By 2027, the amount of land loss is expected to rise to 2 million acres.

I found this study from the University of Tennessee Ag Institute that showcased this quandary.

During the last five years, Williamson County has lost the most farmland to development. That tracks as the population has risen significantly in Williamson. The U.S. Census has a quarter of a million people now living there.

Meet The Cherry and why they keep farming by tapping the link.

Emily R. West / WTVF

With farmland disappearing, I had to find out where it was going and getting lost.

Sumner County was suffering a similar fate to Williamson.

From 2014 until 2023, Sumner County lost more than 15,000 acres of land to development — both residential and commercial.

On average, 63,537 acres are developed on a yearly basis in Tennessee, according to UT economist Charley Martinez. However, since 2017, that number shot up to an average of more than 86,000 acres.

Sumner County ranks ninth in Tennessee for farmland transitioning to houses or commercial real estate since 2017.

You can tap the link to read why this group of people said they will fight farmlands going to development.

Emily R. West / WTVF

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.

Franklin County has lost the most acres since 2014. It totaled up to 26,000.

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.

Right now, three generations are farming together. Andrew is the fourth generation. He is hoping his son Carter will take an interest in becoming the fifth.

You can read about the Dixons and generational farming in Tennessee by tapping this link.

Farmland and Tennessee

Are you seeing farmland disappearing or land changing in your neighborhood? Please tell me.

I have been working on stories about the tug between agriculture and development. I came to this topic because of a line in a press release from August from the University of Tennessee Agricultural Institute. It pointed to a study about disappearing farmland an economist had done. I found the economist, talked with him and compiled the data for our viewing area for NewsChannel 5, which covers 45 Tennessee counties.

I am now exploring how this affects you. If you want to talk, my email is emily.west@newschannel5.com.

With the 2024 MLB Draft in the rearview and the selections beginning their professional careers, the MLB Pipeline updated its list of the top 100 prospects in all of baseball.

Tennessee baseball was well represented on the list with four former Vols landing in the top 100. RHP Chase Dollander was the top Vol on the list as the No. 23 prospect in baseball followed by outfielder Jordan Beck at No. 78, infielder Christian Moore at No. 81 and outfielder Drew Gilbert at No. 82.

Dollander is a member of the Colorado Rockies organization and has spent most the season in High-A before recently being promoted to Double-A. Over the course of the 2024 season both in High-A and Double-A, Dollander has a 4-1 record, 2.62 ERA and 130 strikeouts in 89.1 innings pitched. While Dollander made 14 starts in High-A and just four starts in Double-A this season, his numbers have actually been better in Double-A.

The right-handed pitcher spent two years at Tennessee after transferring in from Georgia Southern. Dollander was the 2022 SEC Pitcher of the Year and posted a 17-6 record and 3.64 ERA in 168 innings pitched in his two seasons in Knoxville.

Beck is also in the Rockies farm system and is the only Tennessee player on the list that has already made his MLB debut. In 42 games in the Minor Leagues this season, Beck is hitting .316 with eight home runs, 21 extra-base hits and 35 RBIs. In 25 games with the Rockies, Beck is hitting .198 with two home runs, four doubles and nine RBIs.

More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Announces Construction Delays At Lindsey Nelson Stadium

Over the course of his three-year career at Tennessee, Beck hit .284 with 34 home runs, 36 doubles and 134 RBIs.

Moore is the only Vol from the 2024 MLB Draft to land in the top 100. After a brilliant final season at Tennessee where he obliterated Tennessee’s single-season home run record and led the Vols to their first ever National Championship, the second baseman has started his professional baseball career red-hot.

The Los Angeles Angels promoted Moore from High-A to Double-A after two games and the rookie is hitting .465 with six home runs, three doubles and 13 RBIs in just 11 games.

Injuries have hampered Gilbert, a member of the New York Mets organization, during the 2024 season. The former Tennessee standout has played just 28 games this season with 22 of them coming in Triple-A. Over the course of the season, Gilbert is hitting .196 with one home run, three doubles and five RBIs.

Gilbert was a complete centerfielder during his Tennessee career. Over the course of his three-year career, Gilbert hit .314 with 22 home runs, 36 doubles and 140 RBIs.

After an investigation that spanned nearly five years and included hundreds of possible suspects, authorities in Tennessee said they believe a custody dispute was behind the killing of a National Guard member who was bound with zip ties and fatally shot in 2019.

Officials in Loudon County said Tuesday that Amanda Bishop, 39, and Eric Byrd, 39, were charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Jacob Bishop, a member of the Tennessee National Guard who had returned from a deployment to Poland in the months before he was fatally shot.

Amanda Bishop, of Kingston, and Byrd, of Lenoir City, were arrested Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Their bonds were set at $1 million each, the sheriff’s office said in the release. Court records for the case weren’t available Thursday night, and it isn’t clear whether Byrd or Amanda Bishop, Jacob Bishop’s wife at the time of his killing, have lawyers to speak on their behalf.

Byrd is Amanda Bishop’s cousin, NBC affiliate WBIR of Knoxville reported.

During a news conference Tuesday, Loudon County Sheriff Jimmy Davis alleged that a custody dispute involving the couple’s child was heated and prompted the animosity that eventually led to Bishop’s killing.

Additional details about the dispute weren’t immediately available. Jacob Bishop’s relatives didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday night. Contact information couldn’t be found for relatives of Amanda Bishop.

Authorities found Jacob Bishop dead at his apartment in Lenoir City, southwest of Knoxville, shortly before 8 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2019. He was bound and had been shot multiple times, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said his body was discovered by his mother, who told WBIR in 2021 that she’d gone to his home because he was late for work and believed he’d overslept.

“When you find your son dead on the floor in his apartment, that’s something that sticks in your brain,” Diane Bishop told the station. “It doesn’t go away.”

She said she didn’t want to make her son out to be a saint but said he was a “very good man,” she told the station.

In the 2021 report, former Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guidner told WBIR that the case was “complex” but that it had not gone cold and that it was being investigated daily.

The sheriff’s office said in a news release Tuesday that more than a dozen law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, including the FBI; the Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and a sheriff’s office in Texas.

In the 2021 report, WBIR noted that the sheriff’s office initially identified roughly 400 possible suspects with ties to Jacob Bishop. Asked about the figure at the news conference Tuesday and whether Amanda Bishop had previously been considered a top suspect, Davis said she was “always right up there at the top of the list.”

Davis attributed the arrests to good detective work and new technology. After five years of heartache and worry over whether the case would be solved, Davis said, it was a relief to finally tell Diane Bishop that two people were in custody in her son’s killing.

“I don’t think there’s really closure in a case like this,” he said. “But we can at least try and give her some justice.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com