, attendees gathered at the Montgomery Bell Park outdoor pavilion for a Pick Tennessee Products reception.
The conference was hosted by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Tennessee Department of Tourism, The Lyndhurst Foundation, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Land Trust for Tennessee, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, USDA Rural Development, UT Center for Profitable Agriculture, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation and Cumberland Region Tomorrow.

Information about the conference and the organizations that hosted it may be found online at http://picknproducts.state.tn.us/legacy